DURING the transition from the High Street to online shopping and banking, customer service has been a serious casualty. Digital Depersonalisation is now the introduction to most phone calls and I’m sure it’s not good for our mental health.
The robotic hoops through which customers jump may cut costs and, when they work, make it easy to buy, but as often as not there is a hitch and that’s when our patience is sorely tried. Why is the customer expected to interface with telephonic robots whilst listening to interminable recorded messages and metallic noises purporting to be music? I remember in the olden days when employing a telephone operator with a pleasant voice and helpful manner was regarded as an essential for any self-respecting business.
The customers’ time is clearly regarded as of no value and just in case they should give up and try to send an email, the next barrier is the “no reply” order acknowledgement or dispatch notification. This is a coded message saying “Please don’t bother us – try harder to find an address somewhere – you’ve nothing else to do anyway.”
Digital technology can be a good servant, but a bad master.
RF Morrison, Helensburgh.
THE KILLER CATS
RECENT correspondence has focused on the number of birds killed by wind turbines. Geoff Moore (Letters, July 9) tells us that they are responsible for the deaths of 80,000 bats in the UK and 2.1 million birds worldwide. These statistics are obviously very concerning but difficult to fully appreciate without some context.
According to the Mammal Society, the estimate of birds killed by domestic cats in the UK alone is 27 million every year and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center estimates that 3.7 billion birds are killed annually by cats worldwide.
Road kill is another major cause of bird slaughter. The results of a study, released last month, by an international research team led by the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies estimated that 194m birds are killed on European roads every year.
The number of birds killed by wind turbines, whilst regrettable, is dwarfed by the numbers killed by cats and by road vehicles.
Brian Moore, Edinburgh EH12.
GOLDEN THREADS
RUSSELL Leadbetter's Those were the days feature on Friday ("Trouble at the Paisley mill 1959", The Herald, July 11) brought back for me many memories. At one time the mills were the town's biggest employer by far with in excess of 10,000 men and women in jobs there. The mill girls, given an enhanced feeling of independence with the income from their jobs, had a reputation for being hard-working and being out for a good time away from work. Those days are gone now and in the past they must remain.
However, it is worth recalling that Paisley was once the top place in the world for thread production, as a small poem sets out –
"Clark's they have the anchor,
Coats they have the chain,
Paisley has the cotton mills,
And long may it remain..."
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel