For those few people that still don’t believe that customer service has an impact on the success or failure of a company, here’s some quotes and surveys published by CNN Money:

A new study from Accenture (NYSE:ACN) ACN found that 59% of people had actually stopped doing business with companies in the past year due to poor service. That’s based on a survey of 3,500 consumers on five continents. Just under half of those polled said their service expectations were met only sometimes, rarely or never.

59%! That’s an amazing number.

Even more surprising, 6% of retailers don’t have any set schedule at all in tracking customer satisfaction. That’s according to an annual survey of 137 retail firms by the National Retail Federation and IBM (NYSE:IBM)

Can you imagine not tracking your customer satisfaction at all? At least come up with an unscientific polling method …

ForeSee Results is a firm that measures online customer loyalty for retail Web sites. In 2007, its aggregate customer satisfaction rating fell by 1.3% to 74%. The rating declined for nearly half of 40 online retailers last year due to higher consumer expectations, ForeSee Results’ CEO, Larry Freed, said on a recent conference call.

That’s not too surprising. We, as a society, are beginning to realize that just because we’re doing business online doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have the same level of expectations of service and quality as we would when going into a store.

In a recent survey of 2,000 mobile phone users in the U.S., 96% said they wouldn’t hesitate to switch carriers to get a better experience. In fact, 72% had already made a switch due to a negative experience. 

Another call center technology firm, Amdocs (NYSE:DOX) DOX, found similar results in its survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the U.S. and Britain. About four in five consumers were satisfied with their service levels. Yet one in three said they would switch to another carrier to get better services for mobile games, entertainment and ads.

Cell phone companies are very hard hit by this.  There’s a lot of competition and being satisfied with your carrier is crucial.

What does all this mean? It means focus on your best agents and get them to realize that they are TRULY a crucial part of the business, rather than just an after thought as is all too often the case.  Make sure that they have the training, support, technology and budget needed to do the job right.  It will pay off in spades.