Being good is not good enough anymore. Being mediocre is even worse. Being great makes or breaks companies. Customers can get anything from anywhere. How people are treated from the moment they walk into the doors of a business, visit their website, or contact a call center determines how much money they will spend.


Every company has a slogan or tagline touting how much they care about customers. Interestingly enough, that commitment to the customer is usually tacked up on the break room wall and touted with little importance. Saying you care about your customers won't win you any special points. Showing them you do is what brings in the money.


Customer service needs a lot of work. Frankly, customer service sucks. Corporate culture sucks. Both are designed to favor the companies themselves, not the hard working employees who make it all happen or the customers who keep them in business.


It hasn't always been perfect, but today's standards are far from what we expect or deserve. They are, at best, just good. It is time to raise the bar and take the treatment of customers from good to great Can we reverse the negative corporate cultures that have crept into the business world? Can we implement practices that tell customers we value them and want them to return?


We can, and we must.