It’s simple really: Happy customers will buy more from you and tell more people about you. You want customers buying more and telling more people about you. You want happy customers.

So how do you get happy customers?

• Treat them well.
• Respect them.
• Be honest.
• Respond quickly.
• Be open and accessible.

This is all common sense. But common sense isn’t terribly common, is it?

Here are three stories that demonstrate how easily companies can take basic steps to keeping customers happy for life.

1. Turn your customers into advocates. Andy Sernovitz tells the story of Coffee Cup Software which has a list of 100 customers on its site that anyone can contact for information about the company. I don’t know how the company chose these 100 customers, but it doesn’t matter; they’re giving you unfettered and easy access to them.
2. Customer Relationship Management = Huge Long Tail Profits? Andrew Wee has a couple great examples of how he’s been treated by various financial institutions. Citibank sent Andrew a personalized cake for his birthday. What did the other 6 or 7 banks/trading companies he uses send him? Nothing. It’s so easy to send personalized, quality gifts and “thank yous” to customers, it just takes a bit of creativity and time. And the will.
3. You Don’t Even Have To Go An Extra Mile My own story of buying a gift. The cashier took a bit of extra time to make sure I was treated well, and had a great shopping experience. He didn’t have to bend over backwards; he just paid attention to what was going on and made sure I’d remember how pleasant it was to shop at that store.

It really doesn’t take much to treat customers well.

But you have to recognize the value. And then you have to be willing to take a bit more time, get a bit more creative, push a bit further…

It’s well worth it. Treating customers well is the path towards increased customer loyalty, word-of-mouth and business success.