What happened to customer first?

I may be aging myself but I remember when businesses would go out of their way to please the customer. They would even go so far as to give away their products in order to make sure the customer was happy. What happened?!

In my early twenties I worked as a service contractor doing electrical repairs and installations. In most cases I was face to face with the customer and worked diligently to ensure that when I was finished, the job turned out exactly as they dreamed. These days, workmanship, quality and customer satisfaction fall far to the side with profits and speed taking the forefront. This applies to most areas of business too. From building and construction to food service and banking, customers are seriously neglected.

I recently had a home built by a large residential contractor, CalAtlantic Homes, and will regret it forever. I can't blame my regret on them entirely as I am well educated and should have seen all of the red flags in the very beginning. But, I had hoped that they actually cared about me as a customer and would do their very best to make sure I was happy. I won't go into the boring details of the fiasco that became of my home build but I will say that it took a letter to one of the presidents of the company, David Pelletz, in order to get the project to progress to completion. The real question remains, why didn't they care about me as a customer without going to those extremes?

Many may feel as though I'm the type that is nit-picky and finds the smallest things to complain about but I'm not and in reality, does it matter if I am? Shouldn't the customer come first in any case? The relaxed easy-going customers balance out the picky ones.

The complete lack of customer service isn't necessarily across the board. I have seen many cases when the situation is between two businesses and the provider of the services or products go above and beyond to make sure the other business is happy but this doesn't extend to the average consumer.

Times have changed and we all have evolved with the times. More companies have converted tactics to single transaction, high volume, products and services without concern for customer retention. It's the world we live in now, instant gratification and short term to disposal. I guess I should start looking for my next builder?