Like a constellation of praise, the little stars that represent restaurant and hotel ratings tell us we’re looking at something special. We do the same in business, from dry cleaners to daycare, choosing companies because their reputation for value spells excellent service.

But in these super-charged, 24/7 information-overload times, more often it’s the personal experience rather than the professional review that tells us what’s worth our money. I was recently planning a birthday dinner for a friend, talking to a colleague over coffee about her new restaurant, when a young man at the next table leaned over and said, “Don’t go there! The food is overcooked or too cold. The staff ignores you and it’s way overpriced.”

Amused, I thanked him and figured he’d had a bad experience, as a high-end restaurant couldn’t be that bad. But it was. Even worse, the manager was unsympathetic when I mentioned the problems. Multiply my experience, and the young man’s, by dozens of others, all with Twitter and Facebook friends, and you know how far our no-star ratings could spread. Kudos from your professional colleagues are great, but have you checked with your customers to see if they rate your service as five-star value?

How do you ensure that your customers think your product or service is top-notch?

Ever see a receipt bearing the words “thanks to you, our valued customer” – and how often do you scoff? Especially when the receipt comes after you’ve scanned and bagged your own groceries, punched in your own loyalty code and made your own change. Oh yes, you feel valued: you’re doing the work of an employee and paying for the privilege.

This self-service practice, seemingly everywhere, saves money for the companies who pay fewer employees to deal with customer concerns, but what does it do for customers? “I went into a store where I’ve shopped for years and found new management,” a busy woman said. She’d stopped in, planning to buy a baby gift for a friend having twins, but she couldn’t find what she wanted and none of the employees offered to help. “I finally left because the manager was too busy talking on her cell phone to answer my questions,” she said.

This scenario could be repeated in any chain store coast-to-coast, with profits up and customer service scarce. “But we take care of the customers in my business,” you say. Can you anticipate what a customer may want or recall a service you provided a year ago? The gap between saying you value your customers and demonstrating how you value them is the difference between the customer who migrates elsewhere and the one who takes to heart the notation “we heart our customers.”

What new ways can you show your customers their value?

The ultimate illustration of perseverance in action took place 31 years ago this month. At the Lake Placid Olympics, a youthful team of amateur hockey players, clad in red, white and blue, skillfully defeated the long-established “Big Red Machine,” the Soviet hockey power. The victory electrified the nation and left observers wondering how the Olympians did the impossible. No one could beat the Russians!

But they had, and not by luck or timing but sheer, repetitive effort. Their savvy coach worked the players so hard, their resentment and desire to “show him” helped them jell into a team. Pride pushed them to display ever-greater effort. Fine tuning their game plan, they didn’t consider the possibility of defeat because they were staying on point, building on each day’s efforts. After the thrill of beating the Soviet team, they remained focused, with a single opponent remaining between them and the gold medal. (Impress your friends by knowing this answer: After beating Russia, the US team beat Finland for the gold!) Their remarkable feat remains unmatched. Today, those former players still cite pure perseverance as the key to their success.

When your customer service efforts seem to be going nowhere, do you refocus like an Olympian on your goal of a better connection? It can be closer than you think.

Have you ever had an idea you know others would applaud if they’d just take time to embrace it? And when their reaction is less than supportive, do you continue to nurture the idea? It happened to a determined author who’d created a new, offbeat character. She’d enjoyed success featuring a traditional male protagonist but wanted to branch out and write about a different kind of heroine and tried out her creation in a short story.

“That was the story that killed so many magazines,” the author recalls. Every time she sold it to another publication, hopeful that her clever prose would finally appear, it didn’t. Magazines, struggling in a tough economy, dropped fiction pages or ceased publishing. Wondering if perhaps her character was a bit too outrageous, she kept trying. Eventually the story did run in a small magazine. It featured a tall, red-headed private detective who moonlights as a Boston cab driver, plays volleyball and blues guitar, and is in love with a mysterious businessman. Carlotta Carlyle, the offbeat P.I., may have been a tough sell, but she instantly appealed to readers and became the star of Linda Barnes’ ongoing series of mystery novels. Even when a thread of doubt crept in, the author trusted her instincts and stuck with her idea.

When you’re focused on customer service, does uncertainty change your course of action or are you dedicated to letting your own ideas shine?

We’ve all heard the mantra: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” How many of us apply it to customer service? It’s easy to write off a business situation as “not a good fit,” yet perseverance can pay. A woman who’d spent years as a sales rep in the medical community wanted to try selling advertising in a different field. A quilter, she knew her hobby’s suppliers and publications. She approached magazines but was told, “You’ve never sold ads before.” Treating them as new customers, she zeroed in on two publications. Her cold calls yielded no job offers, but she collected the direct phone numbers of the publishers she’d met.

Twice a week she placed friendly phone calls.”Remember me? I’m ready to sell for you,” she’d say, gently reminding them of her interest. “Eventually you’ll need an ad sales rep, and I really want that job.” It took three months of persistent reminders, but one publisher, impressed by her persistence, created an opening for her. By persevering, the saleswoman got what she wanted.

Sometimes you just have to try and keep trying. If a situation didn’t work, did you ask what would fix it? A healthy dose of perseverance can turn around a not-so-happy customer and keep the current ones smiling.

What kinds of things can you do to persevere in today’s marketplace?