Senior Taylor Cameron walks into the Vans store for her first official day of work, filled with excitement and nerves. But her emotions are all taken away when she starts her shift. 

“You are going to be watching some training videos today that teach you the basics,” Cameron is told by her manager. 

She is faced with the reality of learning how to do her job through technology. 

The customer service industry is being negatively warped by the use of technology to train employers. As high school students search for jobs, customer service positions at fast food restaurants or retail clothing stores are often the most accessible. 

As companies have evolved with technology, 70% of organizations either have digital transformation techniques set up for their company or are attempting to digitally remodel. This involves reconstructing the training process as well. Customer servicing companies have now resorted to technology to teach new employees how to do their jobs, however some students find that this impersonal training style doesn’t benefit them as a worker, nor the company. 

On Cameron’s first day at Vans, she watched a slew of training videos. 

“I watched videos that ran me through the basics of the store, the shoes, and how to customer service. The videos were pretty impersonal because I was being taught by someone I didn’t know,” Cameron said.  

The following day, Cameron underwent more training with the guidance of an experienced coworker. 

“The interactive training was personal because I was working one on one with someone who could answer my questions,” Cameron said. 

On the contrary, junior Blake Bennett works at the local Chick-fil-A where he had a different experience compared to Cameron. He did have some online training that was short and simple, but it was followed up by personal one-on-one training with an experienced employee. 

“The trainers make sure to make the trainee feel welcomed, [because] starting a new job can be kind of nerve racking, so being personal with training is very important and I felt like [my experience] was,” Bennett said.  

Bennett was exposed to one-on-one training from day one which made him more confident going into the job.  

“[The training] helped me gain more perspective on how to do everything instead of being thrown into it,” Bennet said. 

Junior Sammi Saba works at the local Dunkin’ Donuts and notes that their establishment would operate more efficiently if their initial training was more hands-on. 

“If we had one-on-one training instead of learning through our devices, I know our employees would do much better.”