When you go to the store, you want to be respected and treated well as a customer. It's that simple. All the complex theories that MBAs learn in school really boil down to this: Treat the customer right. Yet the Wharton School of Business recently found that businesses aren't honoring this simple creed. Customers were treated down right rotten in 60% of the cases they examined.

The No. 1 complaint is that there are typically no employees around to help customers. The second peeve was long checkout lines. Finally, customers also get upset when there are employees present, but they don't offer any greeting, smile or eye contact.

In business, it's key that you focus on serving someone. For employers, it starts by wooing your employees with great treatment so they can romance the customer. Treat your employees with love and respect and they'll serve your customer. Everybody wins that way.

Here's one example of great customer service: When Clark's wife was in a car wreck, his insurer called twice after the accident just to see how she was feeling. How classy is that? The other driver's insurer -- who had to pay for the damage to Lane's vehicle -- never even called once. This kind of basic decency saves money in the long run because it makes customers less likely to think about litigation.

Clark recently told you how Wal-Mart ranked as the worst retailer and the worst grocer when it comes to customer satisfaction, according to the latest ACSI survey. The irony is that people still shop there in huge numbers despite all the complaints. But that may not always be the case.

Before Wal-Mart was the largest retailer in the world, that title was held by Sears and then by Kmart. Both Sears and Kmart are today owned by Sears Holdings, which has now reported that its profits are down by nearly 50%. Sears Holdings' sales are declining rapidly, while cash on hand has dropped from $4 billion a year ago to $1.5 billion now. The marketplace spoke and this is the result.

The Wal-Mart haters have to realize that the marketplace will speak again if Wal-Mart doesn't improve its customer experience. Look at any industry. In the car field, GM used to own this country. Today, they're struggling to survive because they had a tin ear to the customer. The message is clear: If somebody doesn't take care of you, you must use your feet and take care of yourself by taking your business elsewhere.

The new quarterly results from The University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) have been released. Among the brokerages, Fidelity is tops, followed by Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE. When it comes to online retail, Amazon is tops, followed closely by NewEgg.com. In banking, Wachovia remains on top, while CitiGroup and Wells-Fargo come in at the bottom of the heap. The department/discounter store field was dominated by Nordstrom. Wal-Mart came in last! In the specialty retail category, Barnes & Noble was No. 1, Costco was No. 2 and in last place came Circuit City. The supermarket category was dominated by Publix, while Wal-Mart came in dead last. One clear trend emerges: Wal-Mart faces a real challenge when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Just as the ACSI results came out, Business Week ran a cover story about consumer vigilantes. People are setting up gripe sites like ComcastMustDie.com in the hopes that big corporations will change their ways. Comcast now has a team of staffers that spend all their time monitoring and responding to posts on this site! One customer who posted had 8 trucks show up at his house to restore his cable connection. Similar gripe sites include GetSatisfaction.com, Complaints.com and PlanetFeedback.com. The Business Week piece also told the story of a man stuck on the tarmac on a U.S. Airways flight. He figured out the e-mail addresses of the company's executives and e-mailed them from his seat on the plane. Nobody responded -- no wonder U.S. Airways has the worst ranking of any airline by far.

On a positive note, Business Week's tally of Customer Service Champs has been topped by USAA. So there actually are companies with CEOs who get up and think about ways to improve customer service. Take Sprint, for example. This is a company that has been bashed by Clark in the past. But now Sprint has a new CEO who has really shaken things up and apparently actually cares about customers.

Several weeks ago, Clark told you that Consumer Reports rated the best and worst credit cards in America. The single best card was the USAA Federal Savings Bank MasterCard, while all cards issued through credit unions came in at No. 2. Meanwhile, the big banks that issue the bulk of cards in America got stinky scores. Now there's a new survey out from J.D. Power and Associates that corroborates the findings of Consumer Reports. The J.D. Power tally focused on the big names only and is topped by American Express and Discover. On the bottom of the heap, J.D. Power says HSBC is the worst, followed by Bank of America and Capital One. That's very similar to what Consumer Reports said in ranking Capital One as the worst followed by Bank of America. Meanwhile, Citibank, Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo all got lousy scores from J.D. Power even though they came in near the top of the tally. So the important thing to note is that you should get your credit card through a credit union if you have access to it. Don't go through one of the giant monster mega-banks. Size does not equal quality in the world of credit cards.

Have you ever wondered about the best credit card in the country? The October issue of Consumer Reports turned its attention to a survey of this all-important industry. The single best card to have in your wallet is USAA Federal Savings Bank of San Antonio's MasterCard. This card is exclusively for members of the military, their families and in some cases certain retirees. This little piece of plastic was singled out because of its reasonable interest rates and cash back earnings. USAA also delivers the best focus on customers and problem resolution, according to the report. But what about a good card for those of us who aren't in the military? A card issued by Navy Federal Credit Union came in second, while cards issues by credit unions in general took third place. Credit unions offer their cardholders good problem resolution and better interest rates than a typical bank-issued card. Overall, the only big issuers who got decent scores were American Express and Discover. The other major companies, meanwhile, were in the toilet. Providian was named the single worst card issuer. Following right behind at the bottom were Capital One, Bank of America's MBNA division and JP Morgan Chase.

The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index from the University of Michigan has been released. This quarterly survey has been around since 1994 and keeps tabs on the good, the bad and the ugly in multiple industries. The big news this year is that American automakers did very well. While the top automaker was foreign (Toyota's Lexus division), homegrown companies like Cadillac, Buick and Lincoln-Mercury all tied for second place. Meanwhile, Toyota's namesake division fell way behind on the tally. Clark thinks the Japanese automaker has been taking its eye off the ball lately. The Toyota business model is now geared toward growth and quantity, not quality. That accounts for why they've been issuing more recalls than ever. Fortunately for Toyota, there are some corporate initiatives in Japan to raise the quality of their namesake line of vehicles. In the computer industry, Apple is tops in customer satisfaction; Clark's wife has an Apple Macintosh that she loves. In the PC world, Hewlett Packard's HP line makes a beloved machine, yet HP's Compaq division has been voted the worst company in the industry. Meanwhile, Whirlpool continues its dominance in the appliances field, racking up its largest lead yet over the competition.

When you buy something that turns out to be wrong, it's important to know how to return it. Clark prefers to deal with stores with unlimited return policies, but not all of them make it easy. And that matters to consumers. The Harris pollsters state that 91% of people choose whether or not to buy at a store based on its return policy. It's the most important thing people name in determining whether they'll buy in the first place. But retailers worry about fraud when items are returned, because it's become a big problem. It's a challenge for them to deal with fraud without treating the regular customer like dirt. Clark's advice to retailers: be friendly about returns, and make it easy for your customers. It will create real customer loyalty and good will, which means higher sales for your business.

Clark is constantly amazed that so many companies think that it's OK to treat their customers horribly, with what he calls Customer No-Service policies. "Customer care" employees are given almost no power these days to fix problems, and in some cases, are actually ordered to try to sell you new services and products when you're calling with a problem. Another stupid thing they do: they only offer good deals to new customers. Businesses should reward customers for their loyalty, but that's not the way it is. According to a survey in USA Today, Customer Service is the #1 reason people choose to stay with a company long-term. (Product quality is a distant second, and price a distant third.) It sometimes seems that these companies are following in the footsteps of the dinosaurs...the bigger they get, the smaller their brains get. And we know what happened to the dinosaurs!

The worst drivers live in DC, New York, and New Jersey. Idaho and Alaska are the states that house the best drivers. GMACinsurance.com is the website you can go to if you want to test yourself and see how you stack up against other drivers.

The customer satisfaction index distributed quarterly by the University of Michigan is out again. This quarter, the survey ranked airlines, cell phone companies, cable and others. The results are amusing. Would you believe that the typical American airline got a lower score than the IRS? We really dislike the airlines. As you might have guessed, Southwest ranked the highest in the airline survey while United ranked lowest. In fact, United received the second lowest score of any airline in the 14-year history of the survey. Only Northwest Airlines got a lower score in 1999. In chain restaurants, Olive Garden got the top rating. The top-rated hotel was Marriott, followed by Hyatt and Hilton. As for cable and television, DirecTV and Dish got the highest scores. Charter Communications and Comcast ranked lowest. In the cell phone industry, Sprint got the worst score. Verizon and T-Mobile were tops. As for package delivery, FedEx got the best score. UPS and the USPS got fairly high rankings, as well. But FedEx has been on top for 10 years.

Consumer Reports has come out with another restaurant issue and Clark wants to share the results. In the steak house category, the upscale restaurants were The Capital Grille, Ruth’s Chris and Morton’s. In the mid-price range, Longhorn got top honors. In traditional American category, Houston’s was No. 1 and J. Alexander’s was No. 2. The best Italian chain was Carrabba’s and McCormick & Schmick’s got top seafood honors. The restaurant also got the best overall score of any restaurant. In the “unusual dinner houses” category, Rainforest Café and P.F. Changs got high honors. The lowest score out of all 103 restaurants went to Friendly’s.

Would you rather do business with companies that treat you well or treat you like dirt? It’s a no-brainer. And, each quarter, the University of Michigan gives you that information on a silver platter. This quarter, UM rated the top customer service oriented companies in the airline, fast food and phone industries. In the cell phone industry, T-Mobile and Verizon were listed as the best. Cingular, Nextel and Sprint tied for dead last. In the traditional phone business, AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Quest all got lousy scores. The top company was Cox Communications, which provides cable and phone out West. In the pay TV industry, DirecTV got top honors, followed by Dish. The cable companies – Comcast and Charter – were ranked toward the end. What about the airline industry? The best airline without question was Southwest, and the other discounters fared pretty well. The worst by far was Northwest. The only full fare airline that got a half decent rating was Continental. As far as fast food, Papa John’s got the highest score for the second year in a row, and McDonald’s brought up the rear. Overall, the cable industry got the lowest score of any of them.

The quarterly University of Michigan customer satisfaction survey is out, and this time it’s all about computers, appliances and cars. One computer company stands out above the rest and that is Apple. People simply love the design and the ease of use with Apple computers. On the other hand, Dell has dropped significantly in the rankings. Dell seriously needs to do something about its ailing customer service. In the appliance industry, the three biggies all ranked high. That is Whirlpool, GM and Maytag. As for automobiles, Toyota was tops. Toyota is on its way to becoming the biggest automaker in the world because its cars are so reliable and affordable. The only downfall is the buying experience, according to customers. The lowest score in the survey went to Ford motor Company.

As a talk radio host, Clark is in a position to have the last word. But he doesn’t think that’s fair, so he’s created a message board specifically for people who want to voice their opinions about him and his show. That’s not the way some sites see things, however. According to the Wall Street Journal, some retail sites and complaint sites are editing the comments people post. They are so frightened of negative opinions affecting their businesses that they’re censoring posts. Newegg.com is editing people’s posts, according to the story, and amazon.com is making it hard for people to post negative postings. Overstock.com was censoring comments, but changed its policy because so many people were complaining about it. People, like Clark, rely on the honest feedback of customers when they are considering buying something. He hopes that these sites reconsider their policies.

If a company or person did a good job for you, Clark likes people to talk about it on our “Customer Yes Service” message board. But what do you do if you just keep running into that corporate brick wall and you can’t get any help from people. There are sites that allow you to vent about a company or rate the level of customer service. And people pay attention to what’s being said on these sites. Clark has chosen not to do business with a company because someone rated them poorly on epinions.com. Other sites out there are thesqueakywheel.com and complaints.com. If you’re traveling this summer, check out tripadvisor.com. People post about hotels and other places they’ve stayed and it can be extremely helpful.

The expression “you get what you pay for” is not always true. J.D. Power & Associates, which researches car quality and other industries, has released a survey about the nation’s airlines. J.D. Power rated airlines on things such as check-in, reservations, in-flight treatment and how well the plane performed and looked. There was one airline that came out way above the rest - JetBlue. No other airline was anywhere near JetBlue in customer service. The company is also adding aircraft faster than any other airline in the country. Typically, when a company grows, the less concerned with customers it gets. But that is not happening with JetBlue. In fact, the company has added more legroom in the back of the plane, giving passengers an incentive to sit there. In addition, each seatback comes equipped with satellite TV and the prices on this discount airline are great. SouthWest took 2nd place, and No. 3 was Delta, the only full-fare airline in the top five. Alaska Airlines was No. 4 and AirTran was No. 5. The bottom of the barrel was Northwest at #11. Northwest got the worst scores in all categories, and the company is evidently none too pleased. But apparently the less you pay, the better the service - sometimes.

What one service do people loathe more than any other? The cell phone industry. USA Today listed the results of several customer service surveys and it was almost unanimous. Consumer Reports, for example, noted that the cell phone industry ranked lower than any other industry ever. Only 45 percent of people who use cell phones don’t “hate” their phone. J.D. Power’s survey showed the cell phone industry as dead last after the airline and utility industries. Why do cell phone companies manage to do this? The same report showed that it’s because the companies cram contracts down customers’ throats. Theses companies are basically afraid of losing you because they treat customers so poorly, so they keep you tied to them with contracts. A site where you can rail on your company is escapecellhell.org. There are a small handful of companies that stand above the rest because they have simple plans and no contracts. They are Metro PCS, Cricket Communications and Virgin Mobile USA. Think of switching to one of these plans if you’re tire of being treated poorly.

The expression “you get what you pay for” is not always true. J.D. Power & Associates, which researches car quality and other industries, has released a survey about the nation’s airlines. J.D. Power rated airlines on things such as check-in, reservations, in-flight treatment and how well the plane performed and looked. There was one airline that came out way above the rest - JetBlue. No other airline was anywhere near JetBlue in customer service. The company is also adding aircraft faster than any other airline in the country. Typically, when a company grows, the less concerned with customers it gets. But that is not happening with JetBlue. In fact, the company has added more legroom in the back of the plane, giving passengers an incentive to sit there. In addition, each seatback comes equipped with satellite TV and the prices on this discount airline are great. SouthWest took 2nd place, and No. 3 was Delta, the only full-fare airline in the top five. Alaska Airlines was No. 4 and AirTran was No. 5. The bottom of the barrel was Northwest at #11. Northwest got the worst scores in all categories, and the company is evidently none too pleased. But apparently the less you pay, the better the service - sometimes.

Clark has always believed companies that treat their employees well also treat their customers well and do better over time. Now, he has actual proof. Each quarter, the University of Michigan releases research on industries and companies in those industries, detailing how consumers feel about them. Whenever a company’s customer satisfaction rating goes down in the Michigan survey, the company suffers down the road. It usually happens about two years after the statistics are released or after two companies merge. The supermarket industry, for example, has been in the survey for 10 years. And for 10 years, it has been named the best. That company is Publix. As a result, Publix is spreading from Florida and the Southeast to all over the nation. On the other hand, supermarkets that ranked at the bottom of the list are now all in financial trouble. In the retail biz, Costco and Kohl’s tied for first place. Wachovia ranked very high among the giant banks out there, while other mega banks did very poorly. If you want the best service, go to a credit union or smaller bank, according to the survey. But the industry with the lowest score of any on this survey was health care insurance. We simply loathe this industry, and something must change. For all of the results, click here.

Several new reports out today say AT&T is still a wounded duck in the wireless industry and is basically waiting for someone to bail them out. AT&T has had the worst problems porting people who want to switch companies and take their cell phone number with them. About half of the complaints about poor porting service were lodged against AT&T. That is due, in part, to the fact that AT&T refused to use the industry standard system for switching companies as all the other companies did. Number portability is supposed to happen in about two and a half hours, but that is just a guideline. The FCC made a terrible error in allowing the cell phone industry to regulate itself in this area. It’s more like 24 to 48 hours and sometimes longer. The good news is that there are some decent companies out there if you’re looking to switch companies. According to the Washington Post, Verizon Wireless has been consistently ranked as the best wireless company out there, although the plans are quite expensive. Verizon has had about a third of all the “porting” complaints, but you must consider that the company has 50 percent more customers than AT&T. T-Mobile has been adding huge numbers of subscribers because they’ve been dubbed as the bargain provider. The company has received complaints, but they are considered decent. Nextel is the company that people fire the least often, so that is a good sign too. This is the third time Clark has talked about AT&T in recent weeks for a reason. He doesn’t want you to be handcuffed to an unreliable company, especially if it’s a sinking ship. If you want help choosing a plan and learning more about cell phone portability, go to our Wireless Phone Kit.