To avoid the doorman fallacy, companies must recognise jobs are more than the visible tasks listed on a job description.
It’s why malicious compliance and work-to-rule actions are pretty devastating for a company. You got to assume AI will act with malicious compliance, or at least hallucinate and lie about it.
British advertising executive Rory Sutherland coined the term “doorman fallacy” in his 2019 book Alchemy. Sutherland uses the concept of the humble hotel doorman to illustrate how businesses can misjudge the value a person brings to the role.
To a business consultant, a doorman appears to simply stand by the entrance. They engage in small talk with those coming and going, and occasionally operate the door.
If that’s the entirety of the job, a technological solution can easily replace the doorman, reducing costs. However, this strips away the true complexity of what a doorman provides.
The role is multifaceted, with intangible functions that extend beyond just handling the door. Doormen help guests feel welcome, hail taxis, enhance security, discourage unwelcome behaviour, and offer personalised attention to regulars. Even the mere presence of a doorman elevates the prestige of a hotel or residence, boosting guests’ perception of quality.
When you ignore all these intangible benefits, it’s easy to argue the role can be automated. This is the doorman fallacy – removing a human role because technology can imitate its simplest function, while ignoring the layers of nuance, service and human presence that give the role its true value.
Rory’s stuff is really insightful and you get those d’oh of course -moments when you listen to him talk and present his ideas
That actually … really hits the nail on the head with a lot of things in the modern era.
Really illustrates how fucking dumb businesses and business management has become.
That’s like muscle atrophying from lack of gravity. The gravity was the importance of such nuance for, well, making money. In this analogy.
Where did it go - well, to picking the right advertising and promotion system, the right platform. Good or bad attention is more important now than reputation.
One could foresee this when the Web, consisting of web directories, web rings and people talking about things in small communities on forums and in groupchats, with their ICQ number being their main identifier, was defeated by Google. It was the first indication that reputation loses to discoverability.
So, why are they cutting this - because this level has become subject to a higher level of competition. Where the specific business going bad doesn’t matter.
Taken broadly; literal management might be correctly optimizing shareholder returns for next quarter (cut costs at all costs), as the incentives encourage. The goal is no longer to keep having a business next year.
On top of that, consumers dislike dealing with AI in customer service settings, and most say they’d likely choose a competitor that doesn’t use AI.
I’m surprised this is news. Automated phone menus have been common for decades. If an automated system could solve your problem, then you would have used the website and not had to wait. The only reason to call is if you need a human to help.
Now they’re offering the same thing, except you can’t just type 123whatever to get back to where you were.
The thing is that customers wouldn’t dislike dealing with AI in customer service if it actually worked.
It is like a self-service checkout. There is no problem with it, unless an item doesn’t want to scan, or an error appears where an employee is needed.
I wonder if it’ll be just like those self service checkouts — literally no improvements for 20 years.
The “doorman fallacy” is a major complaint I’ve had about past managers. I’d say things like “they let Excel manage the business. If there’s a cost without a painfully obvious benefit, it’ll be mindlessly cut. They put zero thought into intangible benefits. That’s why I’m always suspicious of new managers.”
It turns out that people are better at most things than non-people.
In a world of automated robo-bullshit it’s amazing how far a little human customer service goes. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older and less patient, have more and bigger problems to deal with, if the robo-bullshit is worse, or all three, but god damn have I gotten frustrated having to deal with some automated nonsense this year.
I agree with the message here, but man does this anology fail with me. Hotel door men are just another pressure point for tipping for service I really don’t want / need 99% of the time. An automatic door and a smart luggage cart that follows me to my room would be much preferred.
Reads an article about people falling for the doorman fallacy, immediately falls for the doorman fallacy.
I go to plenty of places don’t have doormen and prefer the experience. Did you read the description of the fallacy? The doorman fallacy is based on c suite execs making a decision that they don’t have personal experience with.
I think you might be confusing a doorman with a bellhop.
Nope. But that’s another person I can happily do without
Sounds like you live in or travel to a shit country that doesn’t pay their employees right. If the doorman or bellhop are relying on your tips to make ends meet, they need to unionize and demand better pay from their employers.
Are you in a managerial, c-suite, or office role at your company?
