I hope you had a successful holiday season and that you are making great plans for this year.

I have had it on my mind to write about customer service for the last couple of months and the time just got away from me. I had a busy show season with a hectic show schedule and overlapping exhibitions. As much as I love the Christmas show I am happy to say it is over.

Now, back to what's planned for 2014. I am working hard to finish my book about selling jewelry at craft shows. I am just completing a great section on pre-show marketing using Facebook and I hope to finish the book real soon.

Let's get down to business. What do you think makes good customer service? What makes places like Starbucks and Vistaprint so successful? Is it all about the product?

Well... the answer is that it is almost always more than just about the product. It is about the experience. Starting with a good product is the first step, but then you have to market that product and deliver customer satisfaction.

Let's look at Starbucks: they have great products, they offer high end service, they know how to market and they create a great customer experience. They have taken coffee and built around that to create an aura of status. They make other coffee shops seem like they are out of fashion.

This may be a funny thing for me to say since I don't like Starbucks coffee, but there are plenty of products for me to buy there including one of the best Earl Grey teas I have ever tried. If you ever go to Starbucks you will see how they provide high end service and they are quick about it.

As for Vistaprint, again, they start with a great product and then they factor everything you can imagine that a customer might need.

• impeccable printing
• easy online ordering
• easy design set up
• flexible templates
• great prices
• great promotions
• great designs
• clever marketing
• fast printing
• fast shipping...and then they follow that up with excellent customer service