Is Customer Service Reserved For Only A Few?

"I didn't realize what an important account Princeton was to the Company, I assure you that I will now prioritize fixing your problem."  This statement was said to me yesterday by an employee of a vendor that I've worked with and have been a staunch advocate of since 2007.  What does this say about their organization?  Is quality customer service really reserved for a select few? 

For the past 3+ months we've been experiencing a technical problem between Princeton and a long standing partner vendor.  This technical problem has prohibited us from successfully marketing a newly acquired property.  This problem is costing us money.  Now 100's of emails and telephone calls later between my team and theirs, still no fix, still no resolution.  Given the severity of the problem and the impact on our ability to successfully market and manage our apartment community, I reached out to a senior member of this partner company.  Immediately after this contact, my team was urgently inundated with communications from this vendor.  Where was this urgency 3 months ago?  Prior to my correspondence, my team had to nearly beg for status update on a daily or weekly basis.  My team was being ignored. 

I am hugely disappointed that it took a threatening communication from me to light a fire under this organization.  Why wouldn't they provide the necessary customer service to my team members from the start?  Why wouldn't they provide this necessary customer service to ALL of their accounts, not just the "important" ones.  This situation has left such a poor taste in my mouth, making me question my decision to remain so loyal to this partner.  I should never have to beg, barter or threaten to receive expected and deserved customer service.  None the less, for a product (that I pay for) to work!

This situation also reminded me that training employees to provide consistent and exceptional customer care is a never ending commitment.  You can never assume that your teams are "doing the right thing", you need to constantly monitor, encourage and train.  If you don't, one of your employees might actual say a damaging statement such as: "I didn't realize what an important account Princeton was to the Company..."