It may not help with your current problem but maybe you should subscribe to this:

www.dailyreckoning.com/sub/GetReality.cfm

The libertarian economist Gary North writes about this kind of thing regularly.

From today's epistle:

Service with a smile is no longer a luxury. It must
become basic to face-to-face retailing. The Web is
relentless.

If you are employed by a company that deals directly
with the public, and management isn't putting up money for
training along these lines, you had better be working on an
exit strategy. That company's days are numbered.

I couldn't agree more, David. The attitude of so many people who deal with customers is just astonishing. I used to work in customer service, and was often told that I was very good at it. But I wasn't really; I just had a bit of basic common sense and empathy, which is all it takes: customer service is incredibly easy. Thing is, despite it being so easy, most people have so little common sense or empathy that they can't do it.