It takes two to do goodbusiness

Dear insurance company, I want to pay my bill.

After a more than a week of calling three different customer service numbers, this refrain: “All circuits are busy at this time. Please hang up and call again later,” is inscribed on my brain.

After a full week of being locked out online and failing to get through by phone, I wrote a letter to media relations at the company.

“Please,” I wrote, “let me pay my bill so I don’t have to write about this incredibly frustrating situation.” I do realize, of course, that it’s not the U.S. insurance company’s fault that Canada Post went on strike, but even when it’s not on strike, it can take weeks for a cheque to arrive.

Yes, the advent of online apps can make paying one’s bill cheaper and easier and reduce waste. However, we’ve resisted them in our household because getting the physical bill means it sits on the hall table. My partner and I both can see it. With online apps, it can be almost impossible for a spouse to do the payment or help.

In the best of times, we are all individually responsible for our bills and responsibilities, but let’s be honest. Part of the reason we gather in couples and families is to reduce administrative burden. One person cooks dinner, and then the other can figure out the bill payment. This can be onerous across international borders, even without a postal strike.

After writing my letter, or perhaps because I contacted their social media account, I was sent a top-secret confidential correspondence. It took several tries to open.

I needed another dang password, plus security questions, like “What was the first R-rated movie you saw?” “What was the make of your second car?” or “What’s the middle name of your youngest child?” I was absolutely flummoxed. I cannot remember which R-rated movies I was shown too early in life. What if you have twins or are childless? The questions were intrusive.

Finally, I broke the top-secret code and read the letter, which gave me the name and phone number of an actual person to contact. I have now tried to call that person three times. I only get voicemail.

Some companies just don’t want our business.

Close to home, I remembered interactions I have in shops. Sometimes, I try to do positive business with unsmiling clerks who seem unwilling to build relationships or care. I’m not looking for a lifelong best friend. I’m trying to give somebody money and have a pleasant exchange, but this takes two. Are my expectations unreasonable?

Recent research indicates that micro-relationships with strangers, those small social exchanges we may have on the street or in shops, are good for our health. It reduces loneliness, builds community connection, and boosts public safety.

To do this, we need the other person to exist. Recent changes to customer service models mean that we interact only with online apps assisted by AI, and even when we need to reach an employee to solve a problem, that might fail, as shown by my insurance company issues. Second, if we reach a person, they need to be receptive. I’m not suggesting fake smiles or endearments, but simply a sign that we both recognize and acknowledge the other’s existence.

It could only be beneficial for a corporation or a small business to choose this approach. It makes more money. It also improves employee and customer satisfaction, well-being and health. It might even bring others joy or connection, but only if we choose to do it.

The big corporation might say, we must protect against fraud! We must do cost-cutting! I too would like to avoid international money laundering or unnecessary bureaucracy, but making it this difficult to pay one’s life insurance premium means something has gone seriously wrong.

Our society’s increasing emphasis on automation, AI, and cost cutting means we’ll only be facing more of this. In a world full of grocery self-checkout, self-driving cars and financial apps, we reduce chances to interact, or problem solve with actual humans. Yet, our bodies and brains were designed to flourish with precisely this interaction. We should make time for these small, positive social exchanges, particularly at a neighbourhood store. There’s no downside to these micro-moment, positive encounters. It boosts every kind of bottom line, but it also still takes two to have even one micro-relationship.

Joanne Seiff, a Winnipeg author, has been contributing opinions and analysis to the Free Press since 2009.