From a conversation with Cyberverse Owner Greg Domeno:

This morning I called up one of the phone companies we do business with. I'm not going to say which one it was, but it was one of those big companies. There was a problem in their network that was affecting us, and I needed to talk to someone to get it fixed. And you know what? The person on the other end of the phone really just didn't care.

And it struck me that realistically, there's not much I can do in that situation. There's no means of coercion, short of some large amount of public opinion, that a company like that is going to pay attention to.

There's something wrong with that.

There's something wrong when you have a relationship with a company for 10 years, and then a payment check gets mishandled, and they just flip a switch and cut off your service, without even the courtesy of giving you a phone call. But that's the kind of thing we end up dealing with, with these big, faceless companies.

I don't want to do business like that. I want to do business with someone who cares about me as a customer. I want there to be a level of personal involvement. I want to know that if something's broken, there is someone on the other end who will actually feel bad about it, and be motivated to fix it, rather than just foisting me off and making me someone else's problem. I want them to view me as a person, not a trouble ticket.

A customer should mean more to you than just the amount of money they pay you. I learned those values growing up, working with my dad in the convenience store he owned. Maybe if you're in the kind of business where you only sell to someone one time, selling used cars, say, you can afford to treat people a little shabbily. But if you expect a customer to give you repeat business, you just can't do that. You can't take advantage of them like that.

There were a few times over the years with Cyberverse when there was a fork in the road, and I had a chance to give up control in return for investment money, or to partner with some big company in return for locking into a particular kind of solution. But I've always chosen to keep control of my business. I want to be sure I can deliver the kind of service that makes sense for my customers, that will make them happy.

It's just old-fashioned business ethics. There's a measure of honor in treating people right, meeting their needs as best you can, and honestly representing their interests.

We've had a lot of success over the years, and some of that is just luck. We got in this business at the right time. And we have good people, people with a decent amount of knowledge; you need those kinds of people to make these technologies work.

But we've also succeeded because my customers know that when there's a problem, they can say, "I'm going to talk to Greg about this. And he'll care." And I do care -- because I want your business.