This is a tale of two calls: one crisp, familiar and efficient and the other more marathon in nature – at times deliriously frustrating – but one that also had an efficient outcome.Earlier in the week I decided that I could rearrange my schedule so that I could fly to Toronto and on to Ottawa to see my grandmother for her 106th birthday. (Note to King Charles: granny’s letter of congratulations has not arrived yet. Your mother was much more prompt with her correspondence.) Normally I fly Air Canada to Toronto but as Swiss has just launched a new service on the route, I rang its reservations line and within one ring I was speaking to a very charming Frau Schneider in its Basel call centre. With minimal security questions and tapping and clattering on the keyboard, she was able to find me the seat that I wanted and secured my booking. Within two minutes, the whole transaction was complete and the ticket landed in my inbox. I hung up wondering why more customer interactions with companies both large and small didn’t run as smoothly as this one. And what was it about the company’s booking set-up that allowed Frau Schneider to do her job with not only extreme efficiency but also such a sunny tone in the middle of Switzerland’s non-stop rainy spring? This was a shining example of understanding that the fundamentals of superior customer service involve speed, accuracy, warmth and personality. Despite the brief nature of the call, Frau Schneider came across as equipped to deal with any number of problems and had an empathetic air about her. So positive was the interaction that I hope she’s on shift next time I need to book a flight, swap a seat or redeem some air miles. Merci Frau Schneider.On Friday morning I woke up bright and early at my mom’s place in Toronto and braced myself for a call with Bell to deal with some technical issues with a sim card, billings and other matters. I dialled the 1-800 number and was immediately thrown into an obstacle course of key prompts for language, services, privacy and questions about the nature of my call. After about nine rounds of various entries, I landed in what sounded like someone’s living room. There was a TV in the background and various other household activities. And as if showing up at the front door of an apartment in Manila, I was warmly greeted by a gentleman who asked how he could help. I explained the situation in some detail. The gentleman listened, tapped on his keyboard and, after a few minutes, asked me to log in into the Bell system so that he could help me identify the problem and get to grips with a solution. He saw a variety of things that needed passwords, resets and new codes. He also said that he wouldn’t be able to do anything without the passwords for confidentiality reasons and would also need to ask a series of security questions. I told him that the reason I was on the phone in the first place was that the whole online set-up was rather bewildering for me, let alone my mother, and that Bell had not created a system that was particularly friendly to older users. “Yes, I know what you’re saying sir,” he said after listening to my ramble. “Please hold the line and let me see what I can do.” Half a minute later he was back and we seemed to be in business. He asked to put my mother on the line for authorisation and after a few questions he was taking me through Bell’s maze of offers, drop-downs and personalisation menus. I checked my watch and we’d been on the phone for 45 minutes. I decided to get personal as this call was likely to drag on.“Would I be correct in assuming you’re in and around Manila?” I asked. “Yes I am sir,” he said. “Right in Manila.” We talked briefly about the weather, typhoons and, along the way, established that while there was a billing issue with the account, there was a problem with the sim card. By this point I knew that I was talking to Sherwin and he was going to try to fix things remotely but first I needed to open the phone, retrieve the sim and read out some codes. In the end, Sherwin said that I would need to go to a Bell shop with mom and get them to fire up a new sim and, hopefully, we’d be back in business. The call ran for more than 90 minutes. Sherwin was clearly not equipped with the best tools but was so pleasant and very sympathetic to the frustration of his customers. Nevertheless, he was diplomatic and did everything in his power to solve the problem. Once upon a time, we used to loathe speaking to people in call centres. But in a world of bots, call backs that never come and “post your questions to our group chat” messages, the men and women wearing headsets and manning screens from Basel to Manila are modern day saviours who deserve a heartfelt thank you.