Ahh, the joy of pressing buttons on your phone, 1 for English, then 4 for billing, then 3 for billing related to sale items, and so on. Good news, the age of impersonal service will be followed by a more human experience in the coming decade. However, there is one caveat, you’ll have to pay for it.

Brands and service providers have finally heard the cry of the consumer: they want to talk to humans and not robotic recordings. In today’s economy, where budgets are tighter than ever, how will they manage taking this step to a more personal bond with their consumer? Dollars - payment for human service.

Concierge credit card plans have been operating with such policies for some time. Chase recently launched the Sapphire card. One of the benefits, a warm body answers when you call.  Furthermore, when will credit card companies stop naming their cards after jewels and precious metals? How about something that actually speaks to the consumer using the card. Regardless of the name, this is just one instance in a series of brands providing human service for a cost. For the everyday, little guy, this could mean a future relegated to talking to pre-recorded voices and touching more buttons.

The same goes for customers of hip tech giant Apple. Say your warranty has expired, and you want to assess what might be wrong with say, your iPod. A simple phone call can run you up to $50. Seem outrageous? It should, but it’s becoming the norm amongst most major brands. Although it’s not completely customer service related, the airline industry’s fee crusade marches on, with its most recent addition to the fee family, the “obese” fee. Air France-KLM announced this month that on all future flights, passengers not meeting the designated size and weight specifications (you have to be able to put the arm rest down next to you and buckle the extended seatbelt they provide) will be forced to purchase a second ticket at 75% of the regular cost. The airlines reasoning: improved safety and lower fuel/transportation costs. Discrimination or not, I couldn’t agree more. If I have to pay $100 for a 2nd piece of luggage when I travel internationally, then such a weight fee is vindicated in my opinion. However, one more fee just gives the industry another reason to tack on more. It’s the domino effect and consumers are the hardest hit when the dominoes fall.

One case, in particular, gave customers a reason to be upset last year. The Washington Post reported that Dell, which had a better than average customer service rating was going to start charging customers a monthly fee to have access to its United States-based customer service. That monthly fee, $12.95, or $99 for the year is standard on all new computer sales. If you opt not to pay the new fee, your call will be transferred to India or the Philippines.

A Dell representative told the Post that the company has “heard from customers that it’s hard to understand a particular accent and that they couldn’t understand the instructions they were getting.” Because of that, the company has instituted the policy to “illustrate Dell’s commitment to customer choice.” Wow, it seems that Dell has awhile to go in truly understanding their customers.

If you look closely, most industries are moving toward fee-based payment systems and it won’t be any different for support and customer service. This decade will be the return of the human experience, but unfortunately it will come at a cost.