"There are some improvements if to compare to 5 years ago. Customer service personnel from other companies some are found to be more attentive, proactive and courteous. I believe this is a result from competion among other companies from the same industry which emphasis the importance of customer service to gain customer loyalty."

"Worse, having more to offer measn staff less trained, more difficult to get to a person who can help, frustration with overseas serivce centres."

"On one hand, it is much better and also easier for CSRs - new possibilities, different way of thinking, CSRs treat customer like he would be someone special, the only one. There are more and more programs: loyalty programs, churn management, customer retention management. On the other hand, there are a lot of CSRs working on such position just because they have no other work to do, they do not fascinate their job. What is also important - we, customers, know our rights and expect more than 5 years ago - which is difficult for CSRs to realize sometimes:)"

"It is getting better, however many haven't reached their best yet."

"Talking about the service in the UAE where i live the service has soared in the past 5 years, there is no personal touch in the service provided and companies rely on technology a bit too much. many of the companies are taking customers for granted too due to lack of competition in some sectors such as telecommunication."

"I believe there are opportunities for customer service to get better with the advances of technology and social media however the needle on providing outstanding customer service remains a challenge. Customers are becoming less patient these days than they were 5 years ago."

"The simple, and probably popular answer, is that service is worse than it used to be. Having said that I believe self service capabilities do make it easier and more efficient for the customer in many cases. However when those options fall short and human intervention is required that is where it tends to fall apart. Navigating through the maze of IVR or automated agent prompts, or even finding a number to call can be a very frustrating experience. In our quest for efficiency and lower costs I believe we have made it more difficult for the customer to be "wowed" by the experience and ease of use. My friend, Bill Price, did a great job at Amazon and others need to really think about the customer experience when developing and designing service solutions."

"Better. Companies recognise the value (financial or intangible) of retaining existing customers."

"About the same. Companies continue to make the same mistakes. Many believe automation and technoloy can take the place of a live person. In addition, when a company puts a live agent in front of a customer, many times they are ill prepared to effectively manage the customers issues, negating the benefit of having a live person. The challenges will remain, some better, some worse, but always evolving."

"It is getting better than 5 years ago. The main reason is increasing the usage of technology also the new changing customer experiences and power of social media"

"Customer Service today has generally improved with more and more companies realizing the importance of Good Service and After Sales Support. Companies who have kept the Customer at the heart of every transaction and traditionally offered great customer service has grown from good to great."

"Some companies "get it" and their customer service shows it. They have brought services on-shore, decreased hold times and increased the service. Other companies "don't get it" and have stuck with their old practices of long hold times, long self help menus and the impossibility of reaching a live person without pure frustration."

"Despite all of the focus on customer satisfaction in the past several years, I have seen no real improvement. There was a study performed a few years ago stating that 80% of executives thought their company's customer service was good, but only 8% of customers thought so. I don't think the situation has changed much."

"I don't believe.i think it is worse"

"A lot has taken place in 5 years. I would say that awareness of good service is higher but the expectations are also rising. There are self serve options, if they are not more efficient or cheaper for me, I would still prefer a personalised service."