I remember a time when customer service meant serving all customers. It meant calling a company and getting a real, live person on the phone. That person was knowledgeable. That person was courteous. That person made dealing with the company a positive experience.

Customer service meant being able to get help before and after a purchase. And it was free.

But over time, with the rise of new technologies and market challenges, customer service lost its way. Customers were pushed away, tricked, and abused.

In the 1970s, the US had to pass the Magnuson-Moss Act to put a stop to deceiving product warranties and disclaimers. Airlines began nickel and diming us. Banks began charging us for services that had always been free. Some banks even went so far as to drop customers that called them too much.

Thanks to social media, customer service is coming back in a big way. Companies can no longer afford shoddy customer service, because every customer is armed with a big voice.

But at AVG, customer service isn’t coming back, because it never left.

For over 20 years, we’ve offered a full suite of online security products for free. Last year, we decided that wasn’t good enough. And so we began to provide full 24/7 US, UK and Canadian customer phone support of these free AVG products… for free.

And according to our customer satisfaction surveys and quality control audits, people not only use it—they love it.

And why not? The Internet and digital devices are evolving at a breakneck pace. Protecting our technology and ourselves online can be a confusing and complicated endeavor. Our free customer support service removes that burden of frustration and worry, because it’s easy for everyone.

Call our customer support line, and you’ll find it’s manned by real, live AVG assistants  offering over-the-phone diagnosis of problems you might be experiencing with our software, including installation or conflicts with other software. They will speak to you in everyday language you can understand.

They’ll even offer advice on how to configure your free AVG products for the best possible customer experience. Free assistance to configure your free AVG products!

But what happens if you’ve already been hit with a virus? We’ll help you with that, too, by offering you a free consultation with our premium AVG TechBuddy™ service, which helps anyone with malware, technical or other issues on their PCs, laptops, cell phones, camera, printers—just about anything digital. Your initial AVG TechBuddy consultation is free with no obligation to pay unless you want us to help fix your problem. And if we can’t fix your problem, you don’t pay.

It’s all part of AVG’s commitment to putting power back in the hands of the consumer.

Our online security products incorporate feedback from our global community of more than 114 million users, and in March we were the first major online security company to add a “Do Not Track” feature to our free anti-virus software. But that’s not all. We’re constantly looking at other ways we can optimize the customer experience—constantly looking to the community of customers that use our products and turn to our support team for help.

How can we optimize your AVG customer experience? Let me know here or on Facebook!