What these companies fail to realize is, we have all become customer service experts - we know what defines a good experience and we certainly know when it is absent. As Americans (we are the consuming champions of the world) we buy goods and services every day. We hire lawyers, order dinner to go, install new software, take out loans, lease trucks, etc. Each one of those transactions has a concurrent customer experience. As we consume all these goods and services we keep a pretty active mental scorecard of the service component of the purchase.
Some companies have brilliant reputations for customer service. They make it their business to exceed their customers’ expectations. Other companies - such as every phone company on the planet, the airlines and banks - are the companies we love to hate. Any company that makes me wait, that obliges me to repeat the same information over and over, that doesn’t seem to have a clue who I am, why I am calling and what to do about it, deserves and gets my unmitigated scorn.