2015 marks the seventh release of the National Customer Rage survey since the inaugural “White House” study on complaint handling was conducted by my colleagues Marc Grainer and John Goodman back in 1976.

When the original White House study was conducted in 1976, I was a rising senior at Milwaukee Trade & Technical High School.

Notice the sky blue leisure suit with extra-wide lapels and the middle-part hair style.

Today, as we release the 2015 National Customer Rage survey, I’ve just finished helping my eldest daughter, Ellen, finish up her essays for graduate school.

Contributing to a study that has been a part of the marketplace conversation on the customer experience for nearly four decades has been especially gratifying. So few things today are lasting, permanent and make a difference through being present longer than a tweet.

What is also fascinating to me is the personal relevance of customer rage to virtually everyone. When we share the findings of these studies at conferences, with companies or in media interviews, nearly everybody has their own passionate, vivid story of customer rage that they have been saving up to share with us. In this sense, customer rage is shared, personal and deeply emotional experience that reminds us of the human factors that are the lifeblood of a service encounter (despite the effort of many organizations to engineer the soul out of service through technology and “best practices”).

What’s your story about customer rage? You can share it with me at [email protected].