Walt Disney valued collaboration, and promoted the team concept with his employees. He believed that exceeding guest’s expectations required a well-rehearsed cast, with every member playing a significant role.

Companies can achieve great customer service if they do the following two things well: Each employee must become a customer-problem solver and know the organization’s vision and values; the department’s mission; and the company’s competitive advantage.

Team building must begin with training and a mission statement of the team’s goals. Only then will the team have the knowledge and direction to solve problems more quickly and effectively.

In the first week of employment, workers should know how the company’s products and services solve a customer’s problems. Every employee should call two to three customers every week to ask, “How are we doing?”

Ask for customer feedback. Two questions must be answered: “How easy or hard is it to do business with our company? What do you consider to be exceptional service?”

A bank divided its customers into two segments according to the option they chose: either low fees and ordinary service, or higher fees and a personal account manager. Experts believe that it’s better to be either a low-cost operation, such as Wal-Mart, or a high quality outfit, such as Nordstrom. Don’t be a company stuck in the middle, such as Sears.

Get to know your customers. A survey asked conference participants to name the three most important features a hotel must provide to satisfy them. The answer:” we need easy access to telephones, restrooms, and coffee pots.”

When hotel managers were asked what three things attract business customers, they thought: “great food, ample parking, and atmosphere.” The failure to understand customers is not limited to the hotel industry and we can gain a competitive advantage in the Hudson Valley by knowing what our customers want.

Support, Empower, and Reward Employees - Worker’s who are happy take pride in their work, and do it well. They treat customers well if they’re treated well and poorly if they’re not.

Own your customers, never rent them. Owning means making a lifetime commitment to deal with each customer’s needs and problems. Rent involves signing up customers with no plan to keep them. A short-term relationship is expensive, and lowers productivity.

Assume that you have 1,000 customers and $90,000 in profits or an average of $90 per customer. Although 20% of your customers give you 80% of your profits ($72,000), your probably spending 80% of your time serving the 80% who produce only $18,000. What would happen if you spent that other 80 percent of the time on top customers? Profits could grow from $90,000 to $360,000.

The best strategies will fail if staff is lacking the right training. People must be given a chance to learn what to do. First, point out that there’s a problem. Share the results of studies that show how much profit is being made from your top customers, and how much is being lost on others.

Training must include strategies needed to retain important customers. Because these key customers can make or break your business, create a game plan that outlines how you let them know their important, special and appreciated.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker™ about Business Planning Issues.