80 Kellogg Insight Use Outliers to Optimize Automation The Spanish-instruction example hints at yet another important lesson about outliers: one of the biggest opportunities comes in knowing which aspects of the customer experience are ripe for automation, and which are best kept in-person. Automation can produce a more consistent customer experience—that is, fewer outliers. Depending on the circumstance, this can be a good thing or a bad thing. “Automation tends to create a ceiling on the best experience you can have and a floor on the worst experience,” Shapiro says. “It drives everybody to the middle.” Think of it this way: If your cell phone breaks and you need to call your service provider, would you rather wait several minutes to speak with a friendly representative or have immediate contact with a chatbot—an artificial-intelligence program that can answer basic inquiries quickly? “Today’s chatbots may be able to solve my problem, but they probably won’t make me feel great about the experience,” says Shapiro. “If I’m talking to a live person, they might say, ‘Hey, you’re in Chicago today. My goodness, I hear it’s -3 and the wind chill is -40. Is everyone okay?’ A human touch can provide an emotional connection that most automa - tion can’t rival.” Outliers can be useful for helping companies determine where a given customer interaction should fall along the continuum between in-per - son and automated, says Shapiro. “Every organization needs to answer Based on insights from Joel K. Shapiro