By the way... why personal encounters are once again becoming the art of communication

We live in a time when almost everything works. Answers come immediately, deliveries the next day, and even the language has learned to be service-oriented. Friendly, correct, efficient - but often without actually being there.

Perhaps this is the reason why small moments of genuine encounters suddenly touch us so deeply. They remind us of something that we have never completely lost - but had almost forgotten: that humanity cannot be planned.

When routine meets reality

A young employee at the station counter says to a passenger: "I don't know, but I'll make a quick call to the control center." No script, no process, just a brief moment of sincerity. Or a baker who doesn't respond to a social media question with a template, but posts a photo of his handwritten note: "Yes, the bread was too dark yesterday. Sorry." They are tiny gestures, but they make us feel that authenticity has a temperature.

Authenticity is not a style - it is a risk

You can train friendliness, but not warmth. You can simulate empathy, but not what happens between two people when one really listens to the other. Authenticity means not knowing something and showing it anyway. In a world that optimizes everything, this is an almost rebellious act.

Authenticity requires courage - even in a corporate context. When a CEO doesn't come across as perfect in an interview, but is briefly searching for words, it creates a moment that is more credible than any polished formulation. Because it shows that you mean business.

The return of imperfection

Many companies are beginning to realize that perfection does not create closeness. Some are consciously doing without chatbots, others are showing real employees in their advertising again, not models. A hospital in Zurich has started to train doctors not to end a conversation when the facts have been clarified - but when the other person is breathing more calmly. Such changes are quiet, but they are happening.

Authenticity arises when people no longer hide behind systems. When an insurance company sends understanding rather than forms after a claim. When a retailer says after a mistake: "That was our fault and we'll make it right." In these moments, trust is not communicated, but experienced.

When systems reach their limits

There are times when even the best systems don't know what to do. When an AI responds in a friendly manner to an ironic comment in a customer chat, but doesn't understand the irony. When an automated hotline says "Thank you for your understanding" - and loses the very trust it claims. It is precisely where technology fails that humanity begins again: because a human being has to take over. And often what no machine can do happens: Someone really listens.

Perhaps we notice the real thing when we forget for a moment what we wanted to say - and are still understood. These small interruptions in the hustle and bustle of everyday life are not disruptions, but reminders that communication is more than just information.

Listening as an attitude

Perhaps this is the real progress of our time: not that machines can do more and more, but that we are beginning to sense what they cannot replace. Consumer listening - properly understood - does not mean analyzing even more deeply, but learning to listen again where no answer is expected.

Authenticity is not revealed in the brilliance of systems, but in the small moments when someone is fully present. And perhaps this is the quietest form of the future: technology will not become more human - but we can become so again.

True authenticity arises where people really meet - in personal conversations, in open meetings, in moments that are not optimized but shared. Perhaps this is where the real art of modern communication lies: no longer talking about people, but with them.

By the way ...

You can feel the real thing, even if you don't know why.

Laura Colledani and Klaus Ammon have more than 40 years of combined experience in consumer research and marketing research. Over the years, they have developed a keen sense of what moves people - even beyond the numbers. Both authors advocate a communication culture that listens before it broadcasts. With the new approach of consumer listening management tools, they want to support marketing managers in not only questioning consumers in the traditional way, but also entering into a genuine relationship with them.