Editor's blog

Sadly, I’m leaving MyCustomer.com and just wanted to say thanks to all of you for making my time as editor so enjoyable.

It’s been quite a year! Firstly, moving up from features editor to editor of MyCustomer.com in January and learning all the ropes. And I certainly won’t forget all the time spent migrating the site to the new technology platform in a hurry, even if it meant giving the site a much improved facelift!!

It comes to something when consumers believe an animated nodding dog is a better ambassador for customer service than you are, so well done to the bosses of Ryanair and Tesco - Michael O'Leary and Terry Leahy - who scored lower than the dog who fronts the ad campaigns for insurance firm Churchill in a poll by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), with O'Leary in the bottom spot.

The days of power dressing are back, says Travelodge. Thankfully not yuppie braces and shoulder pads that could take your eye out at 100 paces but now it's all about the gangster look. "Some morning’s my Bar Café will look like a scene from ‘Reservoir Dogs’ due to most of the customers being dressed in black and white clothing," said the hotel manager at Birmingham Central Broadway Plaza. Hopefully not the last scene!

No frills, no thrills, just tills should be Ryanair’s motto if their customer service is anything to go by – or lack of it from what I can tell.

The front page of its website extols the virtues of visiting Catalonia and I did just that recently, flying with family from Bristol to Girona airport. It didn’t get off to the most auspicious start with a confusing mix up at Bristol over extra charges for a pushchair, ending with one customer service rep declaring that Ryanair are always trying to get more money out of people.

Having been frustrated myself at nipping out to the shops on a lunch break and getting stuck in the queue of everyone else with the same idea, I have been enjoying reading the antics of blogger Paul McCrudden and his one man mission to get money out of the companies he regularly visits on the basis that they owe him for the “privilege” of having to hang around waiting to get served.