Do you try to be a good customer or do you take 32 items to the ‘10 items or less’ register?

At our recent garage sale my entrepreneurial (and highly independent) 6-year-old set up a lemonade stand on the driveway. I watched with interest as she exhibited six key business principals —without ever taking a course in marketing or business administration.

So what can you do build and maintain your business’ reputation for customer service?

Does the Yellow Pages use predatory practices to keep its small business customers from leaving? One small business owner who relies heavily on her own website was treated rather poorly. Or was it incompetence on the part of Yellow Pages? Either way, AT&T has developed a long track record of underperforming for its clients.