When Did Humans Become Rare?

Not to belabor the whole “make or break telephone moments” conversation but today  Drew McLellan left a tweet that he’d called a company and got a human.  He said:

Just called a company — was surprised to hear a human answer the phone. That’s how rare it is today.

Wayne Hurlbert responded back saying:

Being rare also shows what a powerful customer service & PR idea it is to have a real person at your biz first contact points

When did humans become rare?  I can remember being in high school, or it might have been when I worked at the telephone company on the cord board (dating myself, I know) and the girls would comment that someday “robots” would do what we do.  We’d all scoff and laugh it off and yet…how many companies have the automated voice answering service that segments the calls.

I have even called residential phone numbers and the computer voice says “press one to leave a message for Mom and 2 for Dad.”

WHAT??

If the telephone is our first opportunity to establish a relationship with a customer – do we really want that impression to be a long laundry list of options – none of which lead you to a person?

If WE don’t like calling a company and hearing the automated options, what makes us think our customers do?

How can we make that first impression a memorable one. Memorable in a good way?