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Toronto Tech Boom
- Thread starter AlvinofDiaspar
- Start date
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
And the axe falls at Shopify:
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www.theglobeandmail.com
AoD
Shopify to cut 10 per cent of staff as e-commerce slows
Chief executive officer Tobias Lutke said the layoffs will take place by end of the day
www.theglobeandmail.com
AoD
AlbertC
Superstar
Shopify’s big e-commerce bet failed. What does that signal for retail’s future? | Globalnews.ca
Shopify says its big bet on e-commerce accelerating didn't pan out, leading to layoffs this week. What does that mean for the future of retail, post-pandemic?
globalnews.ca
Jonny5
Senior Member
The STar covering the fallout of mass tech job layoffs in Toronto
www.thestar.com
Thousands were laid off from tech companies this summer — we talked to several workers to find out what it was like
The Star spoke to some recently laid-off tech workers, as well as students poised to enter the tech world soon, and found that while they’re expecting a more difficult year ahead, none of them regret their career choice yet.
www.thestar.com
Northern Light
Superstar
The STar covering the fallout of mass tech job layoffs in Toronto
Thousands were laid off from tech companies this summer — we talked to several workers to find out what it was like
The Star spoke to some recently laid-off tech workers, as well as students poised to enter the tech world soon, and found that while they’re expecting a more difficult year ahead, none of them regret their career choice yet.
Just for clarity here, and not to demean the impact for those newly looking for work; but unemployment this sector, in Toronto remains very, very low, with a very tight labour market. Most should be able to land on their feet just fine.
PS, hiring announcements in this sector are likely in the near term, in Toronto.
elcorrerador
Active Member
Northern Light
Superstar
With every sympathy for those affected, I strongly suspect most will land on their feet in short order.
There are a lot of unfilled tech jobs in Toronto now; and more coming.
elcorrerador
Active Member
This one is interesting. The chatbot/virtual assistant space has been booming because the point of the product is to automate customer service solutions. Automate repeatable tasks and use the human capital for most complex tasks. Clients who buy the product usually will look at the bottom line and for them it's about reducing the costs of their contact center. So seeing a company like Ada reduce their workforce is interesting. I applied to a couple of roles there last year. No luck. I'm in the same space different company.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
As an aside - I absolutely HATE dealing with chatbots as a customer. It's typically useless, provides generic info that I can look up myself and wastes my time when I needed specific, context-dependent questions answered - with the chatbot standing in the way to gatekeep access. It's the e-commerce equivalent of the MS Office Clippy.
AoD
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elcorrerador
Active Member
Good experiences are hard to come by. A lot of times it'll be client driven and that requires a lot of education.
Really the motto should be:
If a problem is better solved by a human, user should be directed to a human.
But what tends to happen is the client thinks a bot will automagically solve a user's problem. That's not the case.
Northern Light
Superstar
I think one of the first things to understand in customer service (while not always true) is that the customer is always right.
In saying as much, that should mean, in general, that you can encourage a customer to avail themselves of certain options, but by and large, you shouldn't 'force' it.
This isn't just important to avoid backlash; its important because it allows you to test an idea/tech/product with people who are willing adopters, and probably better suited to it on average than those who will avoid it, given a choice.
This, in turn allows you to refine the product w/those who are interested in it; while avoid needless complaints from those that may be hard to please.
****
Bots as gatekeepers are the same problem in many ways as the infernal 22 options when you phone customer service at some company or another and get :
Press one for Bill Payment
Press two for Account Balance
Press three to change your password
Press four for store locations/hours
Press five for bad hold musak that never stops
Press six for ......
Press nine to hear this useless menu that didn't include the option you needed all over again.
Which then also omits press Zero to bypass this garbage and talk to a human.
There is a great value in AI and quick-answer tech via desktop/phone/text etc. But it must be properly deployed, which it rarely is.....
afransen
Senior Member
Don't forget the intentionally bad hold music, also highly compressed so it comes out with a lot of distortion. Also with the requisite 2 second pause before a voice recording tells you how important your call is every 30s.
If it wasn't likely just incompetence, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an intentional strategy to reduce phone customer contact by making it so incredibly hostile to use.
If it wasn't likely just incompetence, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an intentional strategy to reduce phone customer contact by making it so incredibly hostile to use.
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AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
You have a variant of that - telephone menu options that doesn't give you any options that you'd want, that go through-each-word-as-slowly-as-it -could, don't let you skip by dialing the number you want right away and disabled zero for operator option.
AoD
AlbertC
Superstar
Intuit Opens New Canadian Headquarters in Toronto as Part of Global Growth Plan
Intuit Opens New Canadian Headquarters in Toronto as Part of Global Growth Plan
www.businesswire.com
Intuit Opens New Canadian Headquarters in Toronto as Part of Global Growth Plan
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU), the global financial technology platform behind TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, today announced the official opening of its new Canadian headquarters in Toronto’s downtown core. Located in ‘The Well’ at Front Street West and Spadina Avenue, the new space is Intuit's first global site that has implemented the company’s workplace of the future design.
“We’ve identified the city of Toronto as a global talent hub and a top growth site for Intuit globally. We’re thrilled to officially open the doors of this dynamic, new, hybrid space to serve our employees, customers and community,” said David Marquis, vice president and Canada country manager at Intuit. “With this newly designed workplace, we’re making a meaningful investment in our growth in Canada, while creating more opportunities for technologists to do the best work of their lives at Intuit.”
The modern, 116,000 square foot office was designed to optimize Intuit’s hybrid and diverse culture, while creating the ideal environment to co-create, make connections, and innovate.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Toronto’s tech sector shaken following Twitter purge and possible cuts at Facebook
Big tech jobs are vanishing, once-free-flowing venture capital money is drying up, but that is not necessarily bad for the industry, some experts say.
www.thestar.com
Paywall free https://archive.ph/RP7qa