While in the Army, I attended a seven-week school, and in the classroom hung a poster with this acronym: P.R.I.D.E. — Professional Results in Daily Effort. I stared at this poster for the entire seven weeks. I guess the message stuck, because 30 years later I'm still thinking about it.

Professional: Knowledgeable, prepared, and competent. Professionals take pride in their jobs. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, Beethoven composed music, and Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and earth will pause and say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'" Do you take pride in your service? Are you a customer-service professional? Do you view serving as a privilege, or a pain?

Results: None of us are paid to make calls; we are paid to make sales and create results. Whether it's making sales on the front end or delivering service on the back end, customers want results from the people with whom they deal. Do you take pride in the results you create? Would you want to put your work on display for the whole world to see?

Daily: Delivering service is an every day thing, not a "sometimes" thing. For your services to be considered professional and effective, you must attend to them daily. Professionals make it a habit to do daily what others consider a hassle.

Effort: Initiative, energy and action. Customer service must be proactive, not reactive. The best part of being proactive with your service is not having to say you're sorry to customers for your failure to perform.

There is no commodity in professionalism. When customers encounter professionals, they know it. Professionals emit a pride that comes only from doing their jobs in a way that should be done. Service, by its very definition, is not commodity oriented. Service is what differentiates your company from the rest of the pack.

Customers will talk about your service — the abundance of it, or the lack of it. In fact, customers love to talk about service — good or bad. If you deliver great service, your customers will want to share their good fortune with their friends; it makes them look smart for finding you. And of course, if your service is lousy, they can't wait to share that piece of information with their friends as well. Besides, it feels good when they can gripe to someone about a business that doesn't care.

But not to worry… Professionals have nothing to fear from this. Because they take pride in their service, professionals love for customers to talk about them, especially to others who may need the professional's service. So, take pride in your service and encourage your customers to brag about their brilliance in choosing you over the competition.