Are your employees empowered to make decisions on the spot in favor of the customer? Your single goal should be to have overly happy customers. Too many things go wrong each day. You want your employees to understand they are in customer service, and their No. 1 responsibility is to take care of customers. If they fall in love with you, your competition is dead.

It often takes two miracles at a time to get an employee to spend $10 on a customer. But the Ritz-Carlton allows any employee to spend up to $2,000 to take care of a customer. What is your ceiling?

Most customers don’t complain when dissatisfied; they just never come back. All front-line employees must be trained in customer service and empowered to take care of a customer to the customer’s satisfaction.

Biggest mistakes that drive your customers away

1. Never have a live person answer the phone.

2. Install an electronic system (IVR) to answer your phone so you avoid talking to a live person.

3. Make sure there is no option to talk to a live person.

4. Never return phone calls.

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