It is fitting that perhaps the most distilled articulation of the key to successful customer service should come from Mahatma Gandhi himself, as an extension of the life of service (in a larger sense) that he led.

There is little I can write to add to the profundity of his words, so I will let them speak for themselves. Take them to heart and your business will thrive across all media and the relationships you forge with your customers will become a competitive advantage that no technology can match. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.

Gandhi shared these thoughts in a speech he gave in 1890 in South Africa and they are a prescient today as they were then.