Clark Howard's Tips

Using technology to combat customer no service

August 8, 2008

Are you fed up with customer no service? One of the best ways to fight back is through the use of technology. YouTube, blogs, Twitter and message boards are being used to turn the tables on unfeeling companies. Those same companies now routinely monitor "new media" sites and respond to people who are complaining.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports came up with HearUsNow.org exclusively for beefs with communications companies.

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Clark thinks about Sprint's new CEO Dan Hesse who wanted to return a customer focus to the company. So he went on TV and gave out his e-mail address to customers. What a deluge he got!

As companies get larger, they get dumber. Employees kiss up to management, instead of kissing up to the customer.

Clark also believes more CEOs need to come down to earth and start eating with their employees (not in separate dining rooms); eliminating their own preferential parking; and losing the designer suits as status symbols.

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