Many business owners believe that customers are most loyal in exchange for consistent, reliable service and delivery. While there is truth in this assumption, it is not completely accurate. Another secret is key to true customer loyalty.

True loyal comes not from status quo service delivery, but rather from how you handle mistakes and breakdowns when they come up.

Two examples illustrate this point.

Earlier this week, the leading small business credit card processing site Authorize.net had a major service shut down. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses rely on this service to be able to charge credit cards and process transactions. When Authorize.net shut down, these businesses came to a halt.

Meanwhile, the website at Authorize.net was completely shut down, leaving customers in the dark. Worse, when customers tried calling Authorize.net, they got a message saying that they were closed for the weekend and for the holiday (this was on July 3, just before the USA July 4th holiday).

As a result, hundreds of thousands of businesses felt left in the lurch. Those without a backup credit card processor -- probably most of us -- panicked.

The web quickly became flooded with angry posts on sites dedicated to small business and web design. How could a company as large as Authorize.net not have 24/7 customer service? How could they not be posting messages to let people know what was going on (and what was going on, anyway)? Even on a holiday weekend, customers appropriately commented that it was inexcusable to not be able to respond to whatever was causing the problem.

A few hours after the shutdown, a few people were able to reach Authorize.net directly at their office. They discovered that there was a fire in the building and it was reported that sprinklers had caused damage to their servers. Due the holiday weekend, no one was on site, and the company was rushing to make calls to get some employees in to start fixing the problem.

Now web comments became even angrier. How could a major card processing company not have instant redundancy? How could they have sprinklers in their data center (instead of ways to fight fire that wouldn't damage hardware)? And again, how could they continue to be so unrepsonsive.

Soon after, the company set up a special Twitter account to notify people of their progress in restoring service. However, they gave no ETA for return of service. Also, when they indicated that limited processing was back up, a number of people reported that they still couldn't process their transactions, which hurt the company's credibility further.

By afternoon on July 3, after around 10 hours or more, Authorize.net finally came back on line. However, their website had no details about the issue, and (so far) small business owners have received no apology or notification of how Authorize.net will handle such emergencies better in the future.

Obviously, the above case study shows how NOT to handle a service disruption. In my own case, I will be looking for another service provider to handle my own credit card transactions, and will certainly put some backups in place. I have lost confidence in Authorize.net and feel no loyalty to them -- even if it costs me time and frustration to make a switch.

Customers understand that companies can't provide 100% reliable service all the time. Even Fedex acknowledges that they are not able to deliver 100% of their packages on time (although they are working towards that number, and are not far off). However, to gain lasting loyalty and trust, a company needs to handle mistakes and breakdowns effectively. It is during these times that a company really earns their customers' trust.

In Authorize.net's case, they should have done the following:

1. Provide 24/7 customer service, not limited service hours, including on holidays.

2. Invest in state of the art facilities, with distributed back up around the world, to handle disruption in a single facility.

3. Invest in fire control that won't damage their hardware.

4. Have a plan to quickly mobilize "all hands" in case of an emergency.

5. Have an alternative way to stay in touch with customers in case of a shut down.

6. Send a message to all customers after a service outage communicating what happened and making amends. This should include getting on the various blogs that customers use to discuss ecommerce issues. While setting up Twitter was a good idea, they did that reactively after a long wait.

Here is a second case study. In this case, the company is Battaglia Flooring, in Sarasota Florida. This company happens to be installing new tiles in my home. Throughout the process, they have been incredibly helpful in notifying us of and minimizing the disruption that replacing tiles can cause in a home.

The owner of the company has come out numerous times to inspect the work closely and have workers improve any defects. We have appreciated this personal attention to detail, and the owner's overall care and concern for quality.

Yesterday, we noticed that a large section of patterned tile was off-center in our dining room; fixing the problem would cost time and money (including more tile). I called the company to fix the issue before normal business hours, at around 8 am. When the workers arrived at 9 am, they had already learned that we were unhappy, and told us of their plan to fix the problem. Unlike many contractor experiences we have had, there was no negotiating about whether we had to pay more money. The workers just got to work to fix the problem and make things right. They even put in some overtime during the holiday weekend to stay on schedule.

We understand that it is not easy to renovate a house. We expect problems. However, it is rare to have a contractor in place who does what is required to make things right, with minimal hassle to the customer.

The bottom line: It is important to provide consistent and loyal service over time (otherwise, customers will complain about you and your reputation will suffer). However, to really build customer loyalty, you need to be prepared to go the extra mile, especially when things go wrong. How your company and employees respond to mistakes is a big factor in predicting how long your customers will stay with you -- and whether they will rave about you to others.