Actually I would expect a recession to get people to pay more attention to who has the lowest price instead of what magazines and word of mouth say about their customer service. For example: all those no-name $400 Linux-based laptops selling briskly to people that just want to get their email and check the news.

I’d like to think the current recession will take care of this more than anything else. Fewer people will be buying fewer computers and looking harder for real value. Those manufacturers who have been been boosting their bottom lines by offshoreing customer service and putting all manners of worthless garbage on their computers will be the first to feel the pinch. Want to boost business? How about you spend some quality time with your customers for a change and let your stockholders reap what they’ve been sowing over the past decade.

My second sentence is what happens when you change phrases halfway through and don’t go back to proofread. Doh!

I think #2 is a bit funny: take all that revenue you’re losing, and regain by spending more money! If that weren’t using the extra revenue before to make better their company, what makes you think they’ll start after decreasing their revenue?

It’s as simple as biting the bullet for better word of mouth advertising. Either they choose to do it or not, all the other suggestions are stuff that should be done anyway by a good company and/or just consumer-centric dreaming.