Yes, you nailed another major aspect of this problem. As a friend, who is in marketing, recently stated to me, “Companies no longer own their brand. They only own the brand promise.” To me, brand promise can only be delivered through excellent customer care. An integral part of providing excellent customer care is to rationalize the massive information tsunami that their primary customer contact points, their call center agents, deal with on every call.

- Nitin

The additional irony is that it’s the after sales experience that creates the “brand” at a much lower cost and a more integral part of doing business than all the marketing expenses at the front end.