New companies that want to succeed based on really great service have always started at a disadvantage.

The disadvantage is you can’t really advertise that. You can claim to offer great service in your ads, but since everyone else says it, too, nobody has reason to believe you.

You see, you have to prove you provide great service before people will be willing to choose you on that basis. Proving how good your service really is to a customer only takes one opportunity. But proving it to your whole marketplace takes a long, long time.

Conditioned Air has been in business for 5 1/2 years, and focused on superior customer service the whole time. That's been great for our customers (our customer turnover rate is very low for our industry). Yet after all that time, not nearly enough people know about us. We add new customers daily, but the vast majority of people in our market still haven't had a chance to try us out.

Many service businesses focus on bringing in as many new customers as possible, as fast as possible. They have to constantly rush new customers in the front door by hook or crook, since their current customers are escaping out the back door the first chance they get because the service is bad.

If you really do offer great service, you don't lose as many customers, and don't have to spend as much money acquiring new customers to replace the ones fleeing. In the long run, it's a great strategy to build a large and loyal customer base.

But the short- and medium-term problem remains: how is a prospective customer to know how good your service really is until they try you? And if your main competitive advantage is great service, how do you convince them to give you a shot?

How does anyone know who actually delivers and who doesn't? Personal recommendations are great. But relying on traditional word-of-mouth is tough, because a good reputation spreads slowly and unevenly that way.

Now along comes Angie’s List, what I consider the Amazon book ranking of the service industry. I buy a lot from Amazon – pretty much any time I plan to buy something, I check them first. One big reason is the helpful customer reviews (for an example, see one of my favorite business books). They've helped me see through advertising and hype many times.

That’s what Angie’s List does for service companies. What you see there are raw customer opinions about thousands of contractors. Conditioned Air can’t influence the wording, can't pay to change anything to make us look better. About all any company can do is offer a discount coupon or pay a small amount to be highlighted within their ranking. But if a customer is unhappy with the service they got and gives them a low ranking, it's there for the world to see. Here is how it looks:

[September 2009 - removed screen shot of Conditioned Air's current rating due to this email from Angie's List Brand Enforcement Coordinator:

Thanks for the write up in your online article and for sharing it with us!  I am happy to pass along the online article to our PR department, but I also want to follow up with you in regards to Angie’s List brand guidelines. We appreciate your commitment to excellent customer service and your presence as an advertiser on our list. While we hope that high ratings on Angie’s List are a mark of pride for both business owners and employees, we must still monitor how service providers promote this recognition in order to maintain the value of our brand.

Angie’s List Brand Enforcement primarily follows up with those that have unauthorized references to the Angie’s List trademarked name or logo on their company websites and online listings or advertisements. We understand service providers want to promote their inclusion on Angie’s List, and we do make some allowances to reference Angie’s List on social networking websites such as blogs, Twitter and in this case, an article.  In general, Angie’s List name can be referenced in postings, but we do not allow companies to reference ratings because these ratings may be accurate one day, but not the next. Additionally, Angie’s List does not authorize duplication of website content, which is copyrighted.

Angie’s List asks that the screen shot of a ratings page from our private member website is removed from the article. I included a screen shot of the article below for your reference. We ask that this change is made by the end of the next week (Sept. 18), to meet compliance within Angie’s List brand guidelines.

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to clarify Angie’s List brand guidelines. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you ever have questions about our guidelines. I would be happy to assist you.]

Does that mean Conditioned Air gets nothing but A ratings? No, any business will eventually have some unhappy customers. But for the real customer service pros, the unhappy few will be drowned out by the many positive reviews. And what you will see is a bunch of unbiased, detailed customer opinions that you can read to decide who to hire.

How cool is that? I love it because it lets us shine through our customer's words, not our own.   It sorts out the pretenders, even the ones spending lavishly on huge Yellow Page and constant media ads. There is no hiding bad service in the Angie’s List world.

As the world gets more and more connected, and information gets more easily accessible by the people who need it, I think we are going to see lots of inefficiencies like this go away. No more having to just try some contractor (or dentist or doctor or car dealer) based on one or two data points (or much worse, their advertising budget). You’ll now be able to instantly see what people just like you have received from whomever you are thinking of using.

I say it's about time!