Google's Motorola: Could Customer Service Drop?

When it comes to customer service, Motorola is at the top of the heap in its industry. And so is Google.

So what do you get when Google acquires Motorola in a $12.5 billion deal, as it did this morning?

Great service? Maybe.

Worse service? Probably.

Service is an inevitable casualty of mergers, at least in the short term. I've watched enough of them to know that even the best-planned corporate marriages get off to a rocky start. When departments are merged and managers change and executives leave, it always takes its toll. Always.

Let's consider the customer service ranking of both companies. Google's scores are higher: It earned an 83 out of a possible 100 points on the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index. That's not bad. As a letter grade, it's roughly a "B-".

The industry average score is 80, and Google is rated the highest. Google's scores have fluctuated between a low of 78 in 2007 to a high of 86 the following year.

By comparison, Motorola's marks have steadily improved, from 70 in 2004, the first year scores were available, to 77 this year. That's a 10 percent jump over 8 years â€" not bad! (Still, a 77 percent is right on the line between a "C" and a "C+". ) The industry average score is 75, and Motorola leads the pack.

We have no way of knowing what will happen when this merger is consummated. But we're left with several questions:

Where's the service? The word "customer" appears only once in the merger announcement, and it isn't clear if by customers, the companies are referring to end-users or other businesses. "Consumer" makes a lone appearance, and in passing. The word "service" isn't mentioned at all. That suggests the merger isn't really about Google and Motorola's customers â€" that would be us â€" and probably more about creating new profit opportunities for the corporation.

Why didn't customers ask for it? As a technology geek, I'm heartened by efforts to create a better mobile operating system, which is the apparent motive behind the merge (that, and Motorola's patents, of course). But were customers demanding a "supercharged" Google phone running on a Motorola handset? If they were, then I didn't hear about it. So, again, customers apparently were not behind this proposed union.

What now? Mergers of this kind inevitably trigger other mergers. That's because CEOs are nervous about competition, and believe (often incorrectly) that bigger is better. Will Apple acquire a wireless carrier, as Jean-Louis Gassée speculated just a day before the merger? And how would that affect service?

I'm a skeptic, when it comes to mergers, and this one's no different. I hope I'm proven wrong.

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