Am I just out to lunch with unrealistic expectations about customer service or do others also feel that we should expect good customer service from our vendors and not be surprised when we actually get it?

The origins of CollegeRecruiter.com date back to 1988 and over those two decades I have repeatedly been disappointed by vendors who regularly fail to deliver quality customer service. I understand that all organizations, including ours, sometimes fail in this area but the norm should be great customer service. For example, compare the customer service you get from most airlines most of the time versus most nice hotels most of the time. I notice good customer service when flying. It surprises me. It doesn't surprise me when the customer service is poor. Yet I'm not surprised when I receive excellent customer service from hotels.

Another organization that surprises me only when I have problems is a promotions company that we work with. We regularly buy
custom-embroidered logo shirts and apparel from Queensboro because their product quality and customer service are excellent and they back everything with a no questions asked, money back guarantee. Unfortunately, Queensboro is an exception in today's marketplace. Hopefully they'll have a lot of imitators in a lot of niches.