There has been a fair amount of talk about customer care on the blogosphere of late. Check out Seth Godin's blog. I thought I would add something that happened to me that made me a loyal customer - probably for life.

I remember there was a film made a few years ago about doing good turns for people without expecting anything in return. That is a very powerful customer care programme. My story....

A few years ago my son's motor bike broke down one early morning while he was on the way to work. He was 17 and had forgotten his mobile. 6.30am foggy and cold he faced pushing the motor bike a few miles the rest of the way to work. After 15 minutes he was tired and still faced another couple of miles. Then an AA van (AAA for readers in the US) pulled up. The AA mechanic was on the way to his station to start work and wondered if he could help. My son explained he was not a member. That wasn't a problem the AA man said. The AA mechanic couldn't get the bike started so loaded it on his truck and drove my son to his work where he could call me. My son was full of thanks but forgot to get his name or vehicle number.

The AA mechanic did not need to stop and offer to help. After failing to get it started he could have said sorry and left my son pushing the motor bike. He didn't.

That act of kindness had a number of ramifications. I immediately joined the AA and added both my son and daughter to membership - that was 4 years ago. It is done by Direct Debit and it will take a massive amount of unhappiness to cause me to cancel it. I also happened to be coaching the director of HR and some of his staff at the AA at the time in presentation and communication skills. I made sure that he and every senior manager I met in the AA over the next few months heard the story in the hope the message would get back to the mechanic. When I was coaching the CEO of Centrica (parent of the AA at the time) a year or two later I even mentioned it to him.

And guess what? I have told this story many times to other people and if someone has had a bad experience with the AA I always counter with my story.

Now the big question for companies - would their employees do a 'pay it foward act'? It could mean a loyal customer who actively acts as an unpaid 'sales agent'.