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Mindshare Technologies, the leading provider of real-time, automated customer feedback solutions weighed in today with the following point of view on how service companies can weather a recession.

The Platinum Rule builds on the Golden Rule for our more individualistic society by recognizing that we have very different preferences than those around us. Said more simply; people may not like what you like – give them what they like, not what you like.

Is customer service becoming extinct? Have we "hunted" it to extinction? Will an economic downturn be the last straw? Can it recover from the endangered species list? Who or what will make that decision?

All good questions – but maybe not the right questions.

Have you heard the saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff?" I don't know who the original author was, but I'd be willing to bet you two things…

We have gathered and analyzed over 40,000 customer surveys a day for companies in over 25 industries, we have a nice little alliterative slogan to describe the need for consistent, top-notch performance across the enterprise… we call it The 5 "E's":

Loyalty. What creates it? How can you sustain it? Is there a ‘secret sauce’ that helps you transform a run-of-the-mill customer into a wildly enthusiastic devotee?

Our approach at Mindshare Technologies is built on two very simple axioms of business. Literally thousands of books and research projects have explored the direct correlation between "Satisfaction," "Loyalty," and "Profits." But, they all boil down to these two simple ideas:

Enterprise Feedback Management is the process of systematically collecting, analyzing, consolidating, and then using all sources of feedback to improve your business and your overall profitability.

The majority of opinions and ideas shared on Social Media sites are much less structured than those of a customer taking a phone or web survey, Learn a strategy to postively connect with your customers using Social Media, collect their feedback, and make more fans for your business.

If you're not collecting immediate feedback from customers about their service experience with you, then you are already behind. Customers no longer have to accept what you package up and give to them – there are too many other competitive choices.

All businesses depend on employees to deliver quality service. For most businesses, improving customer service levels is more important than providing a good product. It is wise to remember Sam Walton's famous adage, "There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."

We've all heard someone gnashing their teeth over a bad call center experience. At some point, we've each probably felt that way ourselves. It may be queues that are too long, ineffective IVR systems, or an agent who just doesn't communicate well – everyone has a horror story. From the moment of the bad experience we then tell the story over and over to friends, warning them about doing business with "that company" for fear of poor service.

It is crucial for companies to realize that the way they handle customer complaints is every bit as important as trying to provide great service in the first place. Because things happen.

What turns a one-night transient into a frequent guest? You may think you have the answer within your existing operations – nice beds, clean rooms, friendly staff, tasty menu, etc. These are all important, but there may be something else your guests are looking for, something more subtle. Find out what that is, and they'll keep coming back.

Customer service means being aware of needs, problems, fears and aspirations. Numerous studies have shown that the cost to acquire a customer is seven to ten times the amount of retaining an existing customer. And according to The Harvard School of Business, even a 5 percent improvement in customer retention can result in up to a 75 percent increase in profitability.

Let your customers provide real-time feedback, specific to each service employee, as close to the service experience as possible. In this way, you'll be presenting the literal voice of the customer to the employee, and the suggestions for improvement will be direct, applicable, and devoid of the inherent bias that is present in all employee-supervisor relationships.

People have an innate need to connect to each other. It's what drives us to be close to our families and friends. For some, this desire includes the businesses with whom they commonly associate. It's likely that your regular customers see your business as a friend and as part of the community, even though you may be one of hundreds of franchises.

We all like positive feedback. It's natural to feel good when someone gives you a pat on the back.

But it's how you choose to react to negative feedback is the key. Do you shrug it off and chalk it up to "just one customer" who won't come back? Or do you see an opportunity?

It's true that the more you know about your customer the better off you are. And customer relationship management (CRM) software and other technologies certainly help us get closer to the customer, collect more detailed information, and segment customers into more useful and practical groupings. With today's technologies, organizations can collect, store, and retrieve a variety of types of information - where the customer lives, the size of his or her family, income range, ethnicity, even hair color.

Henry Ford was on to something when he said "A business absolutely devoted to Customer Service Excellence will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large."

By engaging your customers in a direct dialogue that captures their honest feedback, you'll be equipped with the best information with which to refine your marketing and define your brand. By simply listening to them, you can learn who your most lucrative target market is and exactly what it is they're looking for. You can also find out what is driving first-time visitors to give you a try. Everything else - including how you need to act - will be straight-forward from that point.

Much of the hype around the NPS scoring method is attributable to Fred Reichheld's book titled "The Ultimate Question" where Professor Reichheld presents the Net Promoter Scoring method as the single performance metric to understanding customers and predicting financial success.

But when we tried to use Reichheld's Ultimate Question in practice – we discovered its major utility flaw… a lack of actionable information that our clients can actually use to improve their business.

Wanna win? Wanna be the best? Wanna become number one at what you do? There is a way. It isn't easy, but it is simple. Here are several things to consider

How can you make certain you know what your customers are really experiencing? You have to ask using real-time surveys. It’s really that simple.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reported this year that customer satisfaction within the hotel industry declined over five percent from last year. The secret to not just getting a passing grade, but jumping to an "A+" is in listening to your customers.

The "Balanced Scorecard" is a simple concept (executed in many different ways) that has at its core the goal to use a balanced set of metrics to measure the health of a business. It aims to broaden organizational focus from a short-term, financial metric-dominated approach, to a more holistic and long-term approach.

How do those of us who love our customers and want to know what they're thinking find out without a phone call? We don't. In fact, some of us believe we never should have called them in the first place. The better solution is… (drum roll please)… to let them call us. That's right. Let the customer volunteer to call us on the phone and choose to share their thoughts and feelings with us.

Collecting surveys is easy. It's what you do with the collected date that's difficult. But at Mindshare, that's our core competency. .