Will the financial crisis change supplier attitudes towards “valued” customers?

For years, we have been regaled by suppliers and providers with gushingly reassuring messages, such as “We really value your custom” and “your call is important to us.”

Often these are only half-truths because the former message is likely shorthand for: “We really value your custom but we don’t actually care about you” and the full subtext of the second message translates to: “your call is important to us but your time is of no value.”

Now is the time to improve customer service by investing. But I suspect that it will be a prime candidate for short-sighted cost-cutting.

Possibly related posts:

• Ghosts in the machine
• Wooden spoon for PayPal and Fasthosts
• World’s largest programme cutting quality corners?
• You can run… but can you hide?
• Christmas 2001 (revisited)