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Everybody's definition of Customer Service is different, but for most of us, it involves doing the things necessary to ensure that you build and maintain a solid, long-term relationship with that customer. It isn't always the easiest task at times because some customers require a lot more attention than others. But the bottom line is that you do what you have to do to make them happy and keep that relationship alive and healthy.

I've spent over 30 years in the sales industry, both inside and out, and I can tell you without batting an eye that the customers who spend less demand the most. I say this because several years ago, while I was employed in advertising sales for a local television station, I had two accounts (not the only two) that were both automobile dealers. One was a street corner used car lot. The other was a full-blown major name dealership. Both of them were signed up under annual contracts.

The small car lot spent about $500 per month on their advertising while the dealership spent between $5000 and $6000 every month like clockwork. You would think with a budget that large that I would have spent countless hours at that dealership or on the phone endlessly with the man in charge of the advertising. In all due reality, I met him every Monday morning for breakfast, with all my ideas, the necessary paperwork, and a smile. There was maybe a follow up call or two during the week, and then usually on Thursday afternoons, I would be sitting in his office getting his commercial approved. And then the following Monday, the process would repeat itself.

The complete opposite was the case with the small dealership. I almost had to hold their hands every step of the way. Though the quality of the commercial was every bit as good as the ones we did for the big dealership, there was always something that had to be corrected or changed. I could elaborate even more, but I'm sure you get my point on this. The bottom line is that those smaller accounts usually require a lot more work than the larger ones.

Of course, the reference to the above was an example of an "outside" sales issue, but it's no different on the inside. Look at all the different retail entities out there. In the furniture industry (another of my endeavors in the past), we used to be one of the most successful companies in the area because we knew the meaning of customer service. It was one of the main core values of that business. We would keep files on every customer that purchased from us, as

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