Customers across the country should be getting extra special treatment this week to celebrate the first Customer Service Week in the UK.

A similar week in the United States has been described as a great success.

Peter Hall, regional chairman for the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), said having a week to celebrate good service gave companies the opportunity to take a look at how they treat customers.

He said: "Businesses can focus on customer service, find their weaknesses and make improvements. Every company knows how difficult finding customers can be, so once it has customers it should do all it can to keep them.

"We plan to encourage as many customer service activities and promotions as we can. It should be a mix of fun and learning.

"Another objective is to give customer service departments the opportunity to demonstrate their role and importance to other areas of the company, to external customers and to the market in general."

Mr Hall, a partner in the Brighton-based public relations firm The Priory Partnership, said too many firms had the wrong attitude towards customers, treating them as a nuisance or people to be dealt with on a personal basis only when something went wrong.

Some firms still did not have a customer service department, only a complaints department.

Mr Hall said: "Without customers we don't have a business. We hope the week will raise the profile of customer service and help businesses of all sizes."