A great article but some dynamics got even worse since 2008. The idea that customers do have clout for example. Apart from major scandals / faux-pas most big companies these days don’t even have to care through sheer market dominance.

If you even get to the modern equivalent of “can I please speak with your manager” it usually doesn’t even get you anywhere as:

a) That manager is also “just an employee” who rarely has any power over process and its codified bureaucratic / more often than not nonsensical (from actual customer POV at least) increasingly ruling-above-anything-else information systems.

b) Nobody cares. At least informally, even up to the CEO. If 98% of customers don’t share that particular problem why would they? “That doesn’t scale.” Companies started to become fully data driven for a reason.

A couple of years ago I read an article about the “premium mediocre” aspects of modern consumer experience, I feel this topic is related somewhat.

Consumers these days do have it better in many ways but also have it worse in quite a few.