Is there a relationship between the size of a milkshake and long term business success? The question made me think about fair shakes and residual growth.

On a night, sometime in the past, at an unnamed restaurant named for some guy named Benny or Lenny or Kenny – something like that, I had a very disappointing experience.

I am a D****'s fan and this group I was with had been going to that same spot at the same time for eight years. We knew most of them the employees.

Recently, they had hired a new manager and the first order of business was to require our favorite waitress to stop wearing her signature flower in her hair.

How do you spell "rinky-dink?"

This woman was one of the reasons we kept going. She is D's for us and that flower was her identity. It was her smile. It was her way of describing her sunny outlook on life. That was disappointing.

Then, we were served by a very sweet, enthusiastic waitress who bounced in once or twice and had to receive some very distressing news of our unhappiness with one issue: we only received half of a milkshake!

Apparently, this was the training that the new, "progressive" management had initiated – no individual expression, standardization of everything, and half a milkshake for the same price as the old product where we received "seconds" in the metal container.

I am not a complainer and I left the sweet girl (who didn't refill the all-you-can-drink drinks or bring us our bill) a nice tip. It was not her fault. It may not even be this manager's fault. It may be no one's fault – but it does make a pretty good subject for a blog on how not to succeed in business over the long haul.

Not to succeed is to forfeit residual growth and income.

We went back – a time or two, to give it a fair shake and eventually, I got a fair shake. Therefore, I kept giving them my business, but it was touch and go for a few moments in time.

It is about culture. Some businesses and managers create cultures of excellence. Some do not.

There are many businesses that bend over backwards to make the customer feel happy and part of a community.

Here is the question: Are you in whatever you are in for the long haul? If so, you are interested in happy people who keep coming back … and in residual income. Whether you represent a church, a network marketing system, a brick and mortar business, or some other endeavor, the secret to customer satisfaction is first, giving your customer a fair shake and then, going well beyond that to the point of surprise and delight.

I am not surprised to see that the Bible weighs in on this:

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. – Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, (NASB ©1995) – Colossians 3:23

I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. (NASB ©1995) – Nehemiah 5:16