More Trouble Canceling HP Orders by Bob Sutton:

How true. One good example, one bad example from: Ritz Carlton and Home Depot. I find it very frustrating how poor the service is most everywhere these days. Have you shopped in a Trader Joe’s? The contrast is amazing. I am used to most employees, on the phone, or in person, seeing the customer as a bother. I have been in Trader Joe’s maybe 10 times and the staff always seems happy to have customers. Which seems like a good indication that management is doing a number of things right. That with almost everyplace else that I interact the service is the opposite, does not speak well for management.

Related: Companies in Need of Customer Focus - Customer Service is Important - What Could we do Better? - No Customer Focus - Starbucks: Respect for Workers - Great old lean thinking at HP: Eliminating Complexity from Work: Improving Productivity by Enhancing Quality by Tim Fuller, 1986 - More recent HP