(Setting and Measuring Service Standards) The store then appointed supervisors to ensure that all employees were following the procedures properly and even used 'mystery shoppers 'to find out if all the measures were being implemented, and the reports showed that they were indeed being followed, about 90% of the time. Subsequently, the management of the Revco Drug Store measured the number of complaints, to find out whether there had been any decrease in the number and to their happiness, they did find that the number of complaints against service had come down drastically, and at the same time, the number of happy and satisfied customers had increased significantly. This program of 'every customer, every time', was therefore considered to be a success, and the important thing to be learnt from this experience is the fact that is that the customer must be treated with respect and courtesy every time he entered the premises, and this would make him contented and happy. (Setting and Measuring Service Standards)

Green Hills Farms, based in upstate New York, has a very loyal and powerful customer following, and it has a database of loyal customers who would teat the grocery store much like it were their very own. In fact, there are several big companies clamoring for the secret behind the building up and the maintenance of such a good and loyal customer following. The truth is that Green Hills Farms developed a customer loyalty program that helped it to succeed in this manner. What, exactly, is customer loyalty, and why is it so important? Can a customer be forced to like the shop, if he does not, and can his loyalty be bought at any price? The answer is that the store really knows all its customers extremely well, and this is its secret. This is the reason that its several customers would not dream of going elsewhere for their needs, and this is what is meant by 'customer loyalty'. (The Best Little Grocery Store in America)

According to the CEO of Green Hills, Gary Hawkins, he noticed that at Thanksgiving, most turkeys were given away almost free of cost, and he thought that this was quite stupid, because of the losses that stores would often incur by giving away expensive items for free. Therefore, he decided to stop this habit, and reward his customers instead. Today, a customer has the potion to join the Green Hills 'frequent-buyer' program, whereby when the customer spends $100 he immediately gets back $15. In addition, he designed several kinds of perks and incentives for his loyal customers, like for example, a free turkey if the customer returned to the store to become a 'diamond customer', and also a next to free tree for Christmas, and so on. In a nutshell, the customer would start to feel that he is being taken care of by the store, and this would mean that he would keep returning to the store again and again, and this is what any business would want and desire in order to make a profit. (The Best Little Grocery Store in America)

The Aladdin's Auto service Center is a successful enterprise that treats its numerous customers' right, and always puts them first. The owner of the store, Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad always tends to the whole customer, that is, his mind and his spirit, because, according to him, when a customer's cra brekas down, the customer breaks down as well, and Mahmmod, a deeply spiritual man, always finds a few soothing words and a cup of tea for those of his customers who are distressed for any reason at all, and perhaps this is the reason that he has a loyal customer following. He says that he tries to help his customer, in much the same way that he helps to take care of the car, and this soothes the cutomer, and he often relates home spun parables, and offers advice when it is asked for. This means that he knows all his several customers inside out, and he has also known them for many years, and these customers swear by Mahmood and will stand by him. According to one customer, Mahmood does a "very good job, he understands our needs." (God is in the Detailing)

Thomas Neckel Sr., of Summerset houseboats, and the CEO of the same, when he initially became aware of the fact that several companies were advertising their products...

This was the reason that 'Summerset Houseboats' utilized almost all of its marketing efforts into expanding the company's house boating community, in this issue emulating the marketing ventures of Harley Davidson that that company had used. The CEO stated that Harley Davidson was a company that had a production backlog, as well as motorcycles that would appreciate. This meant that the company must have a very strong customer rapport to get repeated business, and most importantly, the strategic points of their plan included 'road shows', which means that events are held around the entire width and breadth of the country to which the company invites their loyal Harley Davidson customers, to bring in their motorbikes, and show them off to others present, and also trade in whatever they want, at the show. (Building Customer Loyalty, the Harley Way)
According to the CEO of Summerset Houseboats, Neckel, what he initially did was to establish certain regular houseboat 'regattas', which now take place about six times a year, wherein the company's aim was to build up a sense of community, just like the Harley Davidson Company, which has a loyal sense of community. Today, the company utilizes the Internet to publicize the regattas, and to accept registrations for the event. For those customers who desire to watch the regattas but cannot attend for some reason, they can watch the event on the company's web site, through the Internet, because the CIO Cecil Helton Jr. posts events daily on the World Wide Web, which customers can access and feel a part of. This helps to build up a sort of customer loyalty and a sense of belonging to the community of Summerset Houseboating, and by bringing customers together in this type of community setting, they often produce their own testimonials, and this helps the company to a great extent. (Building Customer Loyalty, the Harley Way)

In much the same way, the CEO of Stitching Post, Joe Fulmer, has made attempts to bring all his customers together in a place where they can socialize with each other and get to know each other better. The store that Joe Fulmer runs is supposedly a sewing superstore, but the real fact is that customers are often invited in just for a chit chat, or for sharing their views on anything on earth with each other, and perhaps, buy something just because they came in. The store is in fact a stitcher's oasis, where people with a common passion can come in to learn and to advise each other. Fulmer states that this is the concept that turned his modest shop inherited from his father, with three employees and a mere $200,000 in revenues, into a flourishing $11-million company with 115 employees, that is, by building a 'community of customers'. This type of 'education program' has been used by other companies as well to ensure that customers, who are always placed first, will always keep coming back, but noweher else has success been so stupendous. (Common Threads)

In Stitch Post, most customers keep coming back to discuss sweing matters, and what the CEO has cleverly done is that he tecahes the customer hos to sew, and by doing so, he manages to make them outgrow the machine that they have acquired, after which they would most naturally wish to update their sewing skills as well as their machineryr, and this is where Joe Fulmer comes in. He has those machines ready and waiting, and when the machine is ready, what customer would not be tempted? The budget that he expends on luring a new customer into the store is, according to Fulmer, about $80 per head, an expense that would be worth its while in the long run. (Common Threads)

It is said that when a customer walked into a Nordstrom Departmental Store, put a pair of snow tires on the counter, and asked for a refund, the clerk merely noted the price tag on the tires, and without batting an eyelid, refunded the money. The point of the story is, the store never sold tires. It is often said that Nordstrom has become synonymous with excellent 'customer service' where no other store has…