Championship Points

Customer service is an all-too-often overlooked aspect in business. Shoddy customer service remains a prevalent issue in big-time sports and has been exasperated by the recent trend in the white-collarization of sports.

Minor league and amateur sports have provided, and will continue to provide, a great backdrop from which to gauge the growing importance of customer service. It enables businesses of all sizes to appreciate the following:

• Businesses are built one customer at a time. Just as significantly, businesses are dismantled one customer at a time. Make the customer feel that there is one-to-one service and create the illusion that there is one employee for every customer at all times.

• Knowing your customer's wants and needs is more important than ever before. Are you neglecting your version of the ladies bathrooms?

• The little (customer service) things still matter.

• When realizing "moments of truth," it is more important to take the appropriate action than simply worry about the immediate impact on the bottom line.

• Giving customers something more than a receipt after a purchase is a great way to make them want to come back.

• Loyal customers are worth every penny it takes to keep them. Not only is customer feedback essential, it should be sought out.

• The more your employees know about the business and its various operations, the easier customer service becomes. Remember that employees at all levels of an organization are de facto customer service representatives.

• The more your employees feel like they have a stake in your brand, the more interested they are in doing whatever they can to satisfy an unhappy customer.

• Acting on customer service issues is invaluable. Surprise customers by paying more than lip service give them a "cotton candy vendor"-like response.

Great service can go a long way to building customer loyalty and, by extension, improving the bottom line. Establishing and maintaining customer service as a priority pays extraordinary dividends for companies that have succeeded in convincing all of those people who represent the business that doing so helps extend the brand name. Variations of these same tenets also apply to individuals, particularly star athletes.