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While the American free enterprise system gives lip service to competition, there are still situations where monopolies form. They still have to pay attention to customer service, as an article in Forbes points out.

Nearly everyone can share stories about having to wait in line for hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles, or some people might remember Lily Tomlin’s classic line “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company,” back in the days when AT&T (News - Alert) still held a legal monopoly over the U.S. phone system.

Micah Solomon wrote that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an agency most Americans will never interact with, is embracing customer service. As government agencies go, it’s got a real monopoly. Even the most libertarian-minded people won’t dream of trying to compete with it.

If the USPTO behaved more like the DMV (where the stereotype is starting to fall, as many state DMV agencies are also improving customer service), they might actually have some sort of competition.

This is exactly the case for the cable TV industry, which would probably replace the phone company of Tomlin was creating her iconic phone operator character today. Consumer frustration with high prices and poor service is driving many viewers into the arms of satellite companies or prompting them to “cut the cord” altogether, relying on Internet TV and over-the-air programming.

Customer service also involves things that most people wouldn’t consider customer services. Solomon gave the example of Amazon preventing him from accidentally paying for a book twice. This kind of service saves time and money on returns and customer service calls.

That’s why organizations without competition still have to pay attention to customer service. Even the Internal Revenue Service, one of the most feared agencies, tries to improve the customer experience. The biggest monopolies still want to save time and money.