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Last week, you read about how Quill was founded by a friend and mentor, Jack Miller.

Jack humbly began his business in 1956 with a phone in his father’s chicken store and a $2,000 loan from his father-in-law. By 1998, Quill had become North America’s largest business-to-business direct marketer of office supplies, business furniture and technology products, with annual sales in excess of $630 million dollars. (In May of 1998, Quill was sold to Staples for $685 million dollars!)

A driving force to Quill’s growth and success, is their relentless and passionate pursuit of customer service. The “Quill Customer’s Bill of Rights” was first published in 1970 when Quill had 32 employees. It was restated, approved and reprinted in the Quill catalog on April 1,1987, when Quill had grown to more than 850 employees. (Today, Quill has more than 1,300 employees.)

Here it is, the Quill Customers’ Bill of Rights: The undersigned officers and the more than 850 employees of Quill Corporation express a desire to clearly state the principles and ideals which guide all of us at Quill in our relationship with our customers. We feel this unusual step is necessary at this time because we find ourselves when we are customers, both as individuals and as a company, frequently dissatisfied with the way we are treated.

Disinterest, discourteousness, bad service, late deliveries and just plain bad manners are too common. We can’t tell others how to run their businesses (except by not buying from them.) But we can and will run Quill as we feel a business should be run. Therefore, the following is a list of what we consider are the inalienable rights of our customers. We expect to beheld to account whenever we deny any of these rights to any customer.

1. As a customer you are entitled to be treated like a real, individual, feeling human being, with friendliness, honesty and respect.

2. As a customer, you are entitled to full value for your money. When you buy a product you should feel assured that it was a good buy and that the product is exactly as it was represented to be.

3. As a customer, you are entitled to a complete guarantee of satisfaction. This is especially true when you buy the product sight unseen through the mail or over the phone.

4. As a customer, you are entitled to fast delivery. Unless otherwise indicated, the product should be shipped within 8-32 hours. In the event of a delay, you are entitled to immediate notification, along with an honest estimate of expected shipping date.

5. As a customer, you are entitled to speedy, courteous, knowledgeable answers on inquiries. You are entitled to all the help we can give in finding exactly the product or information needed.

6. As a customer, you are entitled to the privilege of being an individual and of dealing with individuals. If there is a question on your account, you are entitled to talk with or correspond with another individual so the question can be resolved immediately on the most mutually satisfactory basis possible.

7. As a customer, you are entitled to be treated exactly as we want to be treated when we are someone else’s customer.

I strongly suggest and unequivocally urge, you too, create a bill of rights for your company and your customers.

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Jeff Blackman is a speaker, author, success coach, broadcaster and lawyer who lives part-time on Marco Island. His clients call him a “business-growth specialist.” Send an e-mail to jeff@jeffblackman.com or go to www.jeffblackman.com to subscribe to his free e-letter.