Ask Matt: Do shareholders get better customer service?

— -- Q: Is buying stock in a company a good way to get leverage with customer service with that company?

A: Stuck on hold listening to elevator music trying to get your computer fixed? Getting the runaround from your cable or telephone provider? Want to return a washing machine that never worked right?

It's easy for companies to ignore consumers, at least in the short term. But investors should hold more sway. After all, they own the company.

Your idea is an interesting one. If you own a company's product and can't get any satisfaction as a consumer, why not buy the stock and become an owner?

You can be sure that if Warren Buffett has a problem with his American Express card, is looking for a specific Coca-Cola beverage or didn't like a Procter & Gamble product, he's able to bypass the normal customer service queue if he chooses. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is a large investor in American Express, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble.

But while your idea, in theory, sounds good, in practice unless you're a billionaire, you're unlikely to get much sway. Consider that large public companies have hundreds of thousands of investors. The customer service situation of one owner, especially if it's a small one, is unlikely to get the attention of the company's management team.

Just to put things in perspective, Berkshire Hathaway owned 13%, 8.8% and 2.6% of American Express, Coca-Cola and P&G, respectively, at the end of 2011. The values of these positions at the end of 2011 reached $7.2 billion, $14.0 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively. If you're investing billions in a company, and control the corresponding votes, you might expect to get some top service.

For most investors, though, who might own a few thousand dollars of stock, a stake in a big U.S.-based multinational corporation isn't likely to deliver much satisfaction.

With that said, there are cases where being a shareholder might get you an advantage. With very small companies, which don't have many huge investors and can't afford to lose any, you might be able to pull the "I own part of this place" card and get some attention.

And while talking to the customer service department, you might just drop the fact you own part of the company. That might indicate to the customer service person that you, at least on some level, hope the company will succeed. That might help build rapport with the customer service person, who, and not your portfolio, will ultimately determine how much satisfaction you get.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz