Managers and business owners are constantly being harangued toadopt “best practices” and emulate the Warren Buffetts and SteveJobs of this world. But maybe it’s time to reverse this trend andlearn from the biggest losers.

According to the recently released 2012 American Customer SatisfactionIndex, service industries—especially airlines, utilities andbanks—generated the worst consumer satisfaction scores, mainlybecause of limited competition and the difficulty of interactingwith customers.

Here are the top 13 most disliked companies:

1. Long Island Power Authority. Gripes: Spurredby losses from last August’s Hurricane Irene, complaints includerate hikes and overbilling mistakes.

2. Northeast Utilities. Gripes: After two majorstorms caused massive power outages last year, hundreds ofthousands of customers were left in the dark without heat for up to2 weeks.

3. Charter Communications. Gripes: Poorcustomer service and unfair billing practices.

4. Comcast. Gripes: Early withdrawals, faultyequipment and unprofessional service technicians.

5. United Airlines. Gripes: A technical glitchfollowing last year’s merger with Continental caused widespreadflight delays; complaints include poor customer service,cancellations and lost baggage.

6. Time Warner. Gripes: Slow Internet speeds,cable outages, “disastrous” customer service and high rates.

7. Cox Communications. Gripes: Higher rates andfees.

8. American Airlines. Gripes: Failing to keepcustomers informed, leaving them on hold for an average of 90minutes, and failing to respond to questions on Twitter; “does aworse job of pleasing passengers than small, low-cost airlines suchas Spirit or Frontier.”

9. US Airways. Gripes: Inaccurate billing,failing to notify passengers of flight delays, and “terrible”service.

10. Delta. Gripes: Most complaints involvecustomer-service reps not responding in a professional manner.

11. CenturyLink. Gripes: Billing issues andcustomer reps not being knowledgeable or helpful.

12. Facebook. Gripes: Lack ofprivacy and child safety.

13. Bank of America. Gripes: Most complaintsarise from the mortgage division—although the bank’s plan to chargea $5 debit fee was discontinued after 2 months following publicoutrage.

See a pattern in what they’re doing wrong? Here’s what Ispot:

• Communication breakdown. If you’ve ever been on the other endof a call to AT&T (why didn’t they make the list?), you knowfirsthand how frustrating it is to try and communicate with amonolithic business. Voice-mail hell, unresponsive CSRs and settingup public Website forums only to ignore the comments they generateare perfect ways to anger, and ultimately lose, yourcustomers.
• Size doesn’t matter. In fact, if this study is any indication,the bigger the company, the worse the service. This gives theSpirit and Frontiers of the world a nice advantage, so if you’resmall and able to provide personal attention and service, don’thesitate to use that edge.
• The blind leading the blind. Customer-service reps and otherpublic-facing employees just don’t know their jobs at thesecompanies. It’s a real lesson to make sure your people are fullytrained and prepped to handle any customer situation.
• They make a bad situation worse. Whether people are sufferingin the wake of a major catastrophe or just upset about a muchsmaller loss, stonewalling them will lose you a customer—and you’llfeel their ire through bad word of mouth.
• No news is bad news. Like those airline travelers stuck on thetarmac for hours wondering what the hell is going on,non-communication in any service industry is a bad idea. Note thata lot of these complaints simply involve not telling the customerthe reasons behind the delay, billing increase or contractchanges.