The Carnivale of Customer Service continues with Ron Holt, the owner of a residential cleaning service in Florida. He puts the customer's needs ahead of his own and, through his blog, Two Maids, tells us how.

Ron's second point rocked my world. I never thought of soliciting feedback that way. But let me let you read it for yourself:

It's common knowledge that children must know the alphabet before they can ever read or write. No one questions this statement because it's obvious.

But it's not obvious to your child. Your child doesn't understand the importance of the alphabet. But without knowing your ABC's, you can't do much of anything in life.

So what happens when it comes to providing customer service? The typical scenario is for the boss to send an employee to a one-day seminar on providing exceptional customer service. Some bosses like to give their employees a book on customer service. Other bosses do nothing. They just assume that you already know how to make a customer happy.

But you don't know how to make a customer happy. Because you've never been taught how to make a customer happy. You need to know the ABC's of customer service before you can ever make a customer smile on a consistent basis. The tricky part is that every industry has its own alphabet. What works in the maid service industry doesn't work in the particle characterization industry. Customers are different. Better stated, what the customer wants is different.

So what's your alphabet? Answer these questions and you'll know. More...