12.30.19 How to get great customer service; College degrees that earn the most

If you have a need to call customer service, be aware they have a great deal of info on their callers. They may know everything you ever purchased from them, how profitable you are, complaint history etc. Your profitability index score determines how much customer service you'll get. Ultimately the big data that companies keep and buy, means we know nothing about them but they know plenty about us. If you're not a high volume customer, you may find going in person to a store gets you better results. The higher your profitability index score, the better customer service you'll receive by phone.

Jobs in tech and engineering generally yield high pay. For others, the big question is whether their education will pay off. The federal government has compiled deep data on the payback on particular courses of study at specific schools. No one school emerges as best or worst value. The desired field of study is key. An interactive tool available in the WSJ adopted from the federal database allows you to pick a school and course of study, and see cost vs earnings payback. Parents and students can see if a degree from a certain school will be worth it.

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