There is an old adage (from In Search of Excellence) which states the two rules of customer service:  "Rule #1 - The Customer is always right.  Rule #2 - If the Customer is wrong, please refer to Rule #1."  Maybe that is simplistic, but in our hammered economy, I don't think we can put enough emphasis on good customer service if we are to survive in the "new paradigm."  Clarity of thinking in customer service is essential and from my forty years of experience in serving people, let me give some pointers of what I feel is important in obtaining a lasting customer base.

First of all, I believe we must understand the importance of excellent customer service.  There are two factors at play here.  In the resort and outdoor hospitality industry we have the unique opportunity to serve people whose primary purpose in using our services and facilities is to have a good time.  That means, we have it within our power to help them achieve their purposes or to totally disrupt them.  If we achieve the former, we have a customer for life; if we achieve the latter, we have made a very vocal enemy.  The second and more selfish factor of the importance of excellent customer service is that the cheapest marketing dollar you can spend is marketing to people who are already clients.  It takes a whole lot more money to get them to your resort than to make them happy while they are there.

With those factors in mind, here are some pointers I believe are important in establishing and maintaining quality customer service.

1.     Treat your employees as you want them to treat your guests.  That means management must create an atmosphere where customer service is king.  You cannot be with every guest at every point of interaction.  But someone in your organization will be, and they will reflect to the customer the respect and servitude you give your guests.  The Apostle Paul taught that employers should treat every employee as if they were Christ Himself.  That is a divine inspiration in customer service.

2.     Don't be a Pharisee.  Rules are made for a purpose and that purpose does not include letting the rules be the reason for your existence.  So often our human nature forgets the reason a rule was enacted in the first place and it doesn't matter whether the occasion fits or not.  Remember the purpose the rule is trying to accomplish and keep the purpose but be flexible with the rules.  Your clients deal with enough bureaucrats in their daily lives and do not need for you to be one.

3.     Make sure your systems are user friendly.  This is a lot like the former.  But so often we buy a system and then demand that our customers adhere to the system regardless of its impact on quality service.  Check-in and departure should be seamless.  WiFi and other services should be easily accessible.  Accounting systems must be designed to promote good customer service first.  Cash reporting systems must respect the integrity of the client.  Whatever the system, make sure the customers' purposes are served before your own.

4.     Be present.  Your customer wants to see you.  They want the assurance that you care about their experience.  If you don't like living in a glass house and working long hours - you are in the wrong business.  Shake their hands, laugh with them, and care about their concerns. 

5.     Honor their business.  As I said earlier, the cheapest marketing dollar you will spend is making every customer a repeat customer.  Honor the money they save you by giving incentives for being a customer for life.

6.     There should be only one bad guy per business and that should be you.  As far as the employees are concerned, they should honor the customer.  And if someone gets out of hand, makes unreasonable demands, places burdens on other guests or your facility, it is up to you to make the decision of how firmly you deal with it.  Never let anyone but yourself be in an adversarial relationship with customers.

7.     Remember irrational guests may be testing the principles of Winning by Intimidation.  Don't be intimidated; keep your cool; and don't be defensive.  You can make winners out of those situations.

There are many ways to serve our customers.  By making sure your objective is to give them the "time of their life," you will be successful.

As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives will be controlled by the Republicans by about a 246 - 189 margin at press time, and the Democrats will retain control of the Senate with 51 Democrats and two Independents in the majority.

Here's the reality check: It is not going to make much difference in the legislative process. The Senate is the land of 60 votes and nobody is going to be close to having them in his or her pocket in the 112th Congress. Not much will likely get done and, on balance, one could make a case that that is not a bad thing.

If President Obama and Speaker-presumptive John Boehner, R-Ohio, change their styles and want to compromise a la President Clinton, the story line for the 112th Congress and President Obama's chances for re-election might change. A deal between House Republican and President Obama on deficit reduction, for example, would force the Senate's hand.

There are likely to be some pro-active opportunities for small business. While the big-ticket items will probably get caught up in filibusters, there could be consensus-building for small ticket items with a Republican majority in the House leading the way. A good example would be repealing the Form 1099 requirement. Some observers think that the House Ways and Means Committee could pop out a bill as soon as its first business meeting in January. There's a slight chance of repealing the Form 1099 requirement in the lame duck session. More below on that.

Forget Health Care Repeal

Forget about health care repeal. The president is not likely to let such a thing occur without vetoing the legislation. Even if both chambers were to somehow pass a repeal bill (and with a Democratic-controlled Senate, that's highly unlikely), there is that tiny thing called the Constitution that is going to prevent that.

Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution requires two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override vetoes. And while many may not fully endorse the health care legislation now on the books, it does accomplish one very important thing for family-owned smaller RV park and campground businesses by removing the ability of insurers to decline coverage because of pre-existing conditions. This has long been a significant problem for park owners who often have acquired their business as a second career and are often older with past medical histories that made getting coverage almost impossible.

I realize that that's only one part of the new law. But until there are assurances that it would be maintained under any new legislation, it seems we need to hold on to what has been gained.

The election outcome is good news on the "smaller" small business issues like the Form 1099, maybe the self employed health care deduction, home office standard deduction etc.

What about the estate tax? The new House majority may be tempted to pass a repeal bill. But the small business community may prefer a reasonable higher exemption that might call for a quick negotiation with the Senate to get it done. With full repeal, it's likely the Senate may balk. Either way, the chances of some estate tax relief in the 112th Congress have risen dramatically.

As for the Lame Duck Session

The 111th Congress is coming back and the principal decision is how to fund the government when the current continuing resolution runs out on Dec. 3. Some say, "Let's force repeal of health care by refusing to pass a continuing resolution and shutting down the government." Not a likely scenario.

There is a reasonable possibility of a deal on extending at least some of the expiring individual tax relief provisions like the rates and marriage tax penalty relief, among other things. But the best guess is that as the end of the lame duck session approaches, concerns about revenue offsets to tax cuts are going to take a back seat to "piling on" extra ornaments on the Christmas tree - also known as a tax bill, as the lame ducks approach the holidays.

So there's likely to be more tax gifts for all and the new 112th Congress will have to deal with an even larger deficit.

Will the 112th Congress do even more tax cutting? The new Congress is going to be faced with a nasty tax revenue scoring problem any time it wants to provide tax relief. Remember, every tax cut is likely to add to the deficit, something that's quite unpopular among the newly elected Congress. So unless each cut comes with either a revenue generator or a budget cut, the deficit will continue to grow. During the last major round of tax cuts in 2001 the government was sitting on budget surpluses. Not now.

Why would the Democrats go along with any tax deal now? Hopefully, it has sunk in that an automatic tax increase that will reach down into the middle and low-income levels is not the way to start the new year.

In the 112th Congress, look for considerable pressure to tackle tax issues under the disguise of tax reform. There are just too many expired and expiring tax relief provisions and no simple ways to deal with the revenue losses of extending that tax relief. If you favor meaningful deficit reduction, there are not many deficit reduction experts who think you can accomplish real deficit reduction without an increase in tax revenues.

And a Few Other Relevant Items

Travel Promotion Act and Corporation for Travel Promotion: The recently named 11-member board of directors for the Corporation for Travel Promotion has now had two meetings and is beginning to formulate its strategic and operational plans of action and launch the recruitment process for the first CTP executive director. It also met Oct. 26 in Las Vegas with the Commerce Department Travel and Tourism Advisory Board to coordinate their missions and strategies.

The CTP, the board members of which are all from the travel and tourism industry, was established by the Travel Promotion Act enacted by Congress in March. The Department of Homeland Security has established the funding mechanism that, combined with private sector contributions, will create a marketing program of up to $200 million per year to attract millions of new visitors to the United States.

ARVC strongly supported enactment of the TPA and will follow closely the work of the CTP to ensure the interests of small businesses and rural areas are given full consideration.

Federal Highway Reauthorization, Infrastructure and Stimulus: The conditions of the nation's highways, bridges, tunnels and all related infrastructure continue to be among ARVC's top federal priorities. RVs don't move unless there are quality, safe and uncongested roads to travel on.

At the request of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), ARVC is organizing a meeting of tourism industry representatives to discuss the future of reauthorization of the Federal Highway program, what it all means for tourism and how tourism can play a meaningful role.

With the election of a significant number of anti-tax-and-spend members of Congress, speculation and anticipation continue about what the impact will be on the highway program. Meanwhile, the Administration appears inadvertently to be sending mixed signals about what realistically lies ahead for transportation. The entire scenario is increasingly baffling to the transportation industry, which craves a return to stability and predictability in the nation's major funding programs for highways, transit, aviation, ports and other infrastructure.

Right now, there appears to be no serious prospect of movement on a major transportation bill for the rest of this year. Instead, Congress, in the lame duck session is only expected to pass a four to six month extension of the previous highway program known as SAFETEA-LU.

Top staffers on Capitol Hill directly involved in transportation funding issues say Congress will have a political window of opportunity to address transportation needs in the first six to eight months of 2011. After that, they say, the partisan divide inevitably will sharpen with the onrush of the 2012 presidential campaign.

But next year's "window of opportunity" coincides with the seating of what will be a much more conservative Congress, less willing to increase taxes or approve new multi-billion dollar spending bills for whatever purpose.

New Administration Great Outdoors Initiative: With the completion of "Listening Sessions" in more than a score of locations around the nation, administration staff members have been analyzing the results of those sessions and were expected to produce a report to the President on a 21st Century Great Outdoors Strategy by mid-November that will help shape future Federal public land budget priorities.

Among the issues thought likely to be considered for this new initiative are:

• Full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
• Revitalization of the national park system in time for its 100th Anniversary in 2016.
• Designation of new national monuments on Bureau of Land Management land.
• Passage of an omnibus public lands and parks bill.
• Increasing interagency collaboration on tourism and recreation.
• Fostering greater involvement of children and youth in outdoor recreation.
• Promoting the value of outdoor activities in issues of mental and physical well-being.

ARVC continues to support development of the Great Outdoors Initiative while working to ensure that it does not have an adverse impact on small businesses competing with programs and services provided on the federal lands.

Overall attendance at the just concluded 48th Annual National RV Trade Show in louisville, Ky., was up 4.5% over last  year, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) reported this morning.

Monaco RV display at 48th Annual National RV Trade Show.

Total attendance was 8,696, or 373 more than the 2009 show. Other show results:

• RV dealers, 3,173,  up 10.8%.
• Total buyers, 3,563,  up 12.9%.
• Dealerships, 1,294,  up 10.3%.

The number of representatives from manufacturer and supplier exhibitors was down this year, even though the exhibitors booked more space for this year's show. On average, the exhibitors brought 2.8 fewer people than last year, according to an RVIA estimate.

Though an improvement over recent years, this week's attendance was well below pre-recession attendance of 13,716 in 2005, when the show covered a record 906,000 square feet in the then newly renovated Kentucky Exposition Center, and 2004, when attendance totaled 14,450, according to RVBUSINESS.com archives.

Final show numbers for this week, followed by their comparison to the 2009 show, follow:

• Accessory store, 261, +46.6%.
• Campground owners, 28, -31.7%.
• Warehouse distributors, 101, +38.4%.
• Advertising press, 17, +70%.
• Editorial press, 53, +10.4%.
• Finance/guest, 120, +18.8%.
• Manufacturer exhbitors, 1,609, -11%.
• Non-member manufacturers, 37, +12.1%.
• Supplier exhibitors, 2,396, -1%.
• Non-member suppliers, 489, +22.3%.
• Non-exhibiting member manufacturers, 12, -25%.
• Non-exhibiting member suppliers, 196 +16.7%.
• Manufacturers' agents, 39, +2.6%.
• U.S./Canadian association guests, 97, +36.6%.