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Underdogs: Putting a bite into customer service
Broadcast: January 8, 2006

CALLING ALL UNDERDOGS!

For this story we met some courageous underdogs taking on corporate giants. We're doing it again on November 8, 2006. If you're getting ripped off or bullied by big business, we want to hear from you. Send us an e-mail or call our new toll free hotline at 1-866-535 -3786 and tell us why you are an underdog.

Who hasn't felt completely alone and outgunned when you've tried to get some satisfaction from a store or company?

Meet four frustrated consumers – fed up with powerful corporations and they’re ready to fight back.

They’re underdogs. They have courage and conviction. And they are not alone.

It seems like everyone has a story to tell about battling big companies – corporations that have all kinds of tricks to make underdogs run in circles.

Corporations dominate our lives. We have no choice but to interact with them. If something goes wrong… watch out. Claiming victory won’t be easy.

But our four underdogs believe that despite all the obstacles, truth is on their side. They’ve got determination, passion, and they won’t stop barking until they’re heard:

• Donna and Dave Hartley: “You just don’t know what else to do. I’m very upset with Combined Insurance.”
  
  
• Shawna and Kevin Prebushewski: “We’ve just run into so many roadblocks. We are just sad that it took seven years for it to happen; it could have been over in a couple weeks.”
  
  
• John Furch: “It’s almost a David and Goliath scenario. I’m in a three-month battle with Bell.”
  
  
• Debbie Laroque: “None of us are getting anywhere. I really would like Chrysler to step up to the plate.”

These underdogs have one thing in common – they won’t let anger, stress, frustration get them down. But man, can some corporations give you a headache.

Corporations dominate our lives. We have no choice but to interact with them.

In a recent survey almost two-thirds of CEOs admitted they never speak to their customers. People who know the corporate world say that’s a problem.

Lindsay Meredith is a marketing and business professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

“A lot of people are really feeling under siege and they really do feel like underdogs,” he says. “The problem being they can’t seem to get anywhere. They’re up against 'the mega-corporation.' It’s a brick wall.”

MORE: Whither corporate accountability?

Lior Arussy, a customer relationship expert, agrees and says companies should do more to work with their customers: “Sales is the god of all corporation activities. Customer service is perceived to be a post-sale activity that is merely the cost of doing business.”

MORE: Lior's top ten list of customer service mistakes made by companies

That’s the sad truth. A corporation’s number one priority isn’t you. They’re legally obligated to do what’s best for shareholders and that means maximizing profits.

“If you’re trying to maximize profits every couple of months, guess what you’re going to do? You’re going to look for ways to cut costs,” says Meredith.

“One of the standard places we see costs cut is in service, because it’s hard to measure," he adds. Corporations, Meredith argues, figure customer service isn't that important and no one will really notice if it's trimmed back.