I'll be honest, I've got visions of your absolutely exhausted, rubbing your feet with one hand and with a large glass of your favourite tipple in the other hand. I want you to email me and say: "Jez, how do we stop the mad rush of customers wanting our services?" But, I'll be honest, I'm a little bit worried about you. I'm worried that if you're not aware of it, you'll turn into one of these unsuccessful business owners that just plod along and never really make much of a a success from their business, nor their customers. You know the ones; they tell you they've ran sales, they've lowered their prices; they did a competition; put an advert in the paper - they've "tried everything" and still trade is rough. Then when they're on Facebook, they're liking the Innocent smoothie knitted hat page and don't link the two.

I don't want you to be that person - so hang on in there and keep reading, okay? Innocent smoothies is a prime example of a group of people who understand the importance of communicating with and developing a relationship with their customers. They engage their customers in such a way that they've made the step change and created more than customers - they've created loyal fans. They asked customers what they wanted and then, irrelevant of what they themselves thought, they gave their customers what they asked for. And they did it in such a way that we got to see the human: Innocent is a fun, friendly accessible brand because you can hear the human in the brand. They've made a little bit of effort to talk to customers, get to know them and do things that appeal to our innate child-like interest in fun and wonder.

You don't necessarily have to get your customers knitting things but you do have to make an effort to actually engage with them. They're human, you're human - it couldn't be much easier! Slashing prices, running competitions and running adverts is all essential but it's often a desperate attempt and perceived as the easier way to get customers. When it doesn't work, people claim in their best, exacerbated voice that they've "tried everything". But they haven't. The one thing they haven't done - and people often leave 'til last, is actually engaging with their customers. Writing to them just to see how they are with no sales push; sending Birthday or Anniversary cards; talking to them and finding out a piece of information about them - that they like horses or have just moved in and then ACTING on that information. You find a card with a horse on it or an article about horses and send it to them. You send them a "welcome to your new home" hamper. These things are the real stuff of service - the moments that create "wow" moments and that are so impressive and memorable that you help to create a real stir in your community through delivering sensational customer service - not just running adverts and sales. As the old adage goes: if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

Jez Rose is The Behaviour Expert. His new book, Have A Crap Day, on how to delivery extraordinary customer service is out now and available from Amazon and www.haveacrapday.com