Sep 9, 2008

Small Business Advocate: Excellent customer service is goldenBy Jim BlasingameCommercialAppeal.com

Before 1975, consumers enjoyed what I call The Golden Age of Customer Service. Sadly, based on recent research, we now appear to be in the Plastic Age of Customer Service.

An American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the average customer satisfaction rating was less than 60 percent.

Going 6-for-10 is pretty good — if you’re playing baseball. But during The Golden Age of Customer Service, any business with that batting average was headed for the shower.

So how has such a level of service become a 21st-century norm? Because consumers have become sensitized to what I call the Plastic Triplets: high volume, low price and poor service.

For small businesses, the Plastic Triplets create both opportunity and danger. But seizing the former and avoiding the latter requires an understanding of two things:

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