Much is said about a company’s responsibility to create an environment that fosters an engaged workforce, one in which employees are fully involved and enthusiastic. And while it’s true that employers should treat their employees fairly, provide them with achievement opportunities, recognize their contributions, and promote cooperative relations with others, employees also have a responsibility.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my local Home Depot to pick up, among other things, a 3-volt battery for my home’s furnace humidifier. Unlike a standard AA or AAA battery, a 3-volt battery is unique and, therefore, not as familiar to me. To make sure I selected the correct type, I brought the old 3-volt battery into the store with me.

After searching the battery rack, I approached a woman standing in front of the self-service checkout lanes, held up the battery, and asked, “Where could I find one of these?”

Indifferent toward my question, she pointed to the battery rack behind me and said, “Over there.”

About that time, another employee approached me and said, “Here, let’s take a look.”

Together, we scanned the battery rack. Unfortunately, they were out of 3-volt batteries so I left the area in search of some other items that were on my list. When I returned to the self-checkout lanes a few minutes later, I noticed the woman I’d approached earlier leaning back against the center register and yawning widely.

Just then, we made eye contact. To my astonishment, she sighed loudly and said, “I started at 7:30 this morning and it still feels like 7:30. I’m just going to walk out of here. It’s awful. I don’t want to experience this again.” (Those were her exact words.)

Some might say that this employee’s behavior exposes The Home Depot’s inability to create an environment that fosters an engaged workforce. To me, this encounter reinforces the truth that the quality of an employee’s work environment is not determined by the effectiveness of his or her employer’s engagement strategies. Rather, it’s ultimately decided by the employee’s chosen demeanor and willingness to expend discretionary effort in the service of others (customers and coworkers). There’s a point at which the company’s responsibility to create an engaged workforce stops and the employee’s responsibility to demonstrate that he or she is engaged starts.

Like the listless Home Depot employee, we’ve all had days that have crept along at a snail’s pace. And there have likely been times when we’ve all wished to be someplace other than work. At times like these, we must be intentional about exercising enthusiasm in the moment of choice. Doing so will reenergize us, enliven the service that we provide others, and accelerate the clock!

Consider our Home Depot friend. When I first approached her with my 3-volt battery, instead of lazily pointing in the direction of the battery rack and saying, “Over there,” she could have expressed genuine interest by requesting the sample battery I held up and, while escorting me to the battery rack, said, “This is an unusual battery. What’s it for?”

Then, after learning that I have a home furnace humidifier and assisting me with the battery, she could have said, “How often does your system advise that you replace the filters?”

This question could lead to all sorts of possibilities. For instance, what if I responded, “Filters? Isn’t there just one filter?”

She might have answered, “Depending on their size, home furnace humidifiers have at least two filters: one filters the air, the other filters the water. Most manufacturers suggest that you replace each filter twice a year.”

By sharing her “insider” (unique) knowledge about the proper maintenance of a home furnace humidifier the employee not only adds a spark to her customer encounter, she also better serves the customer through her counsel, and creates an opportunity to generate more sales for her employer. Everybody wins!

Employers have a responsibility to treat employees fairly, provide achievement opportunities and recognition, and promote cooperative employee relations. Beyond that, it’s up to employees to exercise enthusiasm in order to renew their personal energy, enliven the service they provide to others, and make the workday hum.

How do you exercise enthusiasm at work?

Illustration by Aaron McKissen

Last week, my family and I visited my wife’s 90-year old grandfather in a rural Nebraska assisted living facility. Everett is remarkably lucid for a man his age. We spent time together in the receiving room and ate lunch outside in the garden before returning to his modestly furnished room.

While my children were sharing the pictures they’d made especially for him, I was drawn into Everett’s past while examining posted photographs of family and friends throughout the years. I imagined the country’s circumstances at the time of the photos: Roosevelt’s fireside chats, World War II, Vietnam, Watergate, the oil crisis… And then I realized that I remembered the long lines for gasoline during the oil crisis in the early 1970s and imagined where I lived and what I was doing in 1973 at the same time Everett was captured in a pose with his wife, Betty, now deceased.

About that time, my wife called for us to return to the reception area for a family picture. Julie and the kids went ahead as Everett, with his walker, and I trailed them down the hall. That gave us a moment alone and I asked him, “Everett, how are you doing—how are you really doing?”

He said, “You know, I drove by this place for years and I always knew I would end up here. Most of the residents sleep quite a bit. After dinner, most of them go right to bed and there’s no one to talk to. It’s lonely.”

After our family picture, while Julie and the kids were saying their goodbyes, I approached the main reception desk and asked for a business card so that I would have the mailing address handy when we returned home. That way, we could mail Everett copies of the photos as well as more drawings from the kids.

Upon hearing my request, the receptionist looked surprised and said, “I’m not sure where they keep those. Can you wait here a minute?”

She disappeared into the office of an administrator across the hall and returned a moment later with a business card.

Sensing a missed opportunity, I suggested that she prominently display the business cards—even drawing attention to them with a sign inviting visitors to “Please take a card. We all love to get mail!”

I realize that it’s easy enough to Google the name of the residence to obtain the mailing address—assuming you remember its name. (“I know it had the word ‘garden’ in its name… Or was it ‘terrace?’”) Even so, it’s much easier to follow through on your commitment to write and mail pictures when you have a physical reminder (the business card) that’s right in front of you.

The receptionist politely thanked me for my suggestion (I get that a lot…) and returned to her work.

As I said farewell to Everett, I told him that we’d be sure to write and mail pictures. He smiled and nodded. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times he and other residents heard similar promises from family and friends that went unfulfilled after they departed the sleepy facility and rejoined their busy lives.

How about you? Is there anyone you can think of, lonely or not, who would love to hear from you or your children out of the blue? If necessary, make the effort to locate their address and be intentional about reminding them that you care.

Yesterday I met with Zane, a manager of a fast-casual restaurant. During our conversation, he shared some of the recurring challenges he faces in trying to elevate customer service at his restaurant.

One frustration he disclosed was the inability of his staff (with the exception of one or two “superstars”) to consistently provide exceptional customer service. According to Zane, when he challenges employees to “try a little harder” to provide exceptional customer service, the majority reply, “But I do everything I’m supposed to do.”

This response is quite telling and, I believe, holds the key to whether or not customer service quality will improve at his restaurant.

You see, the above employee lament highlights the mandatory aspect of job functions that are required of employees’ job roles—those tasks or duties that are expected by customers; that they’re supposed to do. Absent from this remark is anything that is not required, unexpected, and voluntary—what I refer to as job essence.

Most employees consistently execute mandatory job functions (that are expected by customers; that they are supposed to do) but inconsistently demonstrate voluntary job essence (that is unexpected by customers; that employees choose to do). This explains why you and I seldom receive exceptional customer service: Because it’s voluntary. Employees don’t have to deliver it. And most don’t.

The reason that Zane is challenged by staff who consistently deliver hot food hot and cold food cold (job function) but inconsistently express genuine interest in customers or convey authentic enthusiasm in serving them (job essence) is because most operations (and the supervisors who oversee them) focus predominantly on job functions and the efficiencies associated with them in order to reduce costs and increase profits.

In Zane’s restaurant, it’s not uncommon for employees to receive feedback on and be held accountable to menu knowledge, following procedure, completing their sidework, and other job functions. And it’s unlikely that a day will go by that he doesn’t scrutinize operational metrics associated with job function: average check, food costs, inventories, productivity, profitability, etc.

That’s what managers do, right?

I told Zane that I understand the importance of job function. (Really, I do. You can’t run a business without it. And you can’t provide exceptional customer service without it. No guest at his restaurant wants an undercooked entrée delivered with a smile.) But job function is only half an employee’s job. The other half, job essence—which is often neglected by employees and managers alike—is missing in most employee interactions that customers would describe as routine, uneventful, and transactional.

Managers: Remind your employees daily through modeling, feedback, pre-shift meetings, etc. that excellence lies not in what’s expected and required (what they’re supposed to do) but in what’s unexpected and voluntary (what they choose to do), such as: anticipating needs, paying attention to detail, displaying a sense of urgency, following-up, etc.

And therein lies the key: Exceptional customer service (in Zane’s restaurant and your place of business) is always voluntary. Always.

Feel free to comment. But you don’t have to. Just like delivering exceptional customer service, it’s your choice.

Illustration: Aaron McKissen

This post is the first in a series over the next 10 weeks that will identify 10 different obstacles that have emerged from my analysis of customer satisfaction data. Maybe you will have encountered one or more of these obstacles in your own business? The first obstacle is apathy.

Apathy takes many forms, including: neglect, indifference, and unresponsiveness.

I took the photo to the right at a small strip center in my neighborhood. The center contains a nail salon and a dry cleaner. Both businesses will succeed or fail based on their ability to improve the appearance of their customers—whether nails or attire. Yet neither business seems interested in improving the appearance of their stores’ exterior.

Now some will say, “If I’m the tenant, it’s not my responsibility. Certainly building maintenance, landscaping, and snow removal are included in the lease.”

“It’s not my responsibility?” That’s just another way of saying, “It’s not my job.”

This sentiment plagues customer service everywhere. I’m confident most of us have heard an employee say, “It’s not my job” or “It’s not my department” in response to our questions or concerns.

While I haven’t read their leases, I have formed an impression about both businesses—and it isn’t positive. Why should I have confidence that the dry cleaner will pay careful attention to detail with my garments when it so egregiously neglects the appearance of its storefront?

The opposite of apathy is initiative. And initiative simply requires a choice. Many service providers choose the well-worn path of least resistance. This results in predictable, routine, and indifferent customer service.

But exceptional service providers make the conscious choice daily to accept personal responsibility, take initiative, and make positive lasting impressions on their customers—even if that means doing something that’s “not my job” like, say, pulling weeds.

I recently came across a list of attributes possessed by volunteers—whether candy stripers at a local hospital, political activists along the campaign trail or parents donating their time at their children’s elementary school.

The list included:

• Passion: Authentic energy and enthusiasm in support of a cause
• Commitment: The act of pledging or engaging oneself to a cause
• Positive attitude: Optimism in the pursuit of desirable outcomes, regardless of circumstances

It occurred to me that the qualities attributed to an effective volunteer also describe a successful frontline employee in the service industry.

Customer service transactions benefit from employees who have a genuine passion to serve others, commit to placing the needs of customers ahead of their own, and display a positive attitude—even when facing long lines or demanding customers.

The fact that the qualities of volunteers and frontline service providers are similar is not surprising since one of the truths of exceptional customer service is that it is always voluntary. Employees choose to smile, make eye contact, add energy to their voice, anticipate needs, pay attention to detail, display a sense of urgency, follow-up or any number of other behaviors that convey exceptional customer service.

And because exceptional customer service is voluntary, you and I (as customers) seldom receive it. Employees may be required to answer phones, secure valid methods of payment or perform numerous other job functions but they cannot be ordered to display passion, commitment or a positive attitude—these are personal choices.

Oftentimes service industry employers post “Help Wanted” signs to attract job applicants. Perhaps they should post “Volunteers Needed” signs instead?

What do you think?

My family and I recently returned from a four-night stay at the Crystal Peak Lodge in Breckenridge, CO. The only feature of the resort that was more impressive than its pristine condition and luxury amenities was its location alongside the ski lifts at the base of Peak 7.

Yesterday I received an email from the lodge with a link to a web-based customer satisfaction survey. As I was completing it, two things stood out: Lodge management was particularly interested in whether or not guests felt pampered and treated as important.

Identifying these attributes as priorities did not surprise me considering the lodge’s condominium units were priced in the millions. (Disclaimer: I was renting.)

While I love the term “pampered” as it applies to customer service, there’s another word for ‘pamper’ that I prefer: cosset. (I like this word because it’s so unique. When is the last time you read or heard this word?) Too often, employees fail to pamper or cosset when doing so would make a positive lasting impression on the customer.

Whether employees are handling eggs or bread while bagging groceries, folding and placing garments in a shopping bag, or placing a passenger’s luggage on a conveyer belt during his airport check-in, they have opportunities to do so in a way that conveys to customers that they care about their groceries, garments, and possessions, and will handle them as if they were their own.

The second term, “important,” is often misunderstood.

Sometimes at my seminars, participants will push back on the notion of treating certain customers (e.g., United Mileage Plus 1K flyers, Marriott Rewards elite guests, AMEX Platinum Card holders, etc.) differently—as more important than other customers—because of their status.

The point I make when responding to these participants is that “importance” does not refer to one’s importance as a person. It refers to her importance as a customer and the value she brings to the business through personal spending, loyalty, and referrals.

So, the Crystal Peak Lodge was interested in my assessment of whether or not I felt pampered and treated as important.

Over the course of a four-night stay, there were only a couple of things that hit my customer service radar. In both cases, I didn’t say anything at the time. Like most customers, I generally just observe without making a fuss.

Interestingly, both of the issues I noted involved missed opportunities by the staff to pamper (or cosset) and reinforce the guest’s importance as a customer.

The first issue occurred during an encounter with three front desk employees. The lodge offers private movie theaters for guests and I had reserved one for my family to watch the new Narnia movie. Although each theatre has access to a kitchen containing a microwave to prepare popcorn (brilliant!), there was nothing to put the popcorn in (a missed opportunity).

When I inquired about containers for the popcorn at the front desk, I was told to “check upstairs” (presumably, the restaurant may have something…). Seriously? Is this response supposed to make me feel “pampered” or “important” —as three employees remain comfortably seated behind the desk?

The second issue occurred when I called the front desk from my unit to ask about trash and recycling disposal. (Since I was renting the unit directly from the owner, there was no daily housekeeping service provided.) Rather than offering to send a housekeeping employee to my unit to retrieve the bags, the employee gave me directions from the $1.8M unit in which I was staying to the trash room in the parking garage. I found that odd…

Again, is this response supposed to make me feel “pampered” or “important”? I certainly didn’t feel that way as I hauled two bags of waste from my fifth floor unit down to the trash room in the parking garage.

In reflecting on my experience at Crystal Peak Lodge, while its management may prioritize having guests feel pampered and important, ultimately this will happen or not happen based on the actions of employees. This reinforces a core truth in the debate over who’s ultimately responsible for poor customer service, management or frontline employees: Regardless of a company’s service culture or standards, excellence (e.g., making a customer feel pampered or important) results from employee choice.

That choice may be to dispatch a housekeeper to collect the waste from a guest’s condominium unit or to get up from your comfortable chair, invite the guest to rejoin his family in the theater, and go in search of popcorn containers.

It’s pretty simple when you think about it.

What’s your opinion about where the responsibility to deliver exceptional customer service lies—with management or frontline employees?

I welcome all questions, comments, bouquets, and brickbats.

I recall saying to a client across the conference table, “Exceptional customer service is always optional.”

Upon hearing this, his eyes narrowed, he leaned forward, and his voice lowered as he responded, “Not around here. Around here, exceptional customer service is mandatory.”

I disagreed but, in his defense, most general managers would say the same thing: “Of course exceptional customer service is not optional. We don’t permit employees to provide substandard customer service!”

In theory, they’re right. But in practice, they’re kidding themselves.

The reason that you and I, as customers, rarely experience the “exceptional” customer service these business leaders claim is mandatory, is because it’s optional.

An employee chooses to make eye contact, smile, or add a bit of enthusiasm to her voice.

Can you recall a recent interaction you’ve had over the phone or face-to-face with an employee who you sensed was apathetic, bored, or indifferent towards serving you? Of course you can. It happens all the time—even in work environments where exceptional customer service is “mandatory.”

Employers can mandate many aspects of an employee’s job role: the protocol required to complete a task; the employee’s wardrobe and grooming standards; or the time the employee begins or ends her shift.

But they cannot mandate the attributes that influence whether or not customers receive exceptional customer service.

An employee’s personality, disposition, uniqueness, creativity, or engagement level is determined by the employee, not her employer. She chooses to smile. She chooses to refuse to banter with a coworker in front of a customer. She chooses to go the extra mile to serve a customer.

While employers cannot mandate these attributes, they can hire for them. That’s why the companies that consistently produce the highest levels of customer satisfaction also invest the most in their employee selection efforts.

Leaders at these companies are not kidding themselves.

They recognize that employees choose to provide exceptional customer service (or, as is often the case, choose not to) and they establish their employee selection criteria accordingly.

Though business has its own set of complexities, customer service isn’t one of them. Exceptional customer service is simply a choice.

Employees develop their own definitions of customer service and decide for themselves how they view customers: as honored guests who contribute to the success of the enterprise or as fickle adversaries who are just looking for the best deal.

And, as the lyrics from Rush’s Freewill advise, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

This describes most customer service employees. They have not made a conscious choice to provide exceptional customer service. As a result, they are indifferent toward customer service and customers.

Why haven’t they made a conscious choice? No one’s asked them to. In most cases, no one’s even brought it up.

As a result, employees go about their shifts tending to the mandatory job functions (i.e., the duties associated with an employee’s job role) for which they are accountable (you can bet these conversations have occurred) but give little or no thought to the essence of their jobs, their highest priority—to create delighted customers.

Ignorance may be bliss but it’s bad for business.

68 percent of customers surveyed quit doing business with a company because of perceived indifference toward them as customers.

Oftentimes, employees don’t even recognize when they treat customers indifferently. If you were to poll them, most would rate the quality of their personal customer service as excellent.

Why the discrepancy? There are many factors. Here are three:

1.  leadership apathy

2.  managerial myopia

3.  systems/processes that undermine service quality

If company leaders don’t emphasize the jugular importance of customer service to their employees, where else do they expect them to get the message? The framed mission statement hanging in the reception area? The employee handbook? Please…

Managers are largely tasked with running a profitable operation within a given budget. In order to accomplish this, managers oversee the execution of a set of defined job functions associated with one or more job roles. This is not the problem.

The problem is when managers focus solely on job functions and neglect job essence—an employee’s highest priority—which is always to create delighted customers. (Unless, of course, you work for the US Postal Service or some other entity that can lose $8.5B a year and continue to exist. Then, I suppose you can focus exclusively on job function and get away with it.)

Many organizations create systems or processes that undermine service quality. Perhaps the most common are call centers where employees are evaluated based on the quantity of phone calls processed and how quickly they can end those calls. In these environments, employees are conditioned to treat calls as timed transactions rather than opportunities to serve customers.

In the end, it requires a choice. Employees choose whether or not to express genuine interest, convey authentic enthusiasm, provide pleasant surprises or, in some other way, delight their customers.

Company leaders can influence this choice when they communicate their passion for serving customers in words and deeds. Managers can guide this choice by emphasizing the importance of both job function and job essence. And systems will reinforce this choice when they are designed to serve customers rather than frustrate them.

I welcome all comments, questions, bouquets, and brickbats.

Exceptional customer service is always optional.

Whether or not to deliver exceptional customer service is a choice made by employees—independent of the service culture in which they work. It’s a conscious decision that employees make to exceed the expectations of their customers every day, on every shift, during every customer service interaction.

It’s easy to spot the employees who have made this choice. They’re the ones who are looking up, facing customers, smiling, engaged, moving with purpose, and speaking courteously—with enthusiasm in their voices.

Mediocrity is also a choice—sometimes by default. As the rock band Rush so eloquently wrote in its song Freewill, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

And it’s easy to spot those who have settled for mediocrity. They’re the ones who are looking at the clock, convey indifference towards customers, are disengaged, move at a sluggish pace, and speak to customers casually—the way they might address peers in a social setting.

In the book SWITCH by brothers Chip and Dan Heath, I came across a great example of an employee who made the decision to end mediocrity and begin providing exceptional customer service at the hosting company, Rackspace.

In the past, the company’s customer service quality languished due to an unresponsive service department at the other end of a cumbersome automated telephone attendant. Calls were routinely dropped or misdirected into a labyrinth of cryptic options resulting in unresolved hosting issues and escalating customer frustration.

But then, after being tracked down by an exasperated customer, it occurred to company founder Graham Weston that Rackspace couldn’t sustain a business based on dodging its customers. That day, he made the decision to be exceptional.

In the words of Chip and Dan Heath:

“Perhaps the most dramatic change made by (Rackspace) was also the simplest. Rackspace, like all hosting companies, had a call-queuing system. (“Your call is important to us. Please press 1 for recorded tips that don’t address your problem. Press 5 to leave us a message we won’t return. Press 8 to repeat these options.”) The call queue is perhaps the most basic tool of customer support.

(Rackspace) threw it out.”

The company recognized that when customers call, that means they need help, and the phone must be answered. Without the automated attendant, it became impossible to ignore customers’ calls. The phone would just keep ringing until somebody answered it.

According to founder Weston, “When a customer has a problem, we shouldn’t deal with it when it’s convenient for us. We should deal with it when it’s convenient for the customer.”

The decision to provide exceptional customer service paid off. In 2001, Rackspace became the first hosting company to turn a profit. Over the next six years, it averaged 58 percent annual growth. By 2008, Rackspace had passed AT&T as the highest-grossing firm in the industry.

Exceptional customer service is always optional. So what’s your choice?