Recently, my cell phone service provider got bought out by T-Mobile. I’m not exactly happy about this. I used to have T-Mobile, but one time they overcharged me for three months in a row, then gave me a huge hassle about reversing the charges. I’m still mad about it even though it happened 20 years ago. It’s possible that their customer service workers today were born after that time, but it’s hard to shake the negative feeling I have about the company.

That’s why companies should always put their best foot forward when it comes to helping their customers. The price of three months of service does not compare with 20 years of automatic deposits.

The problem lies with short-term rewards. A customer service agent gets a tiny bump up for extra charges that they add to a bill, but they don’t get rewarded for the 20 years a satisfied customer will stay because of them deleting a charge that the customer never asked for.

The same thing happens in banking and used car sales. Yes, you managed to get me agree to something I don’t want, but trust me when I tell you I will spend the next half of my life warning everybody and anybody away from your company. Yelp may be newish, but frustrated customers are not.

Facebook apparently has been messing around with the algorithm that makes people show up in your feed more when you give them emojis rather than the “like” button. The mad face was worth five thumbs up. Apparently it helped feed a flurry of activity, but lots people ended up quitting in disgust. Not to mention Facebook’s promotion of false claims about voting and vaccines that may have literally lead to deaths. Yikes! Suckers might be born every day, but the rest of us remember.