Germany in the Service Hell? What We Say About It in FOCUS!

The FOCUS-Issue 22/2026 with its cover story “In Service Hell,” shows that customer service has once again become one of the decisive competitive factors. In the accompanying interview, our partner Prof. Dr. Markus Gahler explains why modern customer communication today needs more than additional hotlines, chatbots, or apps.

For a long time, “Germany as a service desert” was considered a term from another era. Hotline queues, rigid opening hours, unclear responsibilities, and little willingness to accommodate customers shaped the image of many customer relationships. Today, much has become more digital, faster, and more convenient. Customers can submit requests via app, chat, email, portal, or social media. They can find information themselves, track processing statuses online, and expect answers almost in real time.

And yet, a new form of service desert is emerging right now: not despite digitalization, but often because of poorly integrated digitalization.

In the interview with FOCUS, Markus Gahler describes the central challenge of modern customer communication: information is fragmented. Customers switch between chatbot, hotline, app, customer portal, and social media, but companies often fail to connect these touchpoints properly. The result: customers have to explain their problem several times, service loses context, and a digital process becomes a frustrating customer experience.

Fragmented Channels Are the New Service Problem

Expectations of customer service have fundamentally changed. Customers have become more informed, more impatient, and more powerful. Prices, services, reviews, and alternatives can be compared at any time. Bad experiences no longer remain private; they become visible on review portals, social media, or comparison platforms.

This shifts the basis of competition: products and prices are increasingly interchangeable. What becomes decisive is the experience.

This is precisely where many companies’ weak point lies. They may offer numerous digital contact options, but they do not think of them as a connected customer journey. A chatbot does not know the history from the customer portal. The hotline cannot see what was previously sent by email. Field sales has no access to current service cases. Marketing, sales, and service work with different data sets.

For customers, this does not merely seem inefficient. It feels disrespectful. Anyone who has already explained their issue expects a company to listen across channels.

CRM Is Not a Data Repository, but the Memory of the Customer Relationship

A modern CRM system is therefore far more than a database for contact details. It is the central memory of the customer relationship.

All relevant touchpoints must come together there: inquiries, complaints, purchases, service histories, preferences, communication histories, and open tasks. Only when employees can see the full context can they respond quickly, personally, and with a solution-oriented approach.

Good service does not come from having as many channels as possible. It comes from consistent information across all channels.

This is especially true in sensitive industries. In healthcare, banking, or insurance, service is not just a matter of convenience, but part of solving the problem. Anyone waiting for lab results, needing to resolve a blocked account, or seeking support after water damage does not expect a standard answer. They expect security, clarity, and reliability. According to the FOCUS cover story, customers are significantly less forgiving of poor service in such situations because waiting times, uncertainty, and contradictory statements directly create stress.

AI Can Improve Service — But Only with a Clean Foundation

Artificial intelligence opens up enormous opportunities in customer service. AI can classify inquiries, generate suggested responses, detect sentiment, prioritize service cases, or support employees with next-best actions. It can improve self-service offerings and guide customers more quickly to the right solution.

But AI does not solve structural problems if the data foundation remains fragmented.

A chatbot that has no access to complete customer information quickly becomes a dead end from the customer’s perspective. An AI assistant that can formulate text but does not know the current context creates efficiency without relevance. Automation without integration can even intensify Service Desert 2.0: processes appear more modern, but not more helpful.

The key therefore lies in the combination of CRM, data quality, process integration, and AI. Only when systems, data, and responsibilities work together cleanly can AI unfold its potential.

What Good Digital Service Requires Today

Companies should align their service with five principles:

1. A central customer context
All relevant information must be available across channels. Employees should be able to see immediately what has already happened, which issues are still open, and what history the customer brings with them.

2. Seamless handovers between channels
When a chatbot cannot help, the transition to the hotline must not start from zero. The context must automatically move along with the customer.

3. Transparent communication
Customers want to know what is happening, how long it will take, and who is responsible. Status transparency reduces uncertainty and strengthens trust.

4. Human escalation
Self-service and AI are valuable, but not every issue can be standardized. Emotional, urgent, or sensitive cases in particular require human expertise.

5. Customer experience as a corporate objective
Service quality must be embedded in processes, budgets, responsibilities, and management KPIs. Only then can a consistent experience emerge.

Conclusion: The Service Desert Does Not End with More Technology

The answer to poor service is not simply “more digitalization.” The answer is better digitalization. Companies need CRM systems that represent customer relationships holistically. They need processes designed from the customer’s perspective. They need data that is current, accessible, and usable. And they need AI that supports employees instead of leaving customers alone in automated dead ends.

Service Desert 2.0 emerges wherever digital channels exist side by side but do not communicate with one another. It ends where CRM, AI, and customer experience become an integrated system.

For companies, this means: those who think strategically about service today do not only strengthen satisfaction. They create trust, loyalty, and sustainable competitiveness.