TELEPHONE DOCTOR DEBUTS NEW COLUMN

Most consumers have something in common -- a terrible customer service experience.

These "horror" stories that are the focus of a new weekly column by Nancy Friedman, better known as The Telephone Doctor. The column debuts today in the Southeast Missourian.

Friedman calls the column "the other side of Chicken Soup for the Soul."

"It's gotten so bad that 'average' is accepted as great service," she said.

Bad customer service has many lingering effects.

People have the memory of an elephant when it comes to how badly they've been treated by businesses, she said.

One woman shared a story with Friedman about how terribly a bank treated her 20 years ago. It didn't matter that the bank was long defunct.

"Untold millions of dollars are lost every year due to poor customer service," said Friedman.

From a tiny operation started 15 years ago in St. Louis, The Telephone Doctor has grown to a $3-million-a-year corporation dedicated to better customer service. Her clients include many Fortune 500 companies.

She has written two books, published a series of instructional videos and commands up to $6,000 an hour for customer service seminars across the country.

Friedman visited Cape Girardeau in April, speaking to a sold-out crowd of 400 at SEMO University.

The enthusiasm of local residents was one of the reasons Friedman asked to test her new customer service column in Cape Girardeau.

The column will run each Friday in the Southeast Missourian. She hopes it will turn her into "Dear Abby of the customer service world."

Friedman plans to test-market the column in a handful of other newspapers of varying sizes and locations. She hopes to syndicate the column for national distribution in the near future.

The column is an outgrowth of her second book, "Customer Service Nightmares," which was published in the last few weeks.

"We solicited customer service horror stories from across the country," she said. "The 100 worst experiences are included in the book along with suggestions on how they could have better been handled."

Friedman is promoting her new book across the country and will appear on the Today Show July 19.

"I've been wanting to do this column for years," she said. "When we did the book, we reached out to the world really and asked people to give us their customer service horror stories. We got 1,200 stories of people really venting."

The column features some of the stories in the book and many that didn't get in, along with Friedman's advice.

Many customers, she said, will relate to the stories. "They may say, 'I didn't write the column, but I could have.'"

Owners of businesses -- large and small -- can also learn some valuable lessons, she said.

"Customers should be treated as welcome guests," said Friedman, "and we should all practice a little common courtesy."

Friedman encourages readers to share their customer service horror stories. E-mail, fax and mailing addresses appear at the end of each column. The best of these stories may be incorporated in upcoming columns.