Positive word of mouth about you and your company starts with excellent customer service. But how do you really get customers and clients to brag about you? Here are five things you can do to inspire loyalty:

1. Use every opportunity to help them solve a problem or come closer to reaching their objectives. Move beyond the idea of immediate transaction and look at how your product or service helps them achieve their goals—maybe even their dreams.
2. Give them recognition. Put up a display featuring them or showing off letters and e-mails of praise. It not only showcases them, but it serves as a reminder to all employees that what they do affects real people—hopefully, in a positive way.
3. Educate them. Tell them more than your name, rank, and serial number. Tell them what you sell, what you can do for them, the quality of your work and materials and the training you get, as well as the various uses of the products and services you provide. Go beyond the average "sales pitch."
4. Be an expert. Go beyond the required knowledge of your products and company and get to know more about them and their needs. Specialize in that knowledge and become an expert to whom customers can go for advice.
5. Turn a problem into an opportunity. Whenever a customer has a problem, go beyond simply trying to make it right. Give them customer service beyond their expectations. Superior service will turn into your best reference in the long run.

If 99.9 Percent is Good Enough for the Customer, Then….