I'm a big fan of Southwest Airlines in general, because they always seem to be so far ahead of the other airlines in pleasing their customers.  When five of the six so-called major airlines announced they'd start charging for checking a second bag I grimaced.  One of the more painful elements for a while, however, was their boarding ...

Businessweek has an excellently written article about consumer vigilantes that lends validation to our warnings about the Care 2.0 world -- it's worth a quick read, if for no other reason then to laugh at the opening anecdotes.  The upshot is that more and more consumers are taking to Teh Intertubes to complain about incidents of crappy ...

Just wanted to share a great article over at crmbuyer.com, from an interview with customer service consultant Bobbi Paine.  Some quotable quotes: ''Businesses are losing business they can't afford to lose,'' she said, pointing to the results of a 2007 Harris Poll, which reported 80 percent of customers saying they will never return to a ...

I came across a great example of poor customer service that I just had to share here: an experience flying to the Grand Caymans with the low-budget Spirit Airlines.  It has it all: poor service from poor policies.  Clueless employees.  A terrible phone service (not even automated... no one available to take the call, and one ...

I had an interesting (if unfortunate) experience yesterday.  I called my bank because my credit card was charging me an annual fee.  I was pretty sure that I had signed up for one of those 0% interest rate promotion.  Admittedly, I remembered that I had missed a payment when I first signed up for the card and switched to automatic ...

Every year, in the post-Christmas wake, journalists bring out the tried and true Top 10 lists concept to take a look back and sum up the activities of the previous year.  This year, I found speech recognition in general being mentioned in more than a few places: from desktop software dictation products to passing mentions of the network-based ...

Research has suggested that people aren't upset with automated phone systems per se -- they've actually become quite comfortable with the concept.  Automated systems are available when callers need them, easy to use for basic questions, and a solution that they can handle on their own.  What really ticks them off is when these ...

 Ok, we know bad customer experiences create frustration.  But according to a RightNow Technologies' 2007 Customer Experience report, www.rightnow.com/resource/research/experience07.php it can also make you sick.  29% of US consumers have gotten a headache, felt their chest tighten and/or cried after a negative customer ...