The Sleeping Giants: When Reputation Replaces Quality

Today, many companies live on their past achievements, carried by a reputation they have built over decades. Strong in their dominant market position, they have slowly begun to forget the very essence of their success: customer satisfaction.

Working in service, audit, and customer relations, I witness daily the growing gap between marketing promises and the reality of the services delivered. Behind attractive advertising campaigns and catchy slogans, customer service is deteriorating, innovation is slowing down, and the user experience is becoming a battleground.

When Profit Takes Priority Over Customer Experience

Once renowned companies now seem to put shareholders ahead of consumers. They invest heavily in advertising and branding but neglect the basics:

?? Employee respect: Poor working conditions, overwork, and lack of training directly affect service quality.

?? Subpar products and services: Offers become standardized, focusing on volume rather than added value. We’re sold “premium” experiences that are often just a marketing veneer.

?? Awful customer relations: Whether it’s for billing issues, subscription questions, or simply asking for information, customer service becomes a challenge in itself.

The Customer Experience: An Obstacle Course

We’ve all been through these frustrating situations:

?? Calling your bank, telecom provider, electricity supplier, or travel agency...

? Endless menus, confusing automated options, and repetitive on-hold music ranging from Beethoven to chill-out.

?? An unavailable advisor, being passed around between departments, and a promise of a callback... that never comes.

?? And if, after 20 minutes, we finally get someone on the line, we’re often told to call back later, with no guarantee of effective service.

The customer is pushed to the backburner, reduced to a mere statistic, just another number in the system.

What If We Changed the Rules of the Game?

Today, we have real power as consumers. Rather than enduring these practices and accepting this decline, we can take action by prioritizing more human and effective alternatives.

? Support small businesses and artisans, who take pride in offering personalized, quality service.

? Choose smaller, more agile organizations, where every customer is valued, not treated as just a case number.

? Demand better customer service, by asserting our rights and refusing to accept mediocre standards imposed by big corporations.

? Use word-of-mouth and online reviews to highlight those who perform well and call out companies that disrespect us.

The Future Belongs to Companies That Respect Their Customers

The giants of yesterday, if they don’t adapt, risk becoming the losers of tomorrow. In a world where alternatives are growing, and digital allows us to explore new solutions, it’s time for companies to realize that customer loyalty is earned, not mandated.

If we turn to players who respect our time, our money, and our trust, then change will be inevitable.

What if, starting today, we decided where we place our loyalty? ??

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