Once upon a time, in the land of Great Waters and in a small village called Wide Streams, there lived a man who was a very good stomple-maker.  He could make a lot of stomples quickly and without any flaws.  His customers liked his stomples and really liked dealing with Mr. Crafty.  He always filled their orders promptly and had nice things to say about them, their business and their family.  Mr. Crafty never told them he couldn't do something for them because of a policy he had.  He always tried his best to do whatever his customers asked of him.  That meant sometimes getting Mrs. Crafty to pitch in to make stomples.

Mr. Crafty was so successful making and selling stomples that he decided to expand his business.  He hired stomple makers and trained them on the best manufacturing techniques and quality requirements.  Stomples started flying out the door.  And the word travelled to many other villages.  "You must buy your stomples from Mr. Crafty".  "He pays attention to quality and will give you what you need."  The business grew and grew until Mr. Crafty needed a new building and more employees.  He couldn't keep up with all the orders himself and Mrs. Crafty wanted to retire.  He needed a customer service representative.

And so he hired someone whose only job was to take and fulfill stomple orders.  Miss Foggy started on a cold and blustery day.  She came to the job highly qualified - so many certificates.  She must be very smart!

Miss Foggy was a very careful person.  She liked to follow rules and was very protective of Mr. Crafty.  He was such a dear - and a sucker for any request a customer had. 

Miss Foggy was also very efficient.  Any customer request outside normal requests was denied in order to keep production running smoothly and shipments on time.  When the customer complained, he was told "it's not our policy to ship overnight - that's like cutting in front of someone else".  "You can't do that".  Customers started calling Mr. Crafty to complain but he referred them right back to Miss Foggy.  She of course repeated the policy thus ending the complaint.  Such efficiency.

At the end of the year, Mr. Crafty noticed his year-end sales numbers had slipped for the first time since he started making stomples.  Hmmm, he wondered, why would that be?  I'm the only stomple maker around and my customers have always loved them.  Several of his long term customers had decreased their orders.  So Mr. Crafty picked up the phone and called each customer that decreased his order.  Each customer told him the reason they stopped buying stomples from him.  By the time he had talked to every customer, Mr. Crafty was feeling very upset.  Even Mrs. Crafty couldn't cheer him up.  Something had to be done.

He asked Miss Foggy to come to his office.  When she was seated, he told her the following:

#1 Never tell a customer "it's not our policy" - tell them "that's a tough one - I'm unable to do that but here's what I can do"

#2 Always use an upbeat tone with every customer - when they think you're mad, bored, irritated, they don't like it

#3 Use the customer's name - it makes them feel important

#4 Know something about your customer - it makes them feel important

#5 When a customer wants something special, find a way to help him

#6 Customers don't want to hear "I can't" - they want to hear "we can do that"

#7 Customers don't want to hear "you'll need to talk with my supervisor" - they want to hear "let me check into that and get back to you"

"And always remember Miss Foggy - if our customers go away, so do we".

Miss Foggy changed her ways.  From that day forward, she was nice to every customer.  She became very creative at solving customer problems.  Customers started asking to speak to her - "I prefer to deal with Miss Foggy".

Mr. Crafty's business flourished and grew.  Miss Foggy stayed with the company happily ever after (until her retirement) and the customers talked about the company to all who would listen.  People from far and wide scrambled to do business with Mr. Crafty.  And Mr. Crafty saved a lot of money on advertising.

The rest of the story:  Mr. and Mrs. Crafty eventually retired to an island in the Caribbean and discovered Pina Coladas!