The former executive vice president of Walt Disney World examines how to serve customers with consistency, efficiency, creativity, and sincerity

• Customer service is not a department
• You win customers one at a time and lose them as thousand at a time
• Great service follows the law of gravity
• Don't get bored with the basics
• Ask yourself, "What would mom do?"
• Be an ecologist
• Look sharp
• Always act like a professional
• Hire the best cast
• Be your own Shakespeare
• Become an expert at creating experts
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
• Expect more to get more
• Treat customers the way you'd treat your loved ones
• Be like a bee
• Know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
• Listen up
• Be a copycat
• Fish where the fishermen ain't
• Be a wordsmith
• language matters
• Make yourself available
• Always be the giving one
• If they say they want horses, give them a motorcar
• Don't just make promises, make guarantees
• Treat every customer like a regular
• Serve to win
• Make ASAP your standard deadline
• Know the difference between needs and wants
• Have a geek on your team
• Be relentless about details
• Be reliable
• Don't give the responsibility without the authority
• Never, ever argue with a customer
• Never say no
• except "No problem"
• be flexible
• Apologize like you really mean it
• Surprise them with something extra
• Keep doing it better
• Don't try too hard