With environmentalists and concerned citizens of the world lamenting the feared extinction of the humpback whale and the polar bear, I as a consumer, and I'm sure many of you as well, would like to suggest that customer service be added to today's list of endangered species.  Maybe even extinct species.

Do you remember full service gasoline stations where uniformed attendants checked your oil and battery levels, tire pressure and washed your windshield?  Well, they've been replaced by often indifferent employees who can become indignant when you interrupt their personal cell phone conversation.

In case you think these examples are the exception, I'd like to suggest that they occur more frequently and will likely escalate in the future as more and more companies continue to slash jobs, called "right-sizing," leaving the remaining employees we must deal with demoralized and questioning their own longevity.

Customer service departments, actually I think they're now called customer care, is like many other departments in many large sized companies such as research and development, marketing, advertising, human resources and others whose budgets are often the first to go under the axe during periods of economic slowdowns.

The remarkable thing is that senior management at these same companies expects those employees who remain to pick up the "slack" of their former colleagues without missing a beat.

Today's economic slowdown is no exception, with customer care quickly becoming an even more distant memory than even before.  This not withstanding, many of these same companies continue to promise even higher service levels while in reality delivering less.  Promising to provide 100% customer satisfaction, while delivering 70%, and hoping that nobody notices the difference.

The financial reality for reducing customer service today is to lower current payroll costs.  The real cost to the company, however, is reduced sales revenue and customer loyalty that frequently occurs months later and which can far exceed the planned savings.

Enter the small business owner.  With operating costs much less than their larger competitors, today's entrepreneur is being offered the perfect opportunity to capture even greater market share by providing a higher and more visible level of customer care.  And all thanks to a new level of indifference being exhibited by many of their competitors.

Returning your phone calls on a timely basis, demonstrating a genuine interest in their customer's needs and offering them ­­­goods, products or services whose perceived value to the customer exceeds their cost is your ticket to success in an economic downturn.  It's as simple as that.

Today's sluggish economy is the perfect opportunity for you to increase your market share by improving your company's customer care and by increasing your company's visibility in the market place.  Reduced spending for both customer service, marketing and advertising by many of your competitors provides you with the perfect opportunity to further differentiate your business at only a fraction of the cost that you might be expected to spend in the "good times" when your larger competitors can outspend you 100 or 1000 to 1.

Invest and innovate now and enjoy the increased revenues that are sure to follow for many years to come.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.