As founder of a marketing agency in Phoenix, I ask the rhetorical question, is excellent customer service becoming something of a rare commodity, or have I just been getting unlucky lately?<br><br>For more than 33 years, our Arizona marketing agency has preached the gospel of excellent customer service, yet just this past week, I have experienced three separate incidents in which the customer service I received was, to put it mildly, deficient. Two of these times involved auto repair situations (when it rains, it pours!), one at a highline dealership that speaks with a decidedly Teutonic accent and one that involved my (heretofore) trusty 2004 Hyundai. One encounter was characterized by seeming indifference seasoned with a pinch of arrogance and the other featured a frustrating blend of incompetence and undependability (I?ll let you guess which dealership was which, though I suppose that is immaterial).<br><br>One case involved a repair bill just north of $1200.00 and the other ? though it has yet to be estimated six days later! ? will (just a guess) probably come in closer to $3,000.00. The latter will be entirely covered by a warranty, but, silly me, it seems expenditures on this scale (and the fact my P______ died in the middle of a busy intersection) merit just a little bit of TLC.<br><br>Yet another incident involved a purported ?help desk? attendant at a well known, maybe ?not-so-super? market chain, who for several minutes ignored me, then snapped at me when I asked politely if anyone was on duty there.<br><br>The lesson<br><br>The point to all of this, as I?m confident any advertising or public relations professional would agree, is: If major (or, even, minor) marketing budgets are not complemented by good and caring customer service does marketing serve its purpose? Or, to put it more succinctly, if a company makes a brand promise to attract customers, shouldn?t that promise be kept?<br><br>The Hyundai case in point has caused me to strongly consider taking my future business ? which may even involve a new car purchase ? to a dealer 12 miles away, rather than this one, conveniently located only two miles away. And, rest assured, I am doing this neither out of spite nor as a demonstration of masochistic tendencies. It?s just that I need to be able to count on a vendor, and trust their word.<br><br>Granted, these may be isolated incidents, but when three crop up in a matter of three consecutive days, it feels more like a trend. Well, now that I?ve vented, please heed the lesson imbedded within these stories. It is this: Treat customers like precious possessions, ones that once lost may never return.<br><br>Not only will this leverage your marketing expenditures, it likely will convert them to lasting relationships and -- that most valuable of all results ? good word-of-mouth advertising.<br><br>Marketing Partners of Arizona (MPA) was founded in 1976 by Allan Starr, and serves a local, regional and national clientele with diverse services including strategic marketing, advertising, public relations, sponsorship procurement, e-mail marketing and online initiatives. Starr is former governor of the Southwest District of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), two-term president of The Arizona Small Business Assn. and is serving a sixth term on the board of directors of The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.