I don't normally pick on people who have tough, thankless jobs. I've held those types of jobs before, and they're often a lot more difficult than what appears on the surface.

Take my newspaper delivery guy for instance. He has to wake up in the dead of night, rain, sleet, snow or clear skies, and have my paper delivered to me by 5:30am. Or, at least, he's supposed to do that, according to the customer service representatives at the Denver Newspaper Agency.

For the last two or three months, my newspaper has been arriving after 7:00am, each day, every day. This is why I know that my newspaper delivery person is a man. I've seen him before. We've made eye contact.

By the time 7:00am rolls around, I'm ready to start my day and get to work. I'm in the MBA program at Regis University, and my coursework is normally heavy enough for me to work all day, five days a week. Some classes require that I put in more than that. But, by 7:00am, I'm ready to work and don't want to sit down, relax, and read the newspaper. I'm beyond that point.

I've called the Denver Newspaper Agency more times than I can count, complaining about the late delivery. The last few times, I've been promised that the district manager will be calling me within 48 hours. Each time I am promised this, I roll my eyes because I know that no such call is going to come. And, each time I roll my eyes, I'm right.

If you have a job delivering newspapers, and you're supposed to have the newspaper delivered by 5:30am, what is so difficult about fulfilling your job duties? If you are supposed to call someone on the phone and deal with complaints, what is so difficult about fulfilling your job duties?

What has happened to customer service?

Customer service is the foundation for marketing. Businesses should be run utilizing a market-driven strategy. Essentially, without boring you with details, a market-driven strategy is one where the entire business focuses around the needs of the customer. The theory behind market-driven strategy is that, without the customer, there is no business. If your business can't cater to a customer need, then that customer is going to take his or her business to a competitor who will.

I have noticed something over the last several years while paying attention to economic trends. When the economy is good, customer service suffers. When the economy is bad, customer service rises from the ashes. The only explanation that I can think of is that, when times are good, businesses have a hard enough time keeping up with the flow of customers through their doors and don't worry about keeping customers happy. After all, if you didn't have to do anything but unlock your door every day, why would you devote time, expense and effort to pleasing the customer?

When times are bad, businesses tend to stress customer service. Why? Businesses need to differentiate themselves from the competition. They need a reason to keep customers coming through the door, especially when the competition across the street can offer the same exact product at a slightly lower price.

Yet, when times get good, for some reason these same companies that promise excellent customer service remove the emphasis from excellent customer service... and people keep shopping there.

Times must be good right now, because it is becoming more and more difficult to find a business offering excellent customer service. Whether it be the drive-through window clerk at the fast-food restaurant who is rushing my order, or it is the cashier at my grocery store who doesn't acknowledge my existence, or it is the newspaper delivery person who can't deliver a newspaper properly or it is his manager who can't pick up the phone and put out a fire, good customer service is hard to come by.

I spent 15 years in the customer service business. There were days where I didn't want to be nice to anyone - but I knew it was my job to be smile and to treat customers with respect. If I made a promise to call someone by a certain time, I called them by the promised time - even if it was simply to say that I'm running behind and I'd have to return the call later. If I made an appointment to meet someone at their house or business, I was there on time, or I was on my cell phone calling them as soon as I could determine that I would be late.

Whenever possible, if I find that a business has been treating me poorly as a customer, I try to take my business elsewhere. Awhile back I wrote an article on tipping at restaurants, and explained that I don't reward bad service by offering a tip. That is nothing more than thanking someone for providing horrible service. If I return to a business that treats me poorly, I'm doing nothing more than telling that business that it is okay to ignore my needs as a customer.

Unfortunately, there are times where a company has a monopoly. The Denver Newspaper Agency falls into this category. Sure, I can choose between the News or the Post, but the same newspaper delivery guy delivers both papers late and he has the same district manager who doesn't handle consumer complaints. I could also choose to just read my news on the Internet (which I often do these days), but there is something about a newspaper that makes digesting the news easier.

Customer service should be something that all business owners and managers stress to their employees... all of their employees.

If not for us, you'd not have jobs. Remember that.