Bush tries to mend ties to Canada. OTTAWA — Working to mend the frayed relations between their countries, President Bush and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada sought to project a unified front yesterday during Bush's first official visit to Canada, pledging to work together to fight terrorism and promote trade between the neighboring nations.… Continue reading Bush tries to mend ties to Canada
Category: News
U.N. Calls for an Updated Council
U.N. Calls for an Updated Council. Membership of the Security Council should reflect the world of today rather than post- World War II, a U.N. panel urged. By WARREN HOGE. [NYT > Home Page]
Electronic Voting 1.0, and No Time to Upgrade
NY Times: Electronic Voting 1.0, and No Time to Upgrade. The phenomenal reliability of the systems we trust for banking, communication, and everything else rests on two bedrock principles. One is the universal understanding in the technology world that nothing works right the first time, and maybe not the first 50 times. [Tomalak's Realm]
Secondary Screening: Secret Law News
Secondary Screening: Secret Law News. Stephen Aftergood, the seemingly indefatigable researcher behind the Secrecy Project at the Federation of American Scientists, has a fantastic piece in Slate today about secret laws and the Transportation Security Administration. I've written about the abuse of the “Sensitive Security Information” designation here on this blog and for Wired News,… Continue reading Secondary Screening: Secret Law News
Mergers and customer dissatisfaction
In
general, customers get a raw deal when companies merge. That's the
conclusion of a Business Week article with the provocative title “Why
Customers Hate Mergers” (12/6/2004). The article is based on a
University of Michigan/Business Week study that tracked customer
satisfaction (or rather dissatisfaction) in a number of major mergers
over the past five or six years, including Bank One's purchase of First
Chicago Bank, Unilever's acquisition of BestFoods, and BP's takeover of
Amoco.. In the majority of cases surveyed, the customers were
disgruntled, even years later.
As the article puts it:
The frustration is worse with mergers in industries whose
services have the most direct influence on the quality of Americans'
daily lives. Oil companies, cable-TV outfits, and retail stores saw
their satisfaction ratings plunge between 5.3% and 7.4% on average…And
the effects can prove to be long-lasting. Five years after SBC
Communications Inc. bought Ameritech Corp. for $70 billion in 1999, its
customers still say they were less satisfied than before the merger.
The reason is simple. Mergers tend to cost a lot of new debt, and
cost-cutting measures are the order of the day. One of the first things
that go out the window is customer service, rarely perceived as
important as direct profit centers. When companies talk about reducing
wateful overhead through a merger, customer service is a major part of
that overhead.
And the confusion, complex integration of infrastructure including
computer systems, and low morale that often follows inevitable layoffs,
these make it all the harder to serve existing customers. In industries
like banking, the expectation is that over 10% of customers will leave
after a merger, based on their frustration. Even in industries like
cable TV, unhappy customers look for alternatives like satellite TV.
Victims of bad telephone service have fewer alternatives.
While
companies always claim they are making the acquisition to benefit their
clients, in most cases, the reality is quite otherwise. [Oligopoly Watch
In general, customers get a raw deal when companies merge. That's the conclusion of a Business Week article with the provocative title “Why Customers Hate Mergers” (12/6/2004). The article is based on a University of Michigan/Business Week study that tracked customer satisfaction (or rather dissatisfaction) in a number of major mergers over the past five or six years, including Bank One's purchase of First Chicago Bank, Unilever's acquisition of BestFoods, and BP's takeover of Amoco.. In the majority of cases surveyed, the customers were disgruntled, even years later.
As the article puts it:
The frustration is worse with mergers in industries whose services have the most direct influence on the quality of Americans' daily lives. Oil companies, cable-TV outfits, and retail stores saw their satisfaction ratings plunge between 5.3% and 7.4% on average…And the effects can prove to be long-lasting. Five years after SBC Communications Inc. bought Ameritech Corp. for $70 billion in 1999, its customers still say they were less satisfied than before the merger.
While companies always claim they are making the acquisition to benefit their clients, in most cases, the reality is quite otherwise. [Oligopoly Watch
Mergers and customer dissatisfaction In general, customers get a raw deal when companies merge. That's the conclusion of a Business Week article with the provocative title “Why Customers Hate Mergers” (12/6/2004). The article is based on a University of Michigan/Business Week study that tracked customer satisfaction (or rather dissatisfaction) in a number of major mergers… Continue reading
Mergers and customer dissatisfaction
In
general, customers get a raw deal when companies merge. That's the
conclusion of a Business Week article with the provocative title “Why
Customers Hate Mergers” (12/6/2004). The article is based on a
University of Michigan/Business Week study that tracked customer
satisfaction (or rather dissatisfaction) in a number of major mergers
over the past five or six years, including Bank One's purchase of First
Chicago Bank, Unilever's acquisition of BestFoods, and BP's takeover of
Amoco.. In the majority of cases surveyed, the customers were
disgruntled, even years later.
As the article puts it:
The frustration is worse with mergers in industries whose
services have the most direct influence on the quality of Americans'
daily lives. Oil companies, cable-TV outfits, and retail stores saw
their satisfaction ratings plunge between 5.3% and 7.4% on average…And
the effects can prove to be long-lasting. Five years after SBC
Communications Inc. bought Ameritech Corp. for $70 billion in 1999, its
customers still say they were less satisfied than before the merger.
The reason is simple. Mergers tend to cost a lot of new debt, and
cost-cutting measures are the order of the day. One of the first things
that go out the window is customer service, rarely perceived as
important as direct profit centers. When companies talk about reducing
wateful overhead through a merger, customer service is a major part of
that overhead.
And the confusion, complex integration of infrastructure including
computer systems, and low morale that often follows inevitable layoffs,
these make it all the harder to serve existing customers. In industries
like banking, the expectation is that over 10% of customers will leave
after a merger, based on their frustration. Even in industries like
cable TV, unhappy customers look for alternatives like satellite TV.
Victims of bad telephone service have fewer alternatives.
While
companies always claim they are making the acquisition to benefit their
clients, in most cases, the reality is quite otherwise. [Oligopoly Watch
UPI
UPI. Extraordinary expenditures on Iraq by the Army, Marines, and Air Force now total $5.8 billion a month — that's up from $2.2 billion a month in mid 2003. [John Robb's Weblog]
BBC
BBC. New report from the US Defense Science Board: The US is losing the war of ideas in the Muslim world. It adds that the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has actually raised the stature of radical enemies of America. [John Robb's Weblog]
Bill Lind
Bill Lind on an American Syracuse: Amazingly, Colin Powell already has launched a repeat of the same strategy that led us to war in Iraq. Based on a single, unvetted intelligence source, he last week accused Iran of attempting to weaponize nuclear warheads to fit on ballistic missiles. It is improbable Iran has any nuclear… Continue reading Bill Lind
U.S. and 7 Countries Weigh New Findings on Arctic Climate
U.S. and 7 Countries Weigh New Findings on Arctic Climate. The nations expressed concern about climate change but did not agree on a common strategy for curbing emissions. By ANDREW C. REVKIN. [NYT > Home Page]
Entry into the US Becoming More Complicated: No Exceptions for Allies
Entry into the US Becoming More Complicated: No Exceptions for Allies. Starting this month travelers from 27 nations are to be photographed and fingerprinted for the first time at American airports. This includes visitors from Germany and Japan, two of the biggest sources of overseas visitors to the United States. It also includes visitors from… Continue reading Entry into the US Becoming More Complicated: No Exceptions for Allies