In a highly competitive now global marketing place, customer service will either make or break a company more now than ever before. Recently, I experienced the opening sentence and actually first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities in that:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, and it was the season of Darkness..."

Here is what happened. A potential international executive coaching client did not have a PayPal account and only used international wire bank transfers. So I made a call to my primary bank at its main location at 9:15am in the morning. The normal automated message kicked in (I really find those as anti-customer friendly) and after listening to all the dribble about hours of operation, etc., I hear this:

"If you are hearing this message during regular hours it means we are busy helping other clients so please call back."

Needless to say, I could not believe my ears. Call back during regular hours!

So I called the local branch which is smaller and then I was told by the teller that I needed to call the corporate office because she did not have the information and did not want to provide me with incorrect information. My comment was "I can appreciate that there may exist specific policies and procedures, but from a customer service perspective the last thing you want is to have your clients do your work by having them make another phone call."

In full disclosure, I probably need to share with you that I am truly the customer from hell. With over 35 years in sales and customer service, my expectations are very, very high especially when businesses tell me that are all about the client or buyer experience.

So then I responded: "When I call this number who do I ask for?" She told me "You will receive a live person and they will direct your call to the appropriate department."

I then dialed the number which was not toll free and did I get a real live person? Well if you believe pigs can fly then yes I did.

After listening to an even longer automated message that reminded me of the opening sentence once again in the Tale of Two Cities, I finally was connected to a real live person who directed me to another individual. This person took my email address and said he would send me the information because he had to check with another bank that handles international transfers for them. Update: I never received the promised email message.

Even though I had to leave the house for a luncheon appointment in Chicago, I dialed my secondary bank and a real person answered the phone. I asked for the usual person I speak with and she was not in nor was the branch manager. The person at this bank if she could help me and I explained what I needed. She then said that Mary (not her real name) could help me.

Well, Mary did help me. She said she had to check on one item and would send me an email with the complete instructions. This email arrived within 5 minutes after we hung up. Then Mary made a phone call to let me know she sent the email and to let her know if I needed anything else. Talk about exceptional customer service.

As my time is very valuable, I keep track of time. Time from the first phone call telling me to call back to the last phone call was 45 minutes. At my billing rate, I just lost $150, so time is money.

Upon returning home from a great lunch at Greek Islands in Chicago, Illinois with one of my oldest clients, I had a voice mail from the branch manager of my primary bank (the secondary branch location where I had actually spoke with someone) asking me to give him a call. Upon returning his call (and returning calls demonstrates your business ethics), he apologized for how this request was handled.

After accepting his apology (when an apology is made and if you believe the apology is sincere, then verbally acknowledging acceptance of that apology demonstrates your business ethics), I then shared with him that receiving an automated message from the main bank during regular working hours was totally unacceptable, not to mention the lack of follow-through from their corporate bank. I shared with him my very positive and exceptional customer service experience with my secondary bank and how their client experience was incredible.

Then I made the observation that this bank really needs customer service training, not to mention alignment of all policies and procedures between all branches to ensure consistency. And I knew of someone who could help the bank with those issues - Me.

Finally, I did thank him for his unexpected follow-up even though he knew he might potentially receive an irate client. At least someone at my primary bank appears to understand what makes exceptional customer service and how to create customer loyalty.

So many businesses work to increase sales and then totally drop the ball when it comes to the actual experience which is required for continued customer loyalty. Sales is viewed as one city and client service as the second one.

Most people here in Northwest Indiana from my informal survey of over 500 business owners, sales professionals, business professionals and C Suite executives during the last 3 years are not happy with their banks. Then when I ask the bankers in the room to lower their hands, the 75% of those being unhappy jumps to 85% to 90%. The only reason there is not a stampede to change banks is due to the hassle switching all accounts, on line bill paying, etc. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Just because your clients or customers do not switch does not mean that are not telling others not to come to your business.

Dropping the ball respective to customer service is also prevalent when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. My primary local bank was acquired by a regional bank because it was very profitable. Did you notice the past tense verb - was?

After 3 years, I believe (cannot confirm this with actual facts) this bank has lost some of its profitability because the acquiring bank ignored the current customer service culture and imposed its culture on both customer service employees and account holders. Yet the acquiring bank continues to live in its city while ignoring what is happening around the other city.

Lessons learned from this tale of two cities or two banks or two customer service experiences is never ever give your customer a bad experience because you never know where he or she may share that experience.