6 companies where customers come first

Cleveland, OH

Type of firm: Salon

Customer-service strategy: John DiJulius (left) owns six salons in the Cleveland area (johnrobertsspa.com) with $5 million in annual sales. When a client has a complaint, he pulls out all stops to rectify it. When Heidi DuBois-Robinson, 43, came in for a hair coloring, her suit got stained. She took it to the cleaners, but the stain remained. So she called DiJulius, who sent her a $385 check for a new suit, no questions asked. He also threw in a free facial and pedicure. Since the incident, Robinson says she has raved about DiJulius's salon to roughly 30 other friends. Not only is she still getting her hair cut and colored there, but she has started getting facials and pedicures. "At first, I thought about never going back," she says. "Now I would never think of going anywhere else."