By Elaine Carlson

My husband Brad told me about a Computer Show he went to in San Francisco not long after WordPerfect was launched. A marketing firm was there aggressively promoting that new word processing program. All day long the speakers blasted out the names of the people who won WP. Those announcements were followed by loud clapping. Indeed during the show the clapping and cheering from that section never stopped coming.

Within the noise and hype there was the clear message that this new product was supported by good Customer Service. Any time customers (and the winners that day) had any difficulty assembling WordPerfect or using it all they had to do was call a toll-free number to get help and they would be told what to do.

I can imagine that all of the people who entered the drawings sat in seats eager to learn just how wonderful WordPerfect was. It probably was not just the shills who clapped and cheered when the presenters told how WordPerfect makes it possible for everyone to achieve their full potential as writers.

And of course there would be a lot of clapping and cheering after that audience was told about the excellent Customer Service.

Brad has said people who call Customer Service want to learn what "Push Any Key" means. The workers in those help lines in those early days of Personal Computers referred to some of the people on the line as RTFM (Read the Fine Manual) callers.

I guess then the idea was, "Who is going to need the Manual when we have Customer Service?"

I just learned from a Wikipedia article WordPerfect came out in 1980. So that Computer Show Brad described was in 1980 or 1981. Now we can only take a nostalgic glance backwards at WordPerfect Customer Service. And they weren't the only ones to offer it --- then just about every large company offered to help customers on the telephone.

All these years later what big business refers to as Customer Service is vastly different. Usually it consists of a web-page of detailed instructions. And sometimes at the end there is a place with a few lines for customers to write a question. Sometimes the answer is instantaneous but other times …

The only thing I can conclude is that the chance to reflect on the "good ole days" doesn't just occur while watching reruns of "I Love Lucy."