But I suspect your core point is valid, whether or not the algebra is. Hiring more call center people is brute force – in fact I bet a Six Sigma analysis would show that hiring more call center people is analogous to hiring more inspectors on a production line: if you get really good at it (as Motorola did) you don’t *need* inspectors, and if you get really good at serving customers’ needs, you don’t need a lot of phone voices.

That metaphor too has limits; in customer service sometimes the customer WANTS a voice to talk to. (Check what happened with the $2,467 Verizon Wireless bill I got last night.)

So let’s start with process maps and touchpoints, address the customer’s use cases intelligently, and even engineer the processes to reduce the incidence of needs (e.g. erroneous phone bills). Then hire humans (intelligent ones) to handle the exceptions.

I like.