Does this sound familiar? No doubt you've either spoken or heard one of these distressed comments. After all, we've gone to seminars and been told that the customer is number one. Rubbish!

Even as the author of a best-selling book on customer service, I know that customer well-being is not nearly so important as my personal well-being. Now, this may sound selfish and contrary to popular business thinking but I can't possibly serve others to the best of my ability unless I have ample physical and mental reserves myself. We need to be at our personal best to give our personal best.

If we're at work and feeling guilty about yelling at the kids or not calling our aged parents; or resentful that we had to forgo a golf game to work on a quality certification all weekend, what frame of mind will we be in to greet our customers?

Try as we might, the best customer service providers are only human (apart from the automatic teller machines!), and all humans need to have their batteries recharged. Some daily exercise helps restore the balance. A simple walk will suffice for a marathon. And daily means every day!

As far back as the times of Aristotle, a correlation between a healthy mind and a healthy body was recognized. Often the only treadmill people are on is the one of constantly working. We're so busy being busy; so tired of being tired that like the treadmill, it feels like we're frantically moving but getting nowhere.

As a reformed workaholic, I know that physical and mental relaxation is easier to talk about than do. It's easier still to get into a vicious cycle of working harder in the hope that you will have more leisure time; to get more customers so you can afford that long overdue holiday.

But if you take better care of yourself, you'll be able to take better care of your customers. In return, they will take better care of your financial needs through repeat business. So remember that:

"You can't take care of your customers if you don't take care of yourself."