• Online Retailers Find Bad Service More Destructive
Synchrony Communications, January 26, 2025
"E-retailers who fail to create a positive customer service experience face double the risk of permanently driving away business when compared with their brick-and-mortar counterparts… 24 percent of Web shoppers stated that they would never again shop sites where they encountered their worst experience. By comparison, only 12 percent of consumers were permanently driven from brick-and-mortar retailers by similar experiences."

• Customer Service Drives the Future of Online Sales
Business Wire, January 4, 2025
"Ninety percent of online shoppers consider good customer service to be critical when choosing a Web merchant."

• Clicks & Calls: Strategies Cross-pollinate between Dot.com's and Traditional Firms by Janice Waugh, Managing Partner MW Productions
e-Summit, November/December 1999
"The Jupiter Communications study concluded that the 'importance of the individual in the online transaction has been greatly unrecognized... it is imperative for companies to integrate live customer service with Web sites as soon as possible... the key to growing e-commerce profits is to maintain customer loyalty by offering live on-line customer service from representatives in call centers'. However, the same report shows that less than 1% of all e-commerce Web sites offer live customer assistance and only "8% of the 69,500 call centers in the US are currently Web-enabled."

• Avoid the $6 Billion Customer Experience Gap
December 16, 2024
"39 percent of test shoppers at 10 leading online retailers were unable to complete transactions due to poor site design and inadequate customer relationship management resources. This rate of failure translates into a $6 billion loss of potential revenues this holiday season." Holiday '99 E-Commerce study is available at http://www.creativegood.com/holiday99/ indexv.html

• Federal Customer Survey Results Released by Brian Friel
Critics Call Federal Customer Survey a PR Gimmick by Brian Friel
Agencies Pledge to Act on Results of Customer Survey by Katy Saldarini
GovExec.com, December 1999
"Americans are almost as satisfied with the service they receive from government agencies as they are with service from private sector companies, according to results of the first-ever government-wide customer satisfaction survey."

• At Amazon.com, Service Workers Without a Smile by Mark Leibovich
Washington Post
November 22, 2025
"While technology has helped eliminate the tedium in many fields, most of the jobs created in the New Economy are low paying, low skilled and monotonous."

• U.S. Consumers Like Mail Better Than The Telephone When It Comes To Buying Products And Services
BUSINESS WIRE, November 11, 2025

• META Group Predicts "Serious Risk of Failure" for Leading Companies Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Initiatives
BUSINESS WIRE, October 25, 2025
"Most Global 2000 companies' current customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives are in serious risk of failure... While leading practitioners cheer their short-term successes in CRM technology, the immaturity of their long-term programs poses a serious risk of business failure."

• Avoiding Customer Service Armageddon by John Ragsdale, Clarify Inc.
Call Center Solutions, October 1999
"All companies will need to embrace this evolution of online customer service if they want to ensure loyalty in the Internet economy. Even the dot.com companies will need to integrate both the traditional channels and the Internet if they hope to deliver a worthwhile experience for their customers over time."

• Day Of Reckoning Looms For High Tech Support by Jeffrey Shapiro
Call Center Magazine, September 1999
"[High tech firms] that don’t deliver support that is as much on the cutting edge as their products may find their market share slipping…. With business models for high tech businesses changing more rapidly than ever, quality service and support are emerging as the true selling points of these firms…. And since the products and services can be found everywhere, consumers are going to expect huge levels of support and a quality of service many companies might not have."

• When It Comes To Web- Based Customer Service,
A Number Is Worth A Thousand Pictures by Marc Robins
Call Center Solutions, September 1999
"The lack of attention to the new reality of online customer service permeates the entire e-commerce landscape."

• Customer Relationship Management by Judy Democker
TechWeb InternetWeek, 23 August, 1999
"Customer service is the name of the game for e-commerce sites. And it's even more important for Web-based businesses....Forrester Research reports that less than 2 percent of companies today have a unified view of their customers across sales, marketing and customer-service channels."

• Know Your Customer by Louise Fickel
CIO Magazine, August 15, 2025

• A Seller's Market is No Excuse by Beth Zacharias
Washington Business Journal, August 2, 2025

• What's In a Name: CSO is Not a Catchy Acronym by Jim Dickie
Sales & Field Force Automation, August, 1999
" We are realizing that it is no longer just what we sell, but how well we sell to and service customers that will make the difference... but making this shift is going to cause major problems for many companies. Why? Because in most companies no single person "owns" the customer."

• Leadership And Employee Service Are Best Path to Customer Service
An Interview with Elaine Berke by Mike Johnson
The Supervisor’s Guide to Improved Customer Service and Retention, July 26, 2025
"But when asked how confident they were in their employees' ability to execute the strategic plan, CEOs answered a revealingly low 4.4."

• Take A Stand For Customers, Not For More Money by Jeffrey Gitomer
Washington Business Journal, June 28, 2025
If you want the customer to be loyal, you'd better take loyal actions -- not selfish actions.

• Customer Disservice by Jeff Sweat and Justin Hibbard
InformationWeek, June 21, 2025
"Businesses are spending heavily on customer service, but many aren't getting the job done."

• Quality and Quantity: The Balancing Act by Elaine Berke
Customer Service Newsletter, June 15, 2025

• Somebody Freakin' Talk to Me! by Craig Bicknell
Wired News, 01 June, 1999
"If you walk into a store, and there's no person there to help you, the experience is pretty bad," he said. "The same thing is true online… In fact, online shoppers abandon more than two-thirds of their would-be purchases at the checkout line, often because they can't get a quick answer to an important question, according to a new survey…"

• Make the World a Safer Place: Demand Perfection by John Dickinson
Home Office Computing, June 1999

• The End Of The 80/20 Game by John Jainschigg (excerpt)
Computer Telephony, June 1999
"Customers are sick of dis-service... Lavishing attention on the 20 percent of clients who produce 80 percent of revenue."

• Poor Service Puts E-Profits at Risk by Tim Guleri
Call Center Solutions, June 1999

• Survey Shows U.S. Consumers Still Value Personal Touch in Banking
PRNewswire, May 17, 2025
"the teller transactions are still the most popular way to bank"

• Hell Hath No Fury Like Angry End Users. Here's how the help desk survives by Kathleen Melymuka
Computer World, April 1999

• Customer Reps Play Favorites: Software clues them in when big spenders call by Julia King
Computer World, February 1999
"But creating classes of customers, and then treating each accordingly, has its potential pitfalls."

• Customer Culture by Tom Stein and Jeff Sweat
Information Week, January 25, 2025
"IT can improve customer service only so much. The rest has to come from your company's culture. Companies no longer simply pay lip service to the notion that the customer is No. 1. They now tout the importance of stellar customer satisfaction--even above their quest for more market share and greater profitability."

• Consumers Love the Mail
Business Wire
01 December, 1998

! Banish The Barriers To Personalized Customer Service (excerpt)
by Ed Arnold and Michael Hoffman,
Omnitech Consulting Group, Inc.
Call Center Solutions, November 1998
"For many organizations, inattentiveness to the nontechnology side of the equation has hindered, and will continue to hinder, the success of customer loyalty, retention and satisfaction initiatives."

! High Tech Meets High Touch for Customer Loyalty
by John Goodman, President of TARP
e-Summit by MW Productions
"Our major criticism of most call centers is that they spend 97% of their time responding to the individual customer and less than 2% of their time exploring the causes of these calls."

• What Will You Be Doing Tomorrow? (excerpts)
Home Office Computing, April 1998