Sunday, May 02, 2004

American Express: Reliable service is hard to provide

American Express Personal Finance, Business Solutions, and Travel Services

It's very hard to provide reliable 24x7 service. American Express ought to do well, but they don't. For example:

1. AMEX service for downloading credit card transactions to Quicken is out of order. This is an important function for me, so I use their online email service to complain.

2. I get an email saying they've got a reply online.

3. A week later I return to the AMEX online email service to read their reply -- but it's "temporarily out of order".

Why some companies can provide 24x7 service, but most cannot, would be a great topic for a Harvard Business Review study.

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