The show has started.  The shop is open.

People are coming in.  They have lots of money

and won't be happy until it's all spent on good-value 

products and services. 

Smile.  You're on camera.  Dance.  You're on stage.  Sing.  Tape is rolling.  You're in front of the microphone.  Strut your stuff!  Do your thing!  Get out that special magic that is you at your best.

It used to be called 'heart'.  Tom Peters calls it your 'other'.  I call it Customology.

What's Your Customology Factor?

Ever noticed that interesting, service-oriented people are willing to be friendly?  And that this willingness is reflected in their bright eyes?  Whereas the 'couldn't care less, I'm hard done-by' types have flat, unfriendly eyes.

You can't touch customology, but it’s there.

Your Customology Factor is your intellect, your passion, your imagination; the 'vibe' and the 'feel' over your business and your part in it. 

It's your magnetism with which you can repel or attract.  Every person and every business has a Customology Factor. 

It can be positive or negative,  nice or nasty, good or bad, hot or cold;  it can be obvious, it can stick out like a sore thumb, it can stand out like a beacon or it can be neutral, unnoticeable, hard to pick and vague.  But it can never be non-existent.

Some people give off a feeling as if something cold and damp were slithering over your chest while you were asleep. 

Others give you the same feeling you'd get if you were standing next to Kieren Perkins when he got out of the pool in Atlanta, after he won the gold medal in the 1500 metres in 1996.  Do you remember it?  His was the innocent charisma of the ecstatic champion - the same irrepressible joy Cuba Gooding Jr showed when he won the Oscar for his supporting role in the movie Jerry Maguire.

Care or Don't Care.  There is no Pretend.

Customer service is not something you can fake.  You either care or you don't.  In the movie 'The Empire Strikes Back', Yoda, the last of the Jedi Knights says to his young disciple, Luke Skywalker, 'Do, or do not.  There is no try.'  There is not half measure or getting 'close enough' with customer service.  There is no pretending you care.

Care or Don't Care.  There is no Pretend.

And if you care not, then please do the rest of us a favour and go away.

You can't just go through the motions of customer service and hope to get away with it.  It's no use pasting on a half-baked smile because the sign in the backroom tells you to.  Its valueless approaching customers in a dead fish kind of way saying 'You right there?' just because the staff memo asks you to acknowledge customers.  It's in or out.  If your heart is not in it, get another job.

If your 'Customology Factor' is right, the rest is easy.

If you think your job is an opportunity to perform for the customers and to take centre stage every day, that's your Customology Factor.  You'll glow with it.

If you think your job is just a means to get money, that in turn is your 'factor'.  It will stick out all over you like porky pine quills. 

So the question is:  What is your Customology Factor and what's it worth?