I was sitting at Starbuck's, writing some notes, sipping my non-latte, non-espresso, non-cappuccino, plain old regular, but perfectly serviceable coffee, when I noticed an attractive lady sitting in the comfortable chair across from me.

She seemed to be reading something, somewhat detached from the environment as I was.

Turning back to my work, I heard a voice coming from her direction.

"Eli?” she asked, aiming her query my way.

"Eli?” I responded, in the typical dazed tone when we're mistaken for someone else.

"Yes, are you Eli?”

"No, sorry,” I reflexively shot back.

Then it hit me. This could have played a different way.

So, for fun, I looked at her and said, "Let's try that, again. Go ahead.”

Smiling at me, and up for the game, she asked, "Eli?”

"Yes, I'm Eli!” I replied with a big grin, just to see what Eli had lined up for himself by way of this beauty.

Unfortunately, after hearing his name crop up a zillion times, THE REAL ELI announced from a far corner of the joint, "Yes, that's me!” and our little charade was over nearly as quickly as it had started.

Anyway, it was fun, and it just goes to show that you should be ready for anything out there.

A mistaken identity can be a lot of fun, if you play it the right way!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. Headquartered in Glendale, California, he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

For more information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to: http://www.customersatisfaction.com