(STORY NOTES: My cousin, Rich, manages Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, one of the best designed and operated athletic facilities of any size that I have ever experienced. Conseco’s architecture combines the intimacy and nostalgia of the old Hoosiers-style high school gyms with the seating capacity, comforts and luxury accommodations expected of modern arenas. Likewise, the Conseco staff expresses both friendly, Hoosier-style hospitality, and the sophistication that is required to manage large and diverse crowds on a regular basis. Like all good designs, Conseco works from the big picture down to the tiniest details.

When Rich wrote me this week to describe a recent unhappy ‘customer service scene’ in which he was a player, I knew to pay close attention. First of all, Rich is a very even-tempered guy. It takes a LOT to agitate him. Second, nearly every customer service experience pales in comparison to Conseco’s, so I knew that for him to write to me about this one experience in particular, it must have been extra bad, and that there’d be a lot to learn as a consequenc. In fact, there is so much to learn that it’s a two-parter. A mini-series of customer misery.

The names of the company, its staff and its products have been changed to protect these goofballs from themselves. Those of you who grit your teeth as a habit may want to go get the mouth guard or pop a couple of sticks of Wrigleys before reading.) (more…)