In your opinion, do you believe the customer service you get today from other companies is better or worse than it was say 5 years ago? Please explain your answer
I believe the service has declined in recent years. The human touch in contact centers has been limited through automated menues and strict scripting, and agents are less empowered to take action to do the right thing.

Do you believe there is a correlation between the service you receive as a consumer and your loyalty to the supplier? Please explain your answer
I think that as long as revenue generating opportunities exist a supplier will work at optimizing them. If that's what you call service, then yes, a correlation exists.

In your opinion, which industry sectors provide great service and which ones are poor? Please do not name individual companies just sectors.
In general hospitality tends to provide great service, i.e. hotels and car rental companies. They have the ability to provide upgrades that both delight the customer and resolve conflicts that don't necessarily cost them a lot. I see poor service from most of the airline industry and from support arms of companies, especially in computers. As an example, technical agents are having non-technical customers conduct troubleshooting exercises for lengthy periods of time before they will actually deploy an agent on-site.

Can you recall a really good experience recently - where you were WOW'd by the service you received? Please explain in as much details as you would like.
I recently ordered flowers for my wife for Christmas. When they were delivered on December 23rd, it was apparent that these flowers had been damaged by the cold and frost in transit. I called the company at 6:00PM when I got home from work and saw the flowers, knowing that I would not receive a replacement until after Christmas. The agent on the phone was genuinely apologetic and empathetic, told me she would do whatever it took to get a replacement out the next day. I didn't believe that it could/would happen, and I ended the call with my thanks, and was disappointed that there would be no flowers on our table for Christmas Eve Dinner. The next day they arrived and were beautiful. I was WOW'd!

Talking about bad experiences, where do companies go wrong with the service they provide? Give examples to illustrate your response
Companies tell you what they can do to remedy a situation based on internal standards and protocols, and rarely look at the perspective of the customer and what actions are necessary and doable to satisfy. We have a support contract with our PC provider, and have tens of thousand PC deployed throughout the country. In our office we have a technical expert for desktop support that created the image that the manufacturer installed on our PC's, so the fact he is an expert is known to the vendor. Yet every time one of our PC's fail, our expert must call into the vendors support department, spend several minutes going through a scripted checklist with the agent, and only then will a service tech be deployed to fix the exact issue or to replace the specific part our expert knew was needed before the call was initiated.

Have you noticed any differences in service from people from different cultures? Please explain.
I have had several calls recently with agents from American Express, and it's obvious the call center is in India. When dealing with cultures unfamiliar with my own, there is a lack of awareness of what is important to me based on the vocabulary and voice tones I choose, and there is a total lack of sincerity in a monotone scripted apology that disturbs me even more.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding the use of technology in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Assure the technology being implemented improves service in the customer's mind. If it doesn't, it's value to the organization is questionable.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding staff in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Work diligently at keeping the staff satisfied with their work environment, with their management, with the company. That satisfaction will be broadcast to your customers.

If you had to give just 1 tip regarding business processes in relation to improving customer service, what would your tip be?
Make the process as streamlined as possible so it is easy to implement, and have it be seamless to your customer.

In your opinion, how should contact centers measure the level of service they give?
80% should be feedback from the customers, and the other 20% can be focused on the metrics.

Lastly, can you share with us one of the worst customer service experiences you have experienced recently.
United Airlines. I am at the airport and checked in and boarded on a 6:00AM flight. Mechanical difficulties, repairmen arrive, everyone deplanes, flight eventually cancelled. Total lack of ongoing communication and inability to answer questions. After several hours passengers with connecting flights had been rebooked to flights on other airlines, and I sat. 8 hours after scheduled departure time was shuttled to an airport 2 hours away with 8 other passengers in a stretch limo to make a flight home. Next day called United's Customer Relations and spoke with India, received no satisfaction, but did get insincere apology. Escalated call to supervisor, but had to wait for call back. Received email from supervisor instead of a call, so I called back and spoke to a different supervisor who not only wouldn't help me, but refused to connect me with his manager and hung up. No recourse!