This has been my week for an overdose of shoddy customer service.

It started with Art, my husband, and his letter to a local department store canceling our charge account because of what he called "a pattern of inferior service." First, he tried to pay his bill in person rather than by mail, and no one in the store knew how to process the payment. A few days later he stopped in to take advantage of a sale. He selected his merchandise and presented his discount coupons to the clerk. The clerk said the store forgot to print on the coupon that the discounts start at 5 p.m. Art stood there at 4:30 in the afternoon telling the clerk he shouldn't be penalized because the store forgot! The clerk stood her ground and said that if he wanted to take advantage of the discount, he needed to return in 30 minutes.

A couple of days later my turn came! I called the car company about an $800 overcharge on the end of lease bill for my car. After several computerized voice prompts, I finally reached a customer service representative. I explained the situation to the representative, who said the company rule states all bill must be paid in full and any dispute could take place later. I told him that rule wouldn't work for me and to give me the name of the CEO of the company so that I might write to him. He laughed and said he had no idea who sat at the top of the company and in addition, he was certain whoever it was didn't have time to hear complaints. The representative insisted that instead of wasting time I should follow the rule of pay now, dispute later. As calm turned to rage, I assured him once I got the matter settled I would never again do business with his company. He responded by saying, "Suit yourself! We are a very large and powerful company; one customer the less will not matter." And he hung up.

I wondered, had he ever heard of Ralph Nader, 60 Minutes, or Dateline? Nader and these two TV programs are known to bring large powerful companies to their knees often based on one mishandled person. I wondered, did he know that according to the National Foundation of Women Business Owners, a dissatisfied female customer will tell 19 other people of a bad experience? Above all, I wondered how shocked the head of the company would be to know a customer had been lost because his employee failed to handle a problem properly.

The larger your company grows, the more difficult it is for you to oversee the actions of each employee. Yet you need your employees to settle disputes and keep customers happy. That's why it's important for employees to have regular training in communication and customer care.

Check to see how your employees are communicating with customers. Offer monthly or weekly meetings on effective communication and customer relations. Train your employees on the importance of seeing the other person's point of view and how critical this is in dealing with customers.

In addition to dealing with customers, these qualities carry over to family and friends. Can you imagine the woman in the department store or the guy at the car company being rude to their immediate family or close friends? Clients and customers should be treated like family and friends. After all, customers and clients make it possible for us to provide for our families.

Set up a regular time to review how your employees handle customers. To ignore this important part of business communication will slowly put you and your company in a position of one customer the less - and it WILL matter!