I’ll skip the introductory paragraph about how bad the economy is and how smart business people are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to offer more value to their customers because—assuming you haven’t been riffed and the lights are still on—you already know this.

The point of this post is to reinforce the importance of exceptional customer service that transcends the ordinary and approaches the extraordinary.

In today’s economy, consumers increasingly scrutinize the “value for price paid” of a product or service. While exceptional customer service adds value, most service organizations fail to deliver it.

In some cases they fail because managers either don’t recognize what exceptional customer service is or have not adequately communicated it to frontline staff. And when they do recognize and communicate it, they often fail to consistently model the behavior themselves.

Here are three truths about exceptional customer service that all service organization managers should recognize and communicate to every employee:

• It is the essence—the most critical aspect, the highest priority—of every employee’s job role.
• It is always optional. An employee chooses to deliver exceptional customer service.
• In most cases, it costs no more to deliver than poor customer service. In other words, it’s free.

And it’s not enough to simply recognize and communicate these truths. You must model exceptional customer service at all times.

If you’re reading this post and are responsible for customer service outcomes in your company or department, I challenge you to take the first step toward enhancing the quality of customer service that you provide to your customers and model for your staff.

Simply answer the following question and then pose it to members of your staff:

Q: What “little extras” can you offer customers that will add value to the product or service you provide and reinforce your highest priority: exceptional customer service?

Here are some examples of “little extras” that I have experienced as a customer:

• Chick-fil-A, a quick service restaurant, provides a mint with each order—similar to full service restaurant.
• The General Motors dealership that services my car always washes it before pulling it around front and delivering it to me.
• Our garbage collector always brings the trash cans from the curb to the top of our driveway.
• Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza gives me a two-stamp head start on my pizza loyalty card. Now I’m 17 percent closer to a free pizza!
• Starbucks Coffee on occasion offers complimentary samples of ground coffee, pastries, and specialty coffee drinks.
• Tony’s Market in Denver, CO includes preparation instructions on its meat packaging (e.g., oven/grill temps, meat temps, etc.).
• The Wine Experience in Aurora, CO serves its coffee tableside in French presses.
• I recently worked with a hotel in New York City whose front desk clerks spontaneously send guests “Connection Cards” intended to welcome them, acknowledge something they shared during their check-in (e.g., reason for their hotel stay, the Broadway show they plan to see, the restaurant they plan to visit, etc.), and provide the clerk’s name and extension number for further assistance.
• The professional waiters at Sparks Steak House in New York City are adept at changing the table linens between entrée and dessert courses without removing your wine glasses or exposing the tabletop.

Sometimes these “little extras” are tangible (e.g., Chick-fil-A’s mints) and other times they are intangible aspects of the service experience (e.g., the changing of table linens at Sparks Steak House). In most cases they are unexpected and transform an ordinary experience into one that’s extraordinary!

Once you identify the “little extras” that will add value to the product or service you offer, don’t keep them a secret. Communicate the importance of exceptional customer service to anyone who will listen and share the ideas that you and others generate to fulfill this standard of customer service. Most importantly, model these “little extras” for all to see—employees and customers alike!

By doing so, you will elevate the quality of customer service you currently deliver and will be providing enhanced value to your customers.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary really is that “little extra.”

Over the past 15 months I’ve been on Twitter, I have contacted dozens of businesses for a variety of reasons.

In some cases I’ve had feedback on a product or service. In other cases I was interested in buying a product or service. A majority of the time, however, I was simply trying to engage.

The accounts I contacted varied from restaurant chains and coffee and wine retailers, to independent authors and consultants. When providing feedback on an experience I had with a product or service, whether positive or critical, I seldom received a response.

On one occasion, I ordered three pounds of coffee from a Washington-based retailer I met on Twitter. After the coffee was three days late in arriving, I sent an @reply to the account. The coffee arrived the next day but I never heard back regarding my comment. That was the last time I ordered coffee from that retailer.

Another time, my family and I had a negative experience at an area location of an Italian restaurant chain. After blogging about it, I forwarded the blog link to the chain’s Twitter account in an @reply. Instead of following up, they ignored the message. We haven’t returned to that restaurant chain.

And since posting this blog regarding obtaining signed books from two well-known Twitter personalities, I have had another request for ten signed books ignored by another Twitter celebrity. That’s okay, there’s no shortage of competing books for me to buy.

And before anyone attempts to rationalize this lack of engagement and poor customer service due to these organizations or people being busy, understand that we’re all busy.

If you and I are too busy to clean our homes, we hire a maid. If we don’t have time to cook, we eat out. And if we’re too busy to follow up on customer feedback and sales inquiries, we hire an assistant. No one is above responding to customers or making a sale.

Speaking of busy people, two who took the time to respond to me and to ensure that I received ten signed copies of their latest books were bestselling authors John Miller (@QBQGuy) and Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee).

These guys are not too busy to respond—or make a sale. They are busy professionals with a lot on their plates who not only preach about the importance of customer service, they deliver it.

In summary, here’s a list of Do’s and Don’ts:

Do:

• Engage
• Respond to others
• Capitalize on opportunities

Don’t:

• Be indifferent
• Ignore others
• Miss opportunities

Bottom line: If you don’t like to engage, you’ll like irrelevance even less.

Most of us acknowledge that when we’re performing our jobs, we are working.

But what many employees don’t often consider is that their jobs are made up of both mandatory actions that fulfill job functions (i.e., the bullet points on a job description) as well as optional behaviors that fulfill job essence—their highest priority (which, for most service-based businesses, is creating delighted customers).

Most work environments reinforce mandatory job functions through job descriptions, standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, etc., and pay little attention to the optional behaviors that, in the end, are the difference between an ordinary transaction and a memorable experience.

Here’s a quick example from the retail industry:

A couple of weeks ago, while in the checkout line at the supermarket, I had a chance to observe the cashier’s interaction with the customer ahead of me.

Typically these interactions are transactional: a screen displays the total, the customer swipes a bank card and signs for her purchases, the cashier presents a receipt, and the customer (9 times out of 10) thanks the cashier—presumably for accepting her money.

The cashier has completed a set of mandatory actions that fulfill her job function. But nothing stood out. No impression was made. An opportunity to make a connection was lost—forever…

But on this particular day, as she scanned a bag of dog food, the cashier asked, “What kind of a dog do you have?”

With that, the cashier and the customer had an enthusiastic exchange about their mutual love of Labrador Retrievers. It wasn’t long—maybe all of 20 seconds—while the customer swiped his bank card and signed for his purchases.

The cashier, by simply posing a question, expressed genuine interest in the customer and transformed a bland and uneventful transaction into a unique and memorable experience. An impression was made. A connection was established.

The cashier’s question was optional and fulfilled the essence of her job: to create a delighted customer. And because questions like these are optional, as customers we don’t always receive them. But when we do, they tend to leave a lasting positive impression.

Perhaps when the customer returns to the store, he will quickly scan the checkout lanes to see whether or not his “friend” is working and, if so, may go out of his way to queue in her line. The cashier may even recognize him and, recalling their previous conversation, ask about his dog.

This is how relationships form. This is how customer loyalty is earned. Customers don’t establish relationships with stores, they establish relationships with the people inside the stores.

Good customer service is rarely the result of perfectly executed mandatory job functions. Rather, it is most often the result of optional behaviors such as expressing genuine interest (e.g., “What kind of a dog do you have?”) and offering sincere and specific compliments (e.g., “You couldn’t have picked a breed with a better disposition.”) that fulfill job essence.

Good customer service is always optional. That’s why we rarely experience it.

Have you ever heard a co-worker say, “I’m only one person, it won’t make much difference if I don’t do this quite right”?

Most times they don’t actually come out and say it but you can detect it in their body language and demeanor.

How can you influence these employees to accept responsibility for their performance in ways that support the collective efforts of the entire team?

One way is through carrots and sticks (rewards and consequences) but these have been proven to be ineffective long-term strategies. Sustained behavior change results from a personal commitment to change—it’s a matter of choice and identity.

So if I commit to becoming a conscientious and engaged member of the team, the odds increase that my performance will improve without the enticement of short-term incentive programs or the threat of disciplinary actions.

Here’s an illustration of this personal commitment from the book Inside the Magic Kingdom by Tom Connellan:

Somxtimxs I gxt to thinking that what I do doxsn’t mattxr. But whxn I start thinking that way, I rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr. Most of thx kxys workxd finx most of thx timx. But onx day, onx of thx kxys stoppxd working altogxthxr. And that rxally mxssxd xvxrything up. So whxn I’m txmptxd to say, I’m only onx pxrson, it won’t makx much diffxrxncx if I don’t do this quitx right, I rxmxmbxr my old typxwritxr. And I say to mysxlf: “I am a kxy pxrson and nxxdxd vxry much.”

It’s a great illustration that reinforces the importance of every employee’s unique contribution to product and service quality while demonstrating the value of each employee’s personal commitment to the success of the entire team.

What has your xxpxrixncx bxxn?

Last weekend marked the grand opening of Sprouts Farmers Market in Aurora, CO. The parking lot was teeming with cars so I dropped my wife off near the entrance and then circled the lot until I found a parking spot towards the front of the store.

Anticipating a delay due to the grand opening crowds, I put a movie on for the kids, opened a window, and relaxed. It was a beautiful day. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and every now and then I’d get a glimpse of some fresh produce or breads sticking out of shopping bags as customers made their way to their cars.

I was now beginning to daydream—anticipating my own lunch made with toasted sourdough bread, fresh produce, choice meats, and select cheeses from Sprouts. Ah…

About that time, a Sprouts employee emerged from the store, leaned back against the building’s façade about ten feet from where I’d parked, and lit a cigarette—drawing deeply before exhaling a cloud of smoke.

Mood killer.

As I was downwind, I immediately closed the windows and then thought about how smoking and its residual effects (i.e., second-hand smoke, clothing odor, etc.) are incompatible with what Sprouts is attempting to promote: freshness and healthy living.

I don’t smoke. You may have gathered that already. And my hunch is that the majority of Sprouts customers, who are intentional about planning healthy meals using the freshest ingredients, don’t smoke either.

I’m no prude. I’ve smoked cigars on golf courses and in cigar bars. My point is not to bag on smokers. I will, however, bag on Sprouts for its failure to establish standards that reinforce its mission statement which includes: “…helping America eat healthier (and) live longer…”

If employees are permitted to smoke on the premises, it should not be evident to customers—by sight or smell. It’s simply incompatible with what Sprouts promotes and what its customers expect.

In addition to that, it’s a mood killer. And if customers are in the mood to spend money, it’s a business killer too.