As a frequent reader of the New York Times, I receive the print edition, and also love to read it on the iPad. Today’s story, Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You, (by Pamela Paul) resonates in both a good and bad way. All too often, people “hide” behind email and text messages as a way to not have to talk to someone.  I know I’ve been guilty of this from time-to-time. However, one of the guiding principles of Customer Paradigm is a customer-centric experience.  And that means we pay our employees to answer the phone. What we’ve found is that our customers really want to have a live person on the other end of the phone, and not get stuck in an endless voicemail phone tree system.  (Although most customers do tend to email… it’s just easier in a lot of cases.) I feel the article didn’t address this need – people wanting to speak to a real person at a company. So… we’re going to keep our phones on and working for the foreseeable future.