have you ever been held hostage by a robot?

Hey,

You know when you finally make that special purchase—the one you spent months justifying, then it arrives and something’s wrong? So you do what anyone would do and pull out your phone, open a new chat, and suddenly you’re greeted by Glorb, the brand’s virtual assistant.

Glorb seems eager to help.

Glorb does not understand your request.

You rephrase it.

Glorb does not understand your request.

You ask for a human.

There is no human—only Glorb.

Oh, you thought there was human support here?

HA! You fool.

This is a Glorb-first enterprise.

Suddenly you’re on your hands and knees, fists in the air, head tilted to the sky screaming: “WHY, GOD, WHY?”

You vow to never buy from this brand again and carry a lifelong, one-sided beef with them.

All thanks to Glorb.

Look, some companies have always made it difficult to reach a human. I’m looking at you, telecommunications companies and airlines. But those businesses operate at massive scale where very inbound interaction costs real money, so they optimize for deflection, self-serve portals, automation, and containment. It’s all efficiency, baby.

I’m not talking about them.

I’m talking about the companies you or I are likely to run, like SaaS products and retail ecommerce brands. These are companies that rely on building trust—and if trust is the name of your game, then you need to optimize for connection.

A lot of marketing departments are so focused on messaging, acquiring, and retaining some target customer that they forget about the actual customer—the one who just landed on their site, hesitated, and opened a new chat that says:

“Hi… quick question before I buy…”

That is not customer support, it’s top-of-funnel marketing. They’re evaluating, invested, close to converting, and are asking you to resolve whatever friction they have so they can make the purchase. And that’s warmer than most paid traffic you’ll ever buy.

And then there are the post-purchase chats. Those are the ones that surface unexpected use cases, feature/technical confusion, desire for more, upgrade intent, and testimonials or success stories. Your customer service team is sitting on live, high-intent, unfiltered voice-of-customer insight every single day—don’t sleep on that.

This is the kind of customer research marketing teams pay a kajillion dollars for, because there are retention, expansion, referral strategies hiding in there.

And yet we silo it.

Marketing doesn’t talk to support.

Support isn’t looped into growth.

Chat transcripts don’t inform copy.

Wild.

Pre-purchase questions are rarely simple. They’re not asking whether the product exists. They’re asking whether it will work for their specific situation. Humans can read emotional signals, clarify context, interpret nuance, and adjust tone in a way automation simply cannot. That difference matters. A thoughtful response makes a customer feel at ease. And when someone feels safe, they buy.

A human can also detect frustration early and turn a bad moment around before it becomes churn. Bots can resolve tickets, but humans can rescue relationships.

People don’t post on social media about efficient bots. They post about Jen H. from customer support who went above and beyond. Hello? That’s marketing you didn’t pay for.

So yes, human support matters. But so does breaking down the silos between support and marketing. When those teams actually talk to each other, messaging sharpens, positioning clarifies, and retention improves. The customer experience becomes consistent instead of fragmented.

Customer care teams are on the frontlines of your brand. They hear objections, see confusion, and face frustration first. It’s time they get their flowers, because without the customer, there is no marketing.

Without human connection, there is no relationship. And without relationship, there is no brand.

So on behalf of everyone, say no to Glorb.

See you soon,

Ines

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