DAVID ANDREWS, chief executive of York-based Yorkshire Tourist Board proudly proves that his organisation practises what it preaches on excellence in customer service.

It's not often I blow my own trumpet, but I intend to make this an exception.

Although in truth, it isn't really blowing my own trumpet. More blowing it on behalf of a group of people who don't have a trumpet of their own to blow, namely the people who work for Yorkshire Tourist Board.

The reason for this uncharacteristic departure? Yorkshire Tourist Board has become the first company in the region to achieve Gold in the new Servicemark Levels of Achievement.

Supported by Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, Servicemark is the first organisation of its kind in Europe, committed to promoting excellent customer service among businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber. And with good reason.

Many may sneer at the ideals of good customer service. There seems to have been a malaise in this country that prevented people from distinguishing between service and servile. I'm glad to say that finally we are coming round. Not a moment too soon.

Don't get me wrong, It isn't my intrinsic niceness and keenness to please that makes me a champion of excellent customer service, it's plain financial sense.

More than 70 per cent of jobs in the region are in the service industries and it's essential to the economic growth and development of the area that those doing business, shopping, spending recreation time and living in the region enjoy the highest standards of customer service.

Secondly, customer service doesn't just apply to the service industries. Anyone who you deal with on a day-to-day basis is either your customer or you are theirs.

So where does the financial sense come in? A customer who has already used you, who liked your product and was happy with the experience will come back automatically. They know and trust you. But if you lose that customer, it can cost five times more to buy a new customer than it would have cost to retain the one you lost.

Thankfully, the Servicemark Levels of Achievement, are setting a new standard in customer service, with 1,400 members from companies across Yorkshire and the Humber signed up to the initiative.

Still think excellent customer service is a waste of time? Then hear this: A survey of 3000 business people by Price Waterhouse and the University of Bradford found that on average, where there was high customer satisfaction, customers paid their bills at least 14 days earlier than where there was poor customer satisfaction.

Think what that would do to the cash flow of your business!

Updated: 10:06 Tuesday, October 28, 2003