Well-known gurus like Seth Godin repeatedly offer the advice – for free!- that the smartest thing a company can do is just drop the barriers and start talking to the customer like normal people talk. Yes, there can be a support cost involved, but the reward in terms of loyalty and word-of-mouth PR can be immense. Yet companies continue spending fortunes on marketing, while at the same time undoing the returns of that marketing by annoying customers who just want support.

An example of doing things right might be the Apple Store Genius Bar – no phone navigation, no special procedures (beyond making a reservation), just come in and talk. Certainly not every customer gets excellent problem resolution there, but on the occasions I’ve gone to the Bar, I’ve been amazed by the leeway that the staff are given to just solve the problem. Fix it and be done with it. The result for Apple is free PR, as I go around telling would-be Mac buyers that they get that great Genius Bar as part of the bargain.