1. Hire people who have a service attitude. Some people \rsimply enjoy serving others, their organizations, and even \rtheir communities. The spirit of service dominates their \rpersonality. This attitude of service has nothing to do with \rmoney or background, and people who have this attitude \rare not necessarily the most outgoing or bubbly. This type of \rperson will move your business forward. These people \rmake the best salespeople as well.

2. Make the customer's time with you an experience. You \rhave but a few short moments with customers. You don't \rhave time to complain about your day or anything else. Ask \ryourself, "How can I make their experience better?" Can I \rrefer to them by name and how can I ask without being too \raggressive? How can I control the environment in this \rcompany? How am I affecting their 5 senses? Exceed their \rexpectations just a little with their senses and with your \rattitude to serve and please, and you will have created a \rmemorable and compelling experience. Of course, all you \rreally have to do is visit your competition, see what they are \rdoing and then top them. But would that be cheating? No, \rthat's comparative shopping.

3. Regularly inform all your employees about what's going \ron in your company. Employees need to know what's \rhappening. \rWhat new products are you offering? When will they be \ravailable? What kind of advertising will take place in the next \rmonth? Will any physical changes be happening in your \roffices? Will new branches be add? The more they know, \rthe better they can serve your customers.

4. Make every decision with the customer in mind. Ask \ryourself questions such as, "Do our customers like what \rwe're doing?" and "Would our customers like this type of \rpromotion?" Change the way you look at things from having \rit centered around you to focused on whether the customer \rwould approve.

5. Make the customers an agenda item at every staff \rmeeting. Present their point of view and ask these \rquestions: What would the customer think of this? Would \rthis move be fair to them? How can we serve our customers \rbetter or differently?

6. Empower your employees to do the right thing. And don't \rhold it against them if the situation doesn't turn out perfectly. \rThat means giving employees the power to do whatever has \rto be done to make a customer's experience a WOW \rexperience. They will make mistakes, but each time they will \rlearn ¨C with your help.

7. Continually ask yourself how you can improve and add \rvalue. If you don't keep asking and pushing yourself, you'll \rstart to slip behind the competition. Customers have more \rthan one choice and your competition is aggressively \rmarketing to them. They know what is being offered by \rothers. Be ahead of the curve by asking what you can do to \radd value to your customer¡¯s experience with you.

8. Create an atmosphere of excellence. Let it be known that \reverything you and your employees do has to be the best, \rand you won't accept less. Remember that winning \rorganizations are always raising the bar. If you aren¡¯t \rpushing to do better than yesterday, you will be left in the \rdust of your competition.

9. Continually do the unexpected. Have the reputation for \rdoing the unexpected, and customers will always expect \rsomething different and exciting from your company. This \rdoesn¡¯t mean that you have to have dancing clowns in your \rlobby, but having the same lollipops that everyone else \rgives out is not at all unexpected. Do something different. \rThese are the things that customers talk about.

10. Never let an untrained employee have customer contact. \rYour employees represent you, your company, and your brand. Working with \rcustomers is the most important thing they will do. Give \rthem the tools necessary by giving them adequate training \rto handle customers.

Margo Chevers, author of the book STOP the BS (bad \rservice), has been providing sales and customer service \rseminars and consulting to a diverse cross-section of \rindustries for the past 15 years. To receive her free 10 top \rtips for exceptional customer service, call (800) 858-0797 or \remail margo@margochevers.com.