Jeanne Bliss learned about that bond first hand while working as "Chief Customer Zealot" at Lands' End, Allstate, Coldwell Banker, Microsoft and Mazda. Today, her firm, Customer Bliss, consults with dozens more, teaching and guiding companies to honor both the people who work for them and the many more who buy from them every day.

What have you done lately to create customers who are truly thrilled with their experience? How do you breed buyers, those devoted fans that purchase your product time and time again, promote you to their nearest and dearest, their Facebook friends and Twitter followers?

Customer experience expert Jeanne Bliss can tell you how. Her new book, "I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MY DOG": Five Decisions that Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad, shares the five key decisions for creating companies that rise above and create an unbreakable human connection with their customers. These decisions -- believing, having clear purposes, being real, being there and saying sorry -- create a seismic shift from business to beloved company.

"The common denominator," writes Bliss, "is that these beloved companies consistently find a way to weave their humanity with business in the way they make decisions. They never lose sight of the people who have impacted them. They remember that customers admire them not for how they were treated, but how they were handled. They make decisions that create a lasting bond." As the soft economy creates a brutally competitive atmosphere and companies struggle to maintain their toehold in the market, Bliss' advice could not be more apt.