The Writing on the Wall (or alternatively, The Dumbing-Down of an Industry)

Paul Stockford, Saddletree Research pstockford@saddletreeresearch.com

I’ve just learned of the near demise of yet another industry publication. I can remember a time when industry magazines were book-bound, full of insightful articles and found in the corporate libraries of almost any company I visited in my travels as an analyst. Today, almost all of those magazines have disappeared. The only magazines left to serve the contact center industry today are getting so thin that you can fold them into quarters and put them in your shirt pocket.

Attending call center trade shows used to be the highlight of the year. I looked forward to reconnecting with many of the people that I spoke with throughout the year, seeing the latest technological innovations, meeting the best and brightest industry people and catching up on the latest industry news. Now trade shows are usually sparsely attended events with few exhibitors and repetitive conference content presented by the same people.

What has happened to our industry? Neither the vendors nor the users of contact center equipment seem interested in supporting the media that supports our industry. When I ask solutions vendors who used to support trade shows and magazines why they don’t anymore, the answer always has to do something with putting marketing budget into the web. When I ask users why they don’t attend trade shows anymore, the answer always has to do something with budget and the fact that one can go to the web and get information from websites or webinars for free.

In my opinion, webinars are to live presentations as Paris Hilton is to Margaret Thatcher. One uses flash and fluff to get attention, the other offers intellect and substance. The impact of one is momentary, the other is unforgettable. I also prefer to look someone in the eye when they talk to me or I talk to them, but that’s just me.

I would estimate that I get literally dozens of web newsletters, including this one, on my computer every month. If they’re longer than a page or two, or if I can’t see any value after a cursory glance, they get deleted. I don’t want them clogging up my mailbox. Print magazines, of which I now get two or three a month, sit on my desk and eventually get read. I work at a computer all day long. A magazine or newspaper is welcome relief.

So why don’t we support the publications and trade shows that support us? Has the instant information age stripped us of intellectual curiosity and the desire to connect with others with which we have something in common? Do we no longer have the mental capacity to absorb information that is more complex and detailed than the typical web-based “lite” news item? Are we becoming an industry doomed to getting information by blankly staring at PowerPoint slide after PowerPoint slide in a webinar that is no more than a thinly-veiled sales pitch? Is this the first step toward the “dumbing down” of the customer care industry?

How Green Was My Valley won the Academy Award in 1942. It is a horribly depressing movie.

The movie examines the life of one family, the Morgans, in Wales at the turn of the century. The Morgans live in the mining town where the older sons and father go down into the coal mines each day, return to bathe and get cleaned up before being served dinner by the wife and sister who stay at home. A younger brother, Huw (pronounced Hugh) tells the story in flashback recounting the many tragedies his family faced during his childhood. The tragedies are too numerous to list here, but suffice it to say that any happy event was sure to end in a horrible way.

The context of this movie is important. It won the Oscar in 1942, but was released in 1941 US, just as the US was exiting The Great Depression, World War II was going on in Europe, but the US has not yet entered the war since Pearl Harbor does not occur until December. I suspect that the confluence of all of the changes in the world at that time would allow an American viewer to relate to this movie more at that time than presently.

On an interesting note, the child Huw was played by Roddy McDowall, who I know mostly from The Planet of the Apes movies.  Because it was such a depressing movie, I would not encourage anyone to watch it. However, if you still want to, you can rent it from Netflix by clicking on the image on the left.

To view past issues of In Queue, please click here.

If you would like to contribute to In Queue, please reply to this email with "Contribute" in the subject line.

Copyright 2007 National Association of Call Centers