Customer Service Growth

The Wall Street Journal reports that customer service is a growth engine (6/7/10, B6). Essentially, some organizations, including American Express, Walgreens, and Comcast, are giving customer service representatives more flexibility in handling customer problems. For example, companies are relaxing standards on "call times" and reducing reliance on scripts. The objective is better customer relationships and increased loyalty.

There is a catch to the above article, that may reflect the WSJ's increasingly blurry line between editorial and advertising. On the preceeding two pages (B3 and B5), there were large ads for Tony Hsieh's book on Delivering Happiness, which is all about redefining customer service. Hmmm...hit the reader with two ads for a book on customer service, then run an article about how customer service is a growth engine...something doesn't seem right.