A rule to live by

It rarely fails. If I'm considering doing business with a company I know nothing about, and find their front-line people (phone drones, counter employees, etc.) not of good quality, or even a little nasty or rude in manner, I always walk away. Their behavior, generally speaking, is a good indication of the quality of the company overall. I've been around the block a few times, and I've seen this over and over again.

The big cheeses who run companies often have a condescending atbreastude toward these front-line workers. At the company picnic say, a bank president might say, "ah, you're one of our tellers, very important job!" or some such, when he really feels that the teller is just a peon he's patting on the head. What the dumbbutt doesn't realize is that the teller job IS important.

I could give a dozen examples based on my experience, but I'll mention one. I recently read that the insurance company known as AIG was in some hot water for dragging their feet on paying (or not paying at all) legitimate claims from their customers. Well, several years ago, I started getting solicitations from them, trying to get me to switch to them as my car insurer. I didn't know anything about AIG, but decided to give them a call as their materials at least *looked* inviting. When I called, I spoke with a young woman who, amazingly, was there to talk with potential new customers. I found this person to be, well, not exactly what I'd call rude, but maybe a wee bit caustic, pushy, and unpleasant in manner, not at all the type *I* would want in her position if I were running the company. So, I'm thinking, gee, if they treat **potential** customers this way, how the hell do they treat **existing** customers who are filing a claim? I walked and never looked back. They keep sending me crap in the mail (just this week in fact), but they really should forget it.

One would think that the people who run big companies would have enough sense to see that the front-liners often make it or break it for customers, without whom the company wouldn't exist. BTW, here's a unpleasant woman page I found with customers of AIG letting off some steam.

-- Regards, IM