Following on from yesterday’s experience with the Inland Revenue and it’s automated phone service. This is likely to increasingly be the future for many interactions.

Some local authorities estimate that between 70 - 80% of the calls to the council can be dealt with there and then. One council estimates that 40% of the calls can be dealt with in less than 60 seconds.

The pressure will increase therefore for more machines, more automation. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Who wants to be doing boring repetitive work all day? The problem is however, that we live in a wage economy and if you ain’t got a wage (or private means of subsistence like the very rich and the royal family), life can be more of an existence than a life.

There is also the fact that we are social beings and thrive on social interaction with other people . We now have a government with increasing focus on ‘efficiencies (in everything but government IT projects themselves it would seem) and a Prime Minister who appoints someone who claims ‘everything can be measured’ (unfortunately I can’t remember who the person is…now of to search..).

But the point is - how to measure the impact of a friendliness, empathy, understanding and so on?