Manners and the Market

Most local cable companies are local monopolies. Their prices go up every year, and they rarely have special plans for saving the consumers money on their plans. The customer service lines are usually recorded lines, and there is usually a wait to speak to a live person. There are special charges for most services, and there is no published price list. Compare that with the local phone company. Faced with competition from cable and wireless suppliers, the phone company is more than willing to help you locate an economic plan and get your service established. The phone company will also ask about other related services that they can assist you with as well; such as internet service, wireless phone service, and phone cards for billing calls made elsewhere to your home phone line. One can always speak to live operator who is trained in the phone company’s products.

Examples are legion: compare the U.S. Post Office to Fedex; any state or federal licensing agency (like the department of motor vehicles) to Walmart; any city building office with a private contractor; or the court system to private arbitration. People do not like working with the government because government workers are usually not service oriented, or worse surly or lackadaisical. Private sector workers must serve the customer or not be in business for long.

Having to serve customers or create a product or service that services a customer need is a discipline requiring manners, decency, and treating the customer with respect. Companies with identical products might be differentiated by their service or by the courtesy of its staff. True, a lower priced product might not offer the same level of service, but at least a customer has a choice. If one is dealing with a government granted monopoly – be it a cable franchise, the post office, the IRS – without consumer choice, those agencies have no incentive to treat the customer with respect. The workers will still have their jobs, and that agency will continue in business. The attitude of the bureaucrat can be oppressive, surly, negative, and in any government agency that one must deal with the workers will continue in their positions with their attitudes because the consumer-citizen is not given a choice. The free market provides choices and competition, and that fosters decency and the promotion of a service mindset to serve the needs of the customer.