Letting go of the past is difficult for the best of us. Much has been said on the surface about the knowledge economy, yet little has been done to integrate that new economy into existing businesses. We see that not only in business, but in education as well. When children continue to be educated in an Agrian structure its consequences are far more reaching than we realize.

The gaps that happen between the new global knowledge driven economy and the existing beliefs about how business should be based upon how the past usually surface in the areas of customer service. These gaps are because what is necessary in a knowledge economy is a new business model. The authors of Mobilizing Minds through 20 years of research demonstrate the impact of thinking intensive business model compared to a labor intensive business model.

Most of the customer service is still aligned to the old labor intensive business model. Some businesses such as Ritz Carlton truly understand how to infuse thinking intensive mindset within the customer experience. They provide a $2,000 budget for each employee to "move heaven and earth." (Source: Exceptional Customer Service Going Beyond Your Good Service to Exceed the customers' Expectations by Lisak Ford, David Mcnair and Bill Perry)

Yes, customer service today is not what our grandparents received nor expected. And why should it? The world of customer service has changed. My grandparents used a horse and buggy to do some of their local traveling. Yes, they finally graduated to an old Ford truck, but the fields were still plowed with a horse.

Customer service as we knew it has indeed changed as well as the customer service experience. Today, customer service is more expansive than ever before mainly due to technology. This customer service change has created greater expectations in external and internal customers.

Yet what still remains the same is the purpose of business (attract new customers and maintain loyal customers) and the 2 constant measurements of business - relationships and profits. The later is always clearly identified in several different ways in any balance sheet. Yet, the former is almost never found.

When businesses adopt key performance indicators about relationships within the customer service experience and include them as part of their measurements specific to their financial reports, those businesses will truly realize the strategic competitive advantage of customer loyalty. The results will speak for themselves.