Customer Service or not?

One of my pet hates has always been the lack of Customer Service in the independent sector as well as the Nationals.
Poor customer service can break your business and in the current economic climate we don't need something as basic as good customer service to slip.
I believe customer service if demonstrated and trained from the top should come as automatically as opening up in a morning.
Politeness costs nothing and serving in the service/hospitality industry is part of the job role.
My mantra has always been 'Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself' so it justs makes me wonder how complacent we are becoming.
Customer feedback is not something to be feared but something to work with. It defines the areas of your business that need looking at to improve the experience of your clientele.
Perhaps you just need to stress the importance of customer service when you induct new staff, perhaps existing staff need a refresher on dealing with the customer.
Rewarding staff is a good way to generate excellence; its amazing the difference it can make by just presenting a Certificate to the Employee of the Month can make. Other staff members are automatically going to step up to the mark. Maybe the Employee of the Month could provide hints and tips for the Company Newsletter?
Your staff members are your reputation, their level of service can affect the balance in your till in the future, perhaps this could be the difference between staying in business or not.
What do you think?