The recent news on the economy has created a surge of companies contacting us, looking for ways of dealing with significant and sudden budget constraints. This month has seen more new companies contact us than at any time in the past five years.

Here’s why they’re calling us, and what’s new about the role Customerville plays in their new 2009 budgets.

Customer Experience…On a reduced budget. It’s going to be harder than ever to get new customers, so it’s never been more important to keep the ones you already have. This will have to be done with less money than ever before.

Our existing clients are moving their customer experience measurement solutions to the top of front-line managers’ agendas. New companies who might have come to us in the past looking to add customer experience measurement as part of a broader package are now looking at us…period. We spoke with one company which anticipates slashing a $1 million budget for mystery shop into the low six digits.

We’re being leaned on hard by clients to find new ways to engage their customers and employees alike at zero or near-zero new costs. This means practically no printed collateral.

Middle Management Strain. One of the most regrettable reactions to any economic downturn is a quick reduction in middle management. This means less oversight at the unit level and significantly more stress on the remaining managers.

Companies are looking at Customerville and tools like ours which allow a reduced middle management tier to smartly allocate their stretched resources. This means using customer feedback to drive travel decisions and manager bandwidth.

Training. Training is rapidly being cut. One national retailer we know just cut their entire training division. Training in other organizations we’re seeing appears likely to be reduced to basic compliance issues, with sales-related training going out the window.

Front-line managers may end up being left to their own devices. We’re being asked to make a fresh effort to keep these managers apprised of best practices on how they can use real customer feedback to motivate, praise, and lead their team members.

This isn’t a substitute for a robust training package, but it can go a long way toward enabling front-line managers to with a powerful teaching tool.