When it comes to the customer experience, we've all had our good days and our bad days. The experience you get at the local coffee shop might be great one morning. They call you by name. Your latte is prepared quickly. And you're back on the road in no time. The next day the line is long because the person behind the register is slow at taking the orders. They got your order wrong and you are late to your first meeting.

Providing quality customer service means consistently delivering service at a high level—every day—and by your entire organization. It's not an easy feat to achieve, but Promotional Consultant Today shares three simple traits consistently found in businesses that deliver first-class service:

1. They listen to the customer. How many times have you gone to a store or restaurant and asked for something specific—maybe it was the temperature that you wanted your entrée to be served at—and you felt nobody was listening to you. What was your attitude at that point? Were you happy and willing to return to that restaurant? Probably not. On the other hand, what if the waiter anticipated your needs because they were simply listening? You probably would have had a much better experience.

2. They respond rapidly to any request. The second key to customer excellence is the ability to respond rapidly to any request that the customer has. Remember the old adage, the customer is always right? I truly don't believe this, because I have found many instances where the customer was not right. So we live by the adage, "the customer is not always right, however, they are the customer." If we want our business to be successful and to grow, we need to respond quickly to our customers.

3. They have excellent follow-up skills. The final trait when it comes to excellent customer service is the ability for the person who's performing the customer service to follow up and make sure that the customer is happy and has received what they asked for. Once you've done this, and everything has been satisfactory for the customer, you will now have the ability to ask for additional business.

One more tip about high-quality customer service: Most people will spend more money to do business with someone they like so make your customers your friends and treat them as honored guests. When you do, you will experience growth in your business as never before.

Source: Dr. Rick Goodman is a motivational speaker, author and leadership consultant.

Compiled by Cassandra Johnson