In ten years of customer service and even starting a business. I can truly say that from the most powerful of companies to the mom and pop, soft skills are essential. As a matter of fact, a company experiences death by asphyxiation (maybe not as fast when powered by influential stockholders and the like) on its own "great product" and mission statement. Maybe we think the "Wal-Mart" experience and the McDonald experience is not the best these days, but places like Chik-fil-A are knockin' 'em down with "My pleasure"- forcing other major companies to give a little more thought to the slowly dying ideal of customer service.