Whatever happened to the service economy and the Age of Customer Service? It has occurred to me that the Internet and the steady advance of technology have diminished, rather than improved, those core attributes that can truly distinguish a company from its competition. Al Golin, in his book Trust or Consequences, has said the danger of high technology is that it causes us to forget "high touch," or the personalization of service.

I'll use a high-end appliance manufacturer headquartered in the South as an example. We called to report that our refrigerator was overheating because of a faulty light switch. Five months later, this expensive built-in device remained broken and without lights because our appliance maker, incredibly enough, had no replacement switch to remedy the problem - on what it characterized as a "lifetime" appliance. When I called the company's customer service department to complain about the long delay, they couldn't find any prior record of our contact on this problem and said their computer records could not cross-reference or search in ways that are standard today in all companies. The woman who took my call was congenial and most embarrassed. So was I - for this appliance maker.

We are being reduced to numbers - with our genetic coding, blood type, health, financial records, credit history, employment records, personal habits, birth record, Internet viewing habits, purchasing preferences and so much more being collected, catalogued and archived in preparation for a digitial chip or device that some will carry with them in the future. Yet with all this information now readily available and "Googlized," we have failed to advance the art of serving those who matter most - you and I as customers. There is scant follow-up to customer complaints, problems are difficult to resolve, and no one, save the customer, seems concerned if communication is delayed or incomplete.

This "de-personalization" of the great brands we've known will ultimately be the undoing of companies as consumers, whose ranks increasingly are swelling with a new generation of men and women more discriminating in their choice and loyalty, turn from merchants who are indifferent and undifferentiated in their customer service ethic.

What is the answer? The answer comes in the form of a question I heard from a brand manager with a global credit card company: "How do we get our telemarketing people to better live the values of our brand?" In today's world, those companies that create alignment among their front-line managers and employees with their business strategies and customer service ethic, will win greater allegiance among their customers and prospects.

We are entering a new era for what those of us who lead employee communications know as internal branding. In sum, internal branding is the process of aligning and mobilizing employees to deliver on the promise of what a brand represents externally. Internal branding was first popularized five years ago, dimmed in relevance and now has returned as a new generation of leaders and managers realize that "high touch" can only happen through the men and women who truly live the brand.