The Work

Keynotes, media, and programs that expose how customer service is designed — and what leaders must do next.

Media appearances

CBC MarketplaceMarch 2026
The System Is Designed to Frustrate You
Named expert in Canada's Rogers, Bell, and Telus investigation — on camera, why systems outlast your patience, not your problem. Bell denied it. The evidence disagreed.
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The Atlantic2025
The Deliberate Friction in Every Interaction
Reported piece on friction companies build into every interaction — the inside account of why it isn't accidental, and who benefits when you give up.
“Ostensibly the goal of customer service is to serve customers. Often enough, its true purpose is to defeat them.” — The Atlantic
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FortuneFebruary 2024
Where Trust Goes to Die
Fortune on why 61% of consumers leave service unsatisfied — and why that outcome may be exactly what the system is built to produce.
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OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting)August 2024
Sick of Bots and Subscription Traps? Here's Why It's Built That Way.
Public radio on bots and subscription traps — why the frustration isn't a flaw in the system. It is the system.
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NPR2023
Why Customer Service Keeps Getting Worse
Why satisfaction scores keep falling despite record spend on service tech — and what companies are actually optimizing for instead.
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NBC News2023
Automation Is Not the Answer You Think It Is
Evening news on automation in service — the case that AI is being deployed to deflect customers, not help them.
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Fox DC2023
This Problem Started in 1750 BC
From the world's first customer complaint on a clay tablet to today — the problem isn't new; the scale is.
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Video library

Panel — Five9 CX Summit 2023

Fireside chat at Five9 CX Summit 2023. Two minutes on why replacing humans with AI isn’t the answer executives think it is.

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MEDIA

CBC Marketplace — The System Is Designed to Frustrate You

Named expert in Canada's national investigation into Rogers, Bell, and Telus. On camera: why these companies are engineered to outlast your patience.

Watch on YouTube →

MEDIA

Bad Customer Service Started in 1750 BC

Fox DC segment tracing the world's first customer complaint — a clay tablet carved 3,700 years ago. The problem isn't new. The scale is.

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KEYNOTE

The Moment That Changes the Room

The 90-second clip that started it all. Bad customer service isn't broken — it was built this way.

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KEYNOTE

The 1-800 Number Test Every CEO Should Try

Call your own company. What happens? Most CEOs have never done it. The ones who have can't unsee what they found.

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KEYNOTE

Speaker Reel

Three minutes. Every stage. One thesis that hasn't changed in 25 years.

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KEYNOTE

The Only Job in America That Tracks Bathroom Breaks

Customer service work is the only profession where your bathroom time is monitored. That tells you everything about how companies value the humans delivering service.

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KEYNOTE

43 Days. That's What Your Customers Are Giving You.

The average American spends 43 days of their life on hold or navigating customer service. That's not a statistic. That's a verdict on your business model.

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KEYNOTE

Why AI Is Making Your Customer Service Worse

Every company is racing to automate service. Almost none of them are asking the right question first. Here's what they're missing — and who pays the price.

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KEYNOTE

Why Your CFO Is Your Worst Customer Service Problem

The executive nobody blames — but should. Your CFO isn't sabotaging service. He's optimizing it for the wrong outcome. And he has 30 years of data telling him he's right.

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KEYNOTE

Full Keynote

Customer service isn't a department — it's a relationship. And right now, it's toxic. In this keynote, Amas Tenumah unpacks why companies keep making the problem worse (hint: more AI isn't the answer) and what it actually takes to rebuild trust with the people who keep your business alive.

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