When Suboptimal becomes Sub Optional:

I ordered a sandwich online the other day.

Not because I’m fancy, because you get points, and sandwich points are basically a cost line if you like sandwiches as much as I do.

So I show up to pick it up…
No ticket.
No sandwich.

Payment went through. Right location. Right time. Everything.

At first I assumed it was user error, so I double-checked everything, printed the receipt, and went back.

And here’s the part that surprised me:
The only person in the shop was a 16-ish year old employee who was brand new, and had absolutely no idea what to do.

No manager.
No escalation process.
No “call this number and a human will help.”
Nothing.

So I call the number on the receipt… it rings the store.

Then I look up the corporate help line.
After 30 minutes of “Press 1 if…” and “Press 2 if…” I realized something I’d never seen before:

There was no way to talk to a person.
No “press 0.”
No “please hold for the next representative.”

Just automation from start to finish.

Eventually the manager showed up hours later, called me, and I got my sandwich.

But I haven’t been back since.

Because when you remove human guardrails from the customer experience, you don’t just remove labor…

You remove trust.

And the worst part?
That 16-year-old sandwich maker was the only human interaction the entire company offered.

That’s not fair to her, she is only set up to fail in that situation.

Automation can scale service…
…but it can't fully replace it.