Studies by groups ranging from the Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc. to the University of Michigan vividly detail what consumers already know: Good service is increasingly rare (charts). From passengers languishing in airport queues to bank clients caught in voice-mail hell, most consumers feel they’re getting squeezed by Corporate America’s push for profits and productivity. The result is more efficiencies for companies – and more frustration for their less valuable customers.
Welcome to the new consumer apartheid. Those long lines and frustrating telephone trees aren’t always the result of companies simply not caring about pleasing the customer anymore. Increasingly, companies have made a deliberate decision to give some people skimpy service because that’s all their business is worth.
Author: Diane Brady
Source: BusinessWeek
Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales
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