Customer Service: Mind the Gap

Dick Nelson, CEO of Marco Promotional Products, a B-to-B seller of promotional products, makes it a point to focus employees on delighting customers by encouraging everyone to call first-time buyers "testers."

Customers often test you — these days in particular. Once they experience the "one-click" checkout at Amazon, for instance, the bank that stays open all weekend or the free shipping both ways at Zappos — not to mention the contagious happiness of Zappos' staff — it's hard for consumers to settle for less.