Think about all the things people love to hate about consumer goods and services. Rapidly escalating prices. Shoddy craftsmanship and inferior quality. Poor customer service. Then do an honest assessment — even if you do work for a wireless service provider — and ask yourself this difficult question: Don't at least a couple of those characteristics apply to mobile service?

Unfortunately for the wireless industry, they do — at least as far as wireless customers are concerned. Just as the masses have long hated “the phone company,” they now relish reviling the organization that still drops calls despite its claims and the thousands of towers and antennas that clog the landscapes. And there's nothing any service provider can do to change their minds.

Or is there? In this month's cover story, Dan O'Shea explores the ever-important issue of customer relationship management. It's a factor that has become even more critical to mobile service providers as wireless has moved from novelty to necessity, as mobile applications and connectivity have become mission-critical business aspects, as legislation has allowed people to own their mobile numbers and take them along to any new provider, and especially as new wireless entrants have stuck their competitive noses in incumbents' territories.

That last part is an important and recurring theme in O'Shea's article: Competition, especially from new mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), is dramatically altering the customer satisfaction requirements incumbent wireless service providers face — even though some mobile carriers, including some quoted in our article, dismiss them as nothing more than resellers whose service can't be any better than the networks from which they buy bundles of minutes.

That's a short-sighted and dangerous view, if you ask me. While the MVNO phenomenon is new and the business model still unproven, the outfits that are either looking at dipping a toe in wireless waters or are already there are no strangers to pleasing the contingencies they're targeting. Virgin has already proved it is just as good at peddling wireless service as it is at hawking music and airline travel. ESPN knows its audience and likewise knows how its audience wants its wireless. Disney, Target, Wal-Mart … the list of potential mobile sellers goes on and on, and those big names aren't about to sully their reputations by selling inferior wireless experiences.

Wireless customer satisfaction is no longer only about network coverage and service quality. You have a brand to protect, and your customers aren't getting any more forgiving.