As we rush into Web 2.0, maybe we should start with multichannel 1.0.

I went to book a summer flight through my credit card company's travel department. After finding the perfect flight and learning there were three seats left, I tried to use my membership travel points. "The rewards system is currently unavailable." OK, so I call customer service. They couldn't help me, but they would transfer me. Nine minutes on hold later, I am still waiting. On my other line, I call the airline directly, because they are listed as a partner. But, in fact, they are not a partner. They do, however, have a partner who is a partner, and if I call the partner's partner and set up an account, then they could transfer points to my account. So, I call the partner of my card's partner and hear, "We are experiencing technical difficulties. If the line goes dead while you are on hold, please call back later."

Web sites down, call centers that can't handle basic calls, wait times lasting 20 minutes or longer; are any of them making money? You guessed it: the credit card company; and it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to improve. And no, I did not get the frequent flyer seats.

Web 2.0, Web-oriented architecture, service-oriented architecture, Ajax, rich clients, semantic HTML, REST and so forth. While your technologists get excited about all the new toys, maybe the lines of business that interact with customers might see how the basics can be improved. Who is in charge of determining your priorities, and what is it based on? Who in the CEO's office will see these daily insults to your customers? Or maybe you have fixed this problem. If so, we'd love to hear from you.