Today I decided to tackle something I’d put off for a couple weeks just because these things are so expensive. I need to get some bloodwork done just to check on the state of my diabetic condition. I am self-pay until I hit the age for Medicare to kick in, so I wanted to get pricing before I chose which laboratory to do the diagnostics. I gathered my phone numbers from local labs off the internet and got started.
I know I am not alone in this frustration at robotized phone messaging. The first number I called did not allow me access to a real human being at all. I sat through and redialed several menus, but I could not reach a real human being to make an appointment, let alone obtain the cost of the testing. They will not get my business.
The second phone call was more promising, in that the menu led me to the question I needed answered. However, to answer the question, I needed an insurance code I could not locate on the script. Nor was I finally able to access a live human being.
The third phone call tied me directly to a human being, I learned what I needed to know, and they will get my business.
I do comprehend the use of robotized phone systems so that busy administrators can communicate without wasting their precious time and resources, but what about mine? I comprehend the use of robotized phone answering systems so that large corporations can go on raking in the vast profits of corporate dollars while saving the “expense” of hiring real telecom operators; but what about how they are wasting my time and denying jobs to people who might need one?
My complaint does not extend simply to robotized phone systems. This is just a symptom of something that has permeated the world culture. I am not sure this “something” is a good thing. Technological advances have given us more self time, but it has not truly encouraged us to spend real time with real people.
We are spiritual beings inhabiting a physical body. When we spend real time with real people – read into this also real animals, real plants, real nature – there is a mutual exchange of energy, breath, and emotion that uplifts and inspires us. My time with technology this morning was not uplifting or inspiring. Instead it left me angry and frustrated. If we equate money with life force energy, as I do, knowing the time and life energy it takes me to earn my paycheck, then the two companies that did not provide a real person have lost the benefit they expected from their robotic phone systems.
The business providing a real person is receiving my business and my money.
Think about that one. If you have been interested enough to read this, do you want to contribute your hard earned life force energy in the form of money to those who treat you as a non-entity or a non-person?
Urd's Well 