Have you ever e-mailed into a black hole or recognized 1-3-4-3-2-4-3 as the prompt necessary to reach an actual person, who may or may not be able to help you? If so, then you are one of millions wondering why it's so hard to get a simple answer.

This web site will take an in depth look at customer relation management, CRM and it's measured success. In other words, this site will help explain why companies don't seem to appreciate your business and what can be done to improve their levels of customer service.

"Despite their rhetoric, most organizations have not made a significant and sustained commitment to customer satisfaction, and this lack of attention to customer satisfaction costs companies money because there is an intractable connection between high levels of customer satisfaction and increased shareholder value." according to Chris Denove and James D. Power IV of J. D. Power and Associates.

Mr. Denove and Mr. Power further support their argument by breaking down this "intractable connection" into the following five categories:

• Loyalty - satisfied customers are significantly more likely to come back to do business with you in the future.
• Word of Mouth - satisfied customers not only solicit others to do business with you, but their opinions carry more weight than all your company's advertising combined.
• Price Premiums - customers will pay a hefty premium to do business with companies that have a reputation for high quality and great customer service.
• Reduced Operating Costs - high satisfaction companies have lower warranty expenses and spend less on service recovery in general.
• Customer Close Rates - companies that garner high customer satisfaction during the sales experience make a sale to a higher percentage of shoppers.

Frederick Reichheld can further actualize these effects in his book, The Loyalty Effect. Mr. Reichheld uses the banking industry as an example, "If a bank will increase customer retention by just 5 percent, it will result in an 85 percent aggregate increase in the net present value of an institution's branch deposits!" In other words, to obtain a new customer for a retail financial service firm, it on average costs $280 but to retain a customer it would cost $57.

Great! So now we know that companies are not only ignoring their customer's requests and complaints they are making poor business decisions. Yet how can so many companies especially ones like AOL, Best Buy and Home Depot be this clueless? (AOL, Best Buy and Home Depot are on J. D. Power and Associates list for the 10 worst companies for customer service. You can view this list from the sidebar link.)

Before we further exam this situation from the company's point of view, lets consider us the customer. What do we expect? What are we really telling the companies when we send complaints and requests for assistance? More >>