@Anne: I don’t think the company treats its customers with disdain. After all, they sell what sells, so in a way the feedback loop works.

You are right to assert that people will spend more, return more times, and refer more when they feel appreciated. The problem is, because this company doesn’t care to learn what would make its customers feel appreciated, they’ll never find out.

By the way, if you’ve been here in Portland for a few years, I’m pretty sure you’ve spent some money at this company…

Sure, they may be the only game in town, but if they treat their customers with such disdain, I doubt that they are maximizing their “Customer Lifetime Value”. Not only will customers spend more money (per transaction) when they feel appreciated, but they are more likely to be repeat customers and also refer others to this business.

Based on this, they probably would increase revenue by caring more about their customers.

Shannon Latimer Marchat said, “To the above: Welcome to France! Don’t get me wrong – I love this country, but I have never seen so little information about businesses available online and/or an absolute lack of response when you do try to use their email. Even bigger companies have emails like frenchcompany@ yahoo.fr (ex). It’s maddening! It seems like nobody has or uses the internet!

And good god almighty to the owner of the first business “I don’t care what my customers think…”