Human + Fallible = Love; Corporate + Sterile = Refund

To expand on the content in the article:

In the early days of our startup, we did some telecom consulting as a means to supplement income (a.k.a., make some money to pay employees/bills). We worked with smaller carriers who, despite their efforts, could never reach the level of reliability of the RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies) who had practically unlimited budgets and infrastructure that dwarfs anything a small firm could even conceive. Despite the fact that the smaller carrier delivered service that was sub-par compared to the RBOCs, the customer seemed happier. What gives?

The answer is pretty simple. With the smaller firm, it was possible to have your IT managers dial an engineer directly. When you call their office, you don't get an IVR; you get a human. The RBOCs have a policy of depersonalizing the customer experience. This is intentional, and is directly related to cost-cutting measures. Voice and data service has been commoditized, and any time your service is pushed in to the commodity space, cost-cutting is your only opportunity to increase profits. ATT/Verizon/Qwest/Etc are masters at this, and it is the cause of huge amounts of customer dissatisfaction.

The question is, how does this apply to you? When communicating with your customers (on your website, through your blog, or even on the phone), remember that often what separates the companies we hate from the ones we love is the personal connection. Don't be afraid to admit when you've done something wrong. Pay close attention to how often you have to do this, however. Recognize the areas where you or your team are incompetent and find talented people to fill the gap. Eventually, even the closest of connections to your customer will be frayed and severed by incompetence.