To illustrate how out of place he sometimes felt, comedian George Gobel once remarked, “Have you ever felt that the whole world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?” When it comes to good customer service I sometimes feel like those brown shoes. Poor service seems to find me, as though I’ve become a magnet for everything that can go awry in customer service. Let me explain.

The latest results from the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) indicate that overall service has improved slightly. This was the first gain in over a year, and the satisfaction index now stands at 75.2 percent. Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI, says, “Households are under pressure from falling housing prices, tight credit, and rising food and fuel costs, making it more difficult for satisfied consumers to spend more even if they want to. The smart move for companies in this economic environment is to make sure they keep the customers they have by shoring up their customer relationships.”

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