Customer satisfaction with subscription television is down 1.5 percent to a score of 64 (on a 1–100 scale), tied with internet service providers for last place among 43 industries tracked by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). New ACSI results show that wireless service is the only telecom industry to improve. Internet service providers, fixed-line telephone, and cell phones are unchanged, while pay TV is the only industry to deteriorate.

People have touted the potential of big data and computation in medicine for what feels like decades, promising more effective and personalized treatments, new research discoveries, and smarter clinical predictions. But only recently have these technologies made it to the clinic, where they can actually improve patient care.

The mismanagement of bet-the-company business crises has become pandemic. Consider just the most recent examples.

Restaurant reservations systems such as OpenTable and Yelp Reservations may be one of the biggest areas where technology is working to help restaurants win new customers and build a bigger roster of loyal regulars. The services offer tools that help eateries customize the experience and add a personal touch to each interaction with a patron.

If there’s one thing that separates those who do things in an average way and those who do those same things in an extraordinary way, it’s passion. This sense of intense interest, excitement, and focus drives the authentic pursuit of excellence, even (or perhaps, especially) in the rather mundane realm of customer service.

Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing. Business customers tend to be fewer in number, and each is more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one. But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, vs. the competition? How do you prevent defection?

Two words no manufacturing organization wants to hear: product recalls. By their very nature, product recalls are unpredictable events.

The cost to a company transcends potentially expensive litigation and settlements. Product recalls and the effects that product failures have on companies that fail to conduct proper design analysis before, during, and after the manufacturing process are often unrecoverable.

The many “truisms” of customer loyalty lore are mostly a set of mythologies to deceive the gullible and exploit the innocent. Let us explore these mythologies and then talk about best practices for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty research.