Years ago, customer information was kept on rolodex cards or ledger sheets. Today the web-based equivalent is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. They're still about as exciting and visually appealing as a rolodex card, but just as invaluable. For instance, in our business, all our customers contact information is in our CRM, as well as their website information: who the name registrar is, what Joomla components they have installed, which software licenses they've paid for, etc. This enables any of our team members to gain access to this critical information wherever they are.

I don’t often use my column to vent, but between experiencing some really bad customer service and listening to a vintage Clark Howard radio episode over the last several weeks, I feel compelled to put an issue on the table—customer no-service. I’ll admit, I’m warped about this topic because I worked in telephone user support for Digital Equipment Corporation for about three years, so giving bad customer service was just not an option. In fact, the extremely high standard of customer service may well be one of the reasons Digital couldn’t hold on in the contemporary marketplace. Now isn’t that a commentary on the sad state of affairs?