A man entered a shoe repair shop and said to the owner, “I just found this claim ticket for a pair of shoes I dropped off -- 10 years ago.”

“Oh my,” the shopkeeper chuckled. “Let me take a look at that,” he said as he inspected the ticket. “I hope we still have them. I’ll go in the back and check.”

The shopkeeper could be heard rummaging through boxes before he called out, “They’re still here!”

“That’s great!” the man said when the shopkeeper emerged from the back room holding a pair of dusty shoes. “How much do I owe you?”

“They’re not ready,” the shopkeeper replied, “but I can have them back to you by next Tuesday.”

We’ve all been in that man’s shoes, metaphorically. We do business with an organization, only to find out the customer isn’t really the most important person to them. Regardless of how often I speak or write about service, the response is most often centered on personal experiences that have disappointed. On rare occasions I hear about truly amazing service, and it just reinforces how important it is to share these stories with our sales force.

Let me give you an example. In the envelope manufacturing business, of which I’ve been a part for 50-plus years, we win or lose customer jobs by pennies per thousand. When most of our customers are purchasing between tens of millions to, in several instances, over 500 million envelopes annually, the pennies do add up to thousands of dollars of cost difference.

With our product and pricing so dramatically close between customer options, it truly does come down to quality of service and flexibility in adapting to the “ordering off the menu” requests by customers.

But the sale only begins when the customer says yes. In addition to the sales force, every person who has a hand in the production, packaging, delivery and post-sale customer service needs to be on board with the company’s philosophy and promises. Otherwise, that customer probably won’t be a customer for long.

Keeping employees motivated to consistently provide high-quality customer service is absolutely essential for any company that plans to stay in business. Here are some basic considerations:

-- Hire the right people. The rule is you either hire smart or manage tough. Hiring smart is much, much better, but it requires you to know what you’re looking for and to recognize the skills and attitude you want. Look at experience and listen to your gut. If you still aren’t sure, ask yourself if you’d want that person to be working for your competitor. If the answer is no, then you know your answer.

-- Keep score. Measure performance, or your team will be in perpetual warm-up mode. Let employees know what they’re being measured on and how it’s relevant to them, their customers,and the organization’s bottom line. Clear expectations eliminate misunderstandings.

-- Recognize employees. Make sure you reward the desired outcome. For instance, if you want your salespeople to create relationships and long-term accounts, reward them. We have a designated parking spot with their name near the door for the salesperson of the month. A “wall of fame” is great motivation for displaying the above-and-beyond attitude you want to encourage.

-- Practice what you preach. If you want a motivated customer-service rep, you need to be motivated yourself first. You need to love your customers, because if you’re not sincerely motivated yourself, you’ll never motivate other people to provide service excellence.

Steve Hardison, who went on to become a successful executive coach, began his career in sales at Xerox. Product returns were against company policy at the time, but according to a story in the Chicago Tribune, one day, Hardison decided to let one of his customers return a copier regardless of the rule. When his boss demanded an explanation, Hardison said, “If I lose a job because I took care of a customer, then I never had a job.”

The next day his boss’s boss called him into his office. Hardison fully expected to get fired. Instead, the executive said, “I wish I had more people like you.” His reputation for honesty and integrity was made.

Mackay’s Moral: There is no such thing as too good where customer service is involved.

In life, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the University of Minnesota head football coach P.J. Fleck. I asked P.J. what he looks for when he recruits players. P.J. said he wants kids who have faced adversity and gone through a lot in their young lives.

Maybe that’s why the legendary college football coach and my longtime friend Lou Holtz, said: “Show me someone who has done something worthwhile and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.”

I have never yet met a successful person who hasn’t had to overcome either a little or a lot of adversity in his or her life. I want people who can accomplish their goals. I want people who are tougher, better, smarter, harder-working and more able than the competition. If people believe in themselves, there’s hardly anything that they can’t accomplish.

When asked the secret of his success, retail magnate J.C. Penney replied, “Adversity. I would never have amounted to anything had I not been forced to come up the hard way.”

Everyone faces adversity, pain, loss and suffering in life. When you go through those periods, it’s hard to remember that the emotions you’re feeling are only temporary. The best thing to do is to develop a plan for what you will do when these times hit and find your way to the silver lining -- the place where you can feel hopeful again.

First, examine whether you have:

-- A personal sense of commitment in life.

-- A feeling of control over life.

-- An ability to let go when appropriate.

-- A strong personal support system.

-- Strong values.

Without these attributes, even small stumbling blocks can magnify everything to the point of inducing failure. Work at developing these traits.

Keep in mind, there are plenty of things you can’t control, such as traffic, the number of hours in a day, your age, other people’s whims and reactions and, of course, death and taxes.

But you do have control over some significant areas that will minimize the adversity you encounter, such as your treatment of others, the way you spend your time outside of work, your self-image, when and how to share your feelings, how to let others know you’re stressed and how old you act.

In other words, take care of the little things and, suddenly, the big things take on a more realistic perspective.

I’m often asked how I deal with adversity. The first thing I do is to stay focused on the task at hand. When dealing with adversity, it’s important to stay present and mindful of the moment.

Second is to break things down. What is important? Try not to get overwhelmed when facing adversity and setbacks.

Third, take whatever immediate action is necessary, but if you have the luxury of time, sleep on it.

And finally, it’s always good to have mentors or a trusty “kitchen cabinet” to be your sounding board.

A playful story is told of a man walking home from work in the dark of night. Not noticing a large hole in the street produced by recent construction, he fell in. Every effort to escape was futile, so he leaned back in the corner and fell asleep.

A short time later another walker found himself quickly descending to the bottom of the hole. He too struggled and strained to find a way out. Exhausted, he was about to sit down and wait for the morning light when he heard a voice in the darkness say, “Forget it, fella. You can’t get out.”

In a split second he was out!

Isn’t it amazing how all of a sudden the man was able to jump a little higher, put forth a little more effort, climb a little farther to escape his predicament? The “voice in the night” provided just the motivation he needed.

Mackay’s Moral: Turn adversity to advantage with the right attitude.

Thomas Jefferson arrived alone on horseback at a hotel in Baltimore and asked for a room. The owner of the hotel looked Jefferson up and down and surmised that he was a lowly farmer and in a curt voice said, “We have no room for you, sir.”

Just after Jefferson had left, a very wealthy man came to the hotel and informed the owner that the man was Thomas Jefferson, vice president of the United States at the time. The hotelier was amazed and appalled that he had turned away the vice president.

He called for his helpers and he said, “Run and tell that gentleman that he may have forty rooms if he wishes. Tell him to come back. He can have my wife’s bedroom or my own.”

Jefferson by that time had already reached another hotel when the first hotelier's servants caught up with him and delivered their master’s message.

Jefferson replied: “Tell him I have engaged a room. Tell him that I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no room for a dirty farmer, he shall have none for the vice president.”

As baseball great Jackie Robinson said, “I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

There are four very important words in life: love, honesty, truth and respect. Without these in your life you have nothing.

If there was ever a time in our history when respect was less evident, I would suggest that time is now.

But all is not lost. I think most of us would prefer to return to kinder times, when differing opinions were met with open minds. It’s important to listen to other points of view. You may learn something that you hadn’t considered before. And it could help you understand why others behave as they do.

Baseball legend Reggie Jackson said: “I believe it is very important to show respect toward individuals who live up to their obligations and responsibilities, whether or not you like the individuals involved. Respect is a virtue which goes far beyond the emotion of liking.”

You probably spend most of your waking hours at work, so respectful behavior is essential to building trust among co-workers. Working together can easily turn co-workers into best friends, making jobs more enjoyable and the workplace a productive environment.

But friendships need to be managed appropriately, just like every other workplace relationship. Respect in the workplace means that you follow some basic rules.

-- Limit social chatter. Everyone chats a little at work, but don’t let your friendly conversations overshadow your responsibilities. Stay focused on your job most of the time.

-- Keep private issues private. When you have problems to discuss, do it over lunch or after work. You don’t want to make your co-workers privy to your personal dramas -- and they probably don’t want to listen to them either.

-- Avoid gossip. Most of us love to talk about other people, but keep your natural inclination to share rumors about co-workers or managers in check. If colleagues realize you’re gossiping about them, the backlash could be unpleasant.

-- Don’t do each other’s jobs. Pitching in to help a friend in a crunch is admirable, but keep it to a reasonable limit. Your manager is in charge of assignments and responsibilities, not you. You don’t want to give the impression that you don’t trust your boss to do his or her job.

-- Include, don’t exclude. You may prefer the company of your friend, but don’t ignore the rest of your office. Invite other co-workers to lunch and include them in your conversations. You may even make new friends by expanding your circle at work.

I’d hate to think we all have to learn the hard way, like Jefferson's Baltimore hotelier.

Mackay’s Moral: Showing respect is not a sign of weakness -- it’s a show of strength.