When a system senses the need to protect itself from getting into trouble, it's running on a defending mechanism: no error was found. It is a common position because that's how efficiency is measured and achieved, and it is the best excuse to counter what customers need.
When customer service is reduced to system efficiency—focusing on whether there is an error—it loses the entire front end of the customer interface, which creates a further divide between people and systems. Examples include our schools and the healthcare system.
Just like creativity isn't the only thing that matters to creative businesses, efficiency shouldn't be the only goal for a system.
Helping people meet their needs, caring about their experiences as customers, and assisting people in their life journeys are far better ways to serve.
A system's self-fulfilling prophecy can be that caring for people is the reason to exist and sustain, not the opposite. Nobody wants to stick around and be taken advantage of. When people don't believe the system cares about them, they leave.
Broken systems often have broken beliefs behind them.
