Authenticity: Easy to say...hard to do
Supportive Communication helps humans double check AI
My stomach clenched as I read the response from Greg, the customer service representative of the weight loss program which had just auto renewed a service I no longer wanted nor could afford.
“We can’t refund your money,” Greg responded. “But, I am happy to report that I can give you a free year-long subscription to our product that you can give to a friend. Please tell me where I should email the subscription.”
Yes, Greg wanted to keep my money for a product that I didn’t want and thought he’d make me feel better by giving that same product to a friend of mine.
Ultimately, I would have accepted my mistake and given the service another try. Yet, it was Greg’s demonstration that he clearly did not understand my wants and needs which turned my resignation into rage.
Greg, I’m worried about you. I think you are powered by generative AI.
Since I couldn’t get a real human to help me, I decided to enter all of the chat rooms I could and tell my story to as many people who would listen. I included links to research, news articles and blog posts describing complaints about this company’s billing policies and philosophies. I chatted with members and assured them that many people did not lose weight with this program…after all….just check out these links I posted from credible sources.
I don’t think that’s what Greg wanted me to do.
Strat com professionals stress double checking AI for accuracy, but savvy communicators must also review for authenticty. Saying we want authenticity is easy. Communicating in ways that the audience will perceive as human is hard. And, if we can’t teach the real people…the robots will never catch on.
Supportive communication (Burleson, 2009) provides a framework for designing the types of messages that will calm agitated human beings. When stressed, some humans need informational support such as knowing how to cancel a subscription or receiving a refund. Other charged events call for leaders to provide emotional support such as listening to a customer vent.
The challenge is aligning the type of support and timing of the message to the situation; otherwise, well intended leaders risk fraying any goodwill existing between an organizaiton and its audience.
For example, Dr. Allyson Green, Dean of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, responded to emails about tuition reimbursement for the 2020 semester (an informational need) with what she thought would be an encouraging video of her dancing and lip syncing to a song (an emotional support response.)
Unfortunately, the story behind Dean Green’s story is more complex. However, news media headlines, social media posts and angry humans “don’t do” complex. The lasting memory is a tone-deaf response to a reasonable request for information, no matter how well intentioned the effort.
The day after my conversation with Greg, I woke up to find that my subscription had been miraculously cancelled and my bank account refunded. . . and . . . all of my access to chat rooms had disappeared.
A human being …or at least a human who knew how to communicate with other humans…had finally read the transaction.