A professor that teaches at a small, distinguished school, located in a leafy community known for its trees and Ph.D.s, was scheduled to die a few months ago.

He hadn't committed a crime, and the executioner's chair wasn't waiting in the shadows.

With so much going for him, including a career that only ramped upward, he certainly wasn't going to take a hand in his own demise.

But he was on a timetable, one that counted down to zero very quickly because of kidney disease.

Happily, he got a reprieve as some sufferers do, because he received an organ transplant.

There are two unusual factors about his case:

(1) Among others, his students volunteered to donate a kidney; and

(2) No fewer than 25 people did the same thing on his behalf, setting a record at the institution that handles such grave matters.

Students are the CUSTOMERS of colleges and universities.

There are several ways we professors can tell if our customers like us and appreciate our efforts to help them achieve a degree of enlightenment, if not just a degree.

They can and do thank us, directly. They can give us high teaching evaluations. They can take added courses with us and recommend our classes to their friends.

Or they can donate one or more of their vital organs.

That last sentence seems oddly out of place, doesn't it?

And yet, in an era in which the phrase CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS is bandied about so much, and when we exalt what comes to be called legendary service, exactly what standards should we use to monitor, measure, manage, and improve our results with those whom we serve?

After all, what is the test of a GENUINE RELATIONSHIP?

(Self-sacrifice is certainly one feature...)

And when does our conduct as a provider of goods and services so impress that people will put their own lives at risk to enable us to keep doing what we do for a living?

I have no doubt the professor is among the finest in the profession. But his contributions to his students, significant as they are, do not come close to the importance of understanding the dynamics involved in the literal attachment his students are willing in such numbers to maintain with him.

This is one of the mysteries that my forthcoming book seeks to address in theoretical as well as practical terms.

Perhaps one of the best tests of customer loyalty, satisfaction, and commitment is the answer to this question:

What sacrifices are your customers willing to make for YOU?