I've gone on TV multiple times to call out companies for their shortsightedness in delivering rationed or inappropriate customer service.

Circuit City announced it was cutting back its seasoned floor staff, the knowledgeable folks that could gladly answer technical questions about the latest electronic gadgets and gizmos.

I said that move was self-defeating and senseless. Circuit City filed for bankruptcy within a year of making that stupid customer service mistake.

I railed against Apple's decision to single-source to AT&T its iPhone connectivity. Feeling it was tying a rabbit to a cow, I said Apple was acting lately more like Goliath than David. Within a year Apple opened its phones to a world of potential application developers, moving away from the shackles of exclusivity, at least in one area.

I also debated the former CEO of a major international airline, saying the industry had diluted the value of its frequent flyer currency, by upping the miles needed to take trips and by restricting the availability of award seats.

Within 24 months, that carrier had reverted to its former requirements under the guise of adding travel awards.

I earn my income by serving corporations, so what do I have to gain by attacking their customer service policies?

Recently, a senior executive in an international financial company praised me for my "passion" about improving customer service. At the time, I was under contract to his firm to improve their results and to put more distance between their company and the competition.

But how would he feel about my passion when it turns to fury?

I'm here to tell you he should feel exactly the same way!

Passion for great service, and fury over shoddy service are two sides to the same coin. How can we revere generous and seemingly selfless service on the one hand, while miserly meting it out with the other?

If we do, we're acting half-heartedly at best, and schizophrenically at worst.
At the base of our troubled approach to customer service is our perception that we're in a zero-sum game; that it's us-versus-them, companies against customers.

WE ARE ALL CUSTOMERS!
Everyone is a consumer. We buy satisfaction, peace of mind, and the assurance what we procure will serve its intended purpose.

Service isn't a frill, a bonus, or a perk. It is part of the bundle of benefits that constitute what the consumer expects to receive.

Service isn't a luxury. It is a necessity. Try to sell a new car or an unproven technology without a warranty, if you doubt this proposition.

And yet, we park our cars in the corporate customer service employee lot, stride through the door, and we suddenly stop thinking like consumers.

What's worse, we stop empathizing with them-despite the fact that a moment before, WE WERE THEM!

Hurt customers and you hurt yourself.

The other day my wife and I were tossed out of a retail store in a shopping mall for nothing more than trying to return a defective item with a receipt.

We insisted the company stand behind its product, and offer an exchange.

It refused.

That company is in trouble. I've seen it happen time after time. When they victimize customers they are squeezing the last breath from their own lungs, and they're doomed.

But that mall in which they work is also troubled. And when it is shuttered, customer service employees will be thrown out of work, and the tax base will diminish. Vital public services such as police and education will be cut back.

And the offending customer service employees will suffer, just as they made their customers suffer, and perhaps more.

The Golden Rule must be applied to businesses, starting with their service policies and practices.

DO UNTO YOUR CUSTOMERS, AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

If you prefer, think of it as karma. What you put out into the world, you'll get back.

I feel I serve companies and myself when I share both passion and fury, when I teach and praise excellence as well as pointedly and emphatically chastise the worst.

Because there's only one side to be on in the battle for great customer service:

OURS!