I've written about good customer service in the past, highlighting my excellent experience with L.L. Bean. I've postulated that quality customer service is actually free, because the incremental sales more than make up for "excessive" talk time and refunds/credits granted by your customer service representatives. Here's a trivially-observed example of what lousy customer service will cost you. In this example, from Verizon, it's a minimum of $100.

Apple's .mac service changeover to MobileMe was a complete debacle.  The system was down for more or less the day before the iPhone 2.0 launch and for that entire day.  If you rely on your .mac account for your email, like a lot of independent consultants and graphic design professionals, that downtime cost you real [...]

My experience with L.L. Bean today shows that customer service, when done correctly, isn't an expense. It can be your #1 marketing tool and put a wide moat between your business and your competitors. L.L. Bean is the standard against which your phone support should be measured.

I've been having severe problems with my long-time AIM email address and am not sure which (if any) messages are going in or out.  Should you need to get hold of me, please use mark [at] mapconsultingllc.com to reach me.  I've been working with the AOL Postmaster to resolve.  Perhaps it's time to reprint those [...]