The late comedian George Burns once said: "The most important thing is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made."

When it comes to caring for customers, too many businesses are trying to fake it, and their customers know it.

You know what I mean: companies that hide behind voice mail with no live operator option. Poorly trained, unempowered and uncaring employees. Web sites without live customer contact information. Inflexible policies that fail to allow for unusual-but-legitimate needs.

Even more aggravating are companies that provide poor customer care while spouting meaningless advertising and marketing mantras about how much they value their customers.

Entrepreneurs need to remember that most customers have their own policy: when a company doesn't deliver real customer care, they deliver their business to another company.

The pervasive environment of pretend customer care is a huge opportunity for every entrepreneur in every industry. Entrepreneurs whose businesses deliver real customer care will be recognized and rewarded by loyal customers who are tired of the posers and the fakers.

Too often companies make the critical mistake of trading real service for perceived cost savings. They fire the frontline employees who build personal relationships with customers. They hire uncaring and unmotivated people nobody else wants because they don't have to pay them as much. They fail to train and really empower their employees to take care of customers. In short, they try to fake sincere caring but take no real action to ensure it.

Sure, the business world is competitive. Every successful businessperson has DNA programmed to cut costs. Customer relationship expenses can be meaningful and naturally become a high profile target for the cost-cutters. Businesses must balance benefit/expense questions in customer care like every other area.

But too often short-term cost savings in the way companies interact with their customers come at the expense of real relationships and real loyalty because the cutters somehow buy into the perverse

logic that an unfeeling machine and inflexible policies can replace a genuinely caring and competent person.

I believe it is never a mistake to make real investments that build real customer loyalty. The competitive marketplace demands it and business logic supports it. No savings, large or small, can offset the complete loss of a customer who decides to buy from someone else.

The good news is that entrepreneurs have a golden opportunity to differentiate their businesses from the competition in this area. Following are some ideas for building real customer loyalty in your organization:

• Hire caring and competent people.


• Talk to your customers. Ask them what they want. Give it to them.


• Implement systems (such as mystery shoppers and post-transaction follow-up calls) that give you a direct sense of what customers are feeling when they patronize your business.


• Adopt a "Customer Bill of Rights." Have a written document that sends a clear message to everyone in your organization that you want to deliver real customer care. Post it in a conspicuous place so customers see your pledge. Do what you promise so employees and customers alike can see that you are serious about keeping customer commitments.


• Reward employees who go the extra mile in serving customers. Take action against those who fall short.

Customers patronize businesses because they have needs meaningful enough that they are willing to pay to have them met. Entrepreneurs whose companies meet those needs better than competitors will survive, grow and generate sustainable profits.

And you can't fake that.