Amish businesses have a 95% success rate, according to Erik Wesner. In his new book Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, Wesner outlines why Amish businesses thrive and what others can learn from them. Here, he takes a look at how they approach customer service.

The accompanying photographs were shot by the author Erik Wesner, or for the author, while researching the book.

1. The Golden Rule goes without saying. Most are tempted to break it at some point.

2. The customer is always right--even when he's wrong. But only up to a point. He stops being right when you have to compromise your integrity or sacrifice your resources beyond a predetermined acceptable level.

3. The importance of quality also goes without saying. Protect it, especially when expanding. Expanding too fast can threaten quality and drive away customers.

4. Word of mouth is among the most powerful ways to secure customers. Whether it's furniture, the new dentist, or the latest tech tool, people respond when others they know and trust do the talking. It can be worth losing money to keep a good reputation.

5. Know the 80/20 rule. Focus energies on the top. Spending too much time on the margins can sink an otherwise healthy company.

6. At the same time, don't step on the small. The mighty often start meager, and a trifling request may in fact be a test run for something much more substantial.

7. Customers will tell you what they want, and how to sell it, if you listen. You ''listen'' in different ways: by scrutinizing sales statistics, by reading news and industry publications, and by old-fashioned asking. You may have to put aside your ego.

8. Unhappy customers talk faster and louder than happy ones. Put out fires quickly. Or better, avoid creating them in the first place by following customer-first principles.

9. Handling difficult customers requires tact and knowledge of how far you'll bend. You may need to avoid or leave destructive customers.

10. At the same time, predictive wizardry is as much art and intuition as it is science. And being choosy is not a luxury available to all.