Customer service - is it broken?

I just finished an interesting post on Seth Godin's blog where he suggests a new approach to customer service.

Of course, I'm a big fan of good customer service - for me it's the fundamental that underlines word-of-mouth and referrals; more so than the product, price, whatever. But like so much of what I'd consider marketing (i.e. everything) being good isn't really good enough. It's phenomenal service that makes your business stand out - people already expect good.

So what does it take to provide phenomenal customer service?

Of course, we'd all like our problems dealt with on the spot but as Seth rightly suggests what's more important is that they actually get dealt with. I'm constantly amazed by how long it takes some companies to get back to me with quotes, or answers to questions or to reply to a problem - but much more frustrating is that even when they do come back they rarely deal with my concern or query the way I'd hope.

Simple tip: Fast is good but right is phenomenal.