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The FCC Wants Your Next Customer Service Agent to Be in the U.S.
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Good morning. Today, an FCC proposal could put a ceiling on customer-service calls that are handled by people outside the country. Bots, on the other hand…
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
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The Federal Communications Commission has proposed rules that would force phone, internet and cable companies to reveal the location of your customer service agent, limit how often calls are handled by agents abroad and give callers the option to speak with somebody in the U.S.
“Consumers in the U.S. regularly experience frustration and poor customer service when they connect with a call center operation located abroad,” the FCC wrote in a note seeking public comment. “There can be language, communication, and other barriers that make it difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to get a satisfactory resolution to their problem.”
I asked The WSJ Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton, who often reports on customer service and the consumer experience, what she thought when she heard this.
“I imagine that this will only turbocharge companies’ drive to layer more AI into their call centers,” Katie told me:
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American call centers are more expensive to run, so they’re going to do anything they can to temper that cost with the promise of 24/7 bots that don’t require a salary.
Given the tone of the reader emails I get any time I write about ineffective automated customer service, I don’t think that will go down well.
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If that’s the operative scenario, we may find out whether consumers care more about speaking to someone in the U.S. or speaking to a human at all.
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Consumers can be bots, too: CVS is pushing further into using AI simulations of customers to conduct consumer research on subjects like store layouts and new product designs, Belle Lin reports for the WSJ Leadership Institute.
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Part of the appeal is the complete lack of survey fatigue.
“What I think was a really big unlock for us is we could go deeper,” said Sri Narasimhan, CVS’s vice president of enterprise customer experience and insights. “It’s not like I have to stop with how many questions I asked.”
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Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
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What Others Are Reading: Top 5 Topics
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Our top stories cover agentic AI in advertising, trends in retail and consumer products, marketing segmentation in banking, and a look at defining forces in the automotive sector. Read More
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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev holds up the Robinhood Platinum credit card. Adam Gray/Bloomberg
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Robinhood Markets’ latest bid to transform from a trading firm famous for “Dumb Money”-style adventures into a financial super app is a credit card available in actual platinum plating.
“It’s annoyingly heavy,” CEO Vlad Tenev said during a promotional event for the card at the TWA Hotel at New York City’ JFK airport. “Which is exactly how our Platinum members are going to love it.”
The perks offered in exchange for a $695 annual fee include a couple of other branding flourishes, like a $250 annual credit for robotaxi rides and a membership with the DTC test-maxxing company Function Health.
But Robinhood is trying to break into a premium market that’s relatively limited, as The Wall Street Journal’s report points out: Under 15% of credit-card holders pay a yearly fee above $250, according to Bank of America.
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“Goldman Sachs communications team
did not approve these interviews.”
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— Goldman Sachs to Yahoo Finance on its employees’ participation in an Interview magazine feature headlined “Meet the Finest Boys in Finance” and illustrated with a photo shoot styled with brands like Hermès, Celine and Giorgio Armani. Social-media commenters predictably had some dunks.
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15,000
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Creators that promoted Gap Inc.’s Old Navy brand in the company’s latest quarter, almost three times the number of creators it used a year earlier. Old Navy is updating its media mix model to better reach consumers, including expanding its presence on social media, Gap Inc. CEO Richard Dickson said as the company reported results.
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Texas Roadhouse has become the largest sit-down restaurant chain in the U.S. by sales.
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Going all in on steak made Texas Roadhouse no. 1 in casual dining. Now it just has to handle rising costs without hurting its customer experience. [WSJ]
Axel Springer struck a deal to buy Britain’s Daily Telegraph for around $770 million, outbidding the owner of the Daily Mail and Mail Online. [WSJ]
Could the NFL actually become too expensive for advertisers? [Sportico]
The Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas teamed up with IHeartMedia to build a podcast studio where the entertainment giant will record episodes of 26 of its shows. [People Brands and Things]
Netflix is buying InterPositive, a provider of AI film tools founded by Ben Affleck. [TechCrunch]
A top TikTok marketing executive said she is leaving the company for a “deliberate exhale.” [BI]
Why are biohackers and billionaires suddenly all over big fashion events? [Diet Prada]
Measurement watchdog the Media Rating Council said it had become aware of “seemingly unusual changes” in metrics from Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” system, which would need improvements to keep its accredited status. [MediaPost]
Four ways marketers can “police” their media agencies’ outlays. [Ad Age]
Annette King, the former chief executive at Publicis Groupe in the U.K. and head of Accenture Song’s marketing practice, has died at age 57. [Campaign]
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