How Jumping to Solutions Breaks Critical Conversational Patterns

Called an airline about an issue with online check-in. The rep asked me to follow some steps (use the ticket number instead of the confirmation number).

I felt skeptical about following him. His steps ultimately did not work, but the point is his conversation management. He jumped straight to solutions without sharing what he thought was wrong. His head was a black box for me.

From a conversation analysis perspective, he broke a critical sequence. Finishing a customer service conversation successfully requires the customer to maintain a specific internal state - believing they're talking to someone knowledgeable who understands their problem. The sequence of explaining the hypothesis and the next steps works toward maintaining this internal state.

Conversation analysis reveals that successful service interactions follow predictable patterns. Skip the diagnostic phase, lose customer cooperation.