The pendulum of cheap with no customer service has swung fully as far as it can go. Those who still believe they can compete on price have mostly already gone under and any that continue to believe that will join them.

Saving money is meaningless if it takes too much of your time to do so. Your experience reminds me of a time when I decided to buy a few things at Sam’s Club after I repaired their IBM equipment. They had huge signs over ever register that said, “If there are more than 3 people in line we will open another register”. As I stood there for 25 minutes staring at the long line in front of me and that sign I finally walked up, pulled it off the pole (I knew they were attached with velcro because I worked on the cash registers there), walked to the service counter and asked for the Manager.

Waiting….waiting….waiting….finally the Manager came and I handed him the sign and said, “Either your people can not count or they can not read. If you are not going to DO what the sign says at least have the decency to take them down so your frustrated customers don’t have to read them while they wait” – for what by then would have been 45 minutes – and still those in the line who were ahead of me were waiting.

Then I added, here’s your card. I won’t be needing it any more. And every time they contacted me about why I would not renew I told them that you can’t save money by wasting your valuable time.

As long as we have the Internet and phone apps the game has finally changed. No longer can a business sell bad products and give horrendous service because reviews are easier to find and angry customers have fast ways to spread their frustration.

Those small businesses that focus on pleasing their customers and avoid bad reviews and online viral complaints by making it EASY for them to complain right in your store or on your site now have the advantage. I hope they use it.

Those who focus on both REAL service and improving conversions by reading what Bryan writes and hiring him if you can possibly get him are more likely to survive this economy which is NOT in a recovery.

P.S. In case anyone wonders, I have not personally had the pleasure of meeting Bryan in person nor have I benefited from working with him directly; however, I can recognize excellence and brilliance when I see it. He has been the leading conversion expert for as long as I can remember and I recommend him strongly – and regularly.