Earlier this month, I received the infographic below titled Customer Service from the Service Point of View from its creator with a request to provide feedback, which I did. I rarely appreciate articles that are written from the perspective of employees who feel entitled to deliver less than 100 percent—under the assumption that customers are obligated to make up the difference.

Does a customer owe a tip for “good” service at a full-service restaurant in the United States? Yes. Should a supermarket customer always have to return her shopping cart to a designated cart corral? No. Perhaps she has a crying baby in the backseat or it’s starting to rain. Her only obligation is to pay for her groceries. And we can assume she’s done that. (But some employees would publicly chastise a customer who positioned her cart against a curb, arguing that it’s the customer’s responsibility to return it.)

That said, I recognize there are those regrettable customers who fail to tip, snap their fingers to gain a server’s attention, and leave carts stationed precariously between two vehicles, but I’ve found the percentage to be very small. I’ve also discovered that employees who continually cite these exceptions and find validation in articles or infographics like the one below are the least effective employees. Just as employees tend to mirror the behavior of their managers, so too does customers’ behavior tend to mirror employees’ behavior—for better or worse.

Fortunately, the vast majority of employees take a great deal of pride in their performance at work. They enjoy the camaraderie of coworkers and being recognized for their efforts by supervisors, peers, and customers alike. And if the job is a good fit for them, they’re likely good at it and receive a great deal of personal satisfaction from their work, apart from compensation.

If employees are constantly at odds with coworkers, supervisors or customers, they should find another job. (My advice to these people is to work for themselves. They will learn very quickly that they are not entitled to anything. They will also learn to respect and appreciate their business partners—especially customers.)

The infographic ends with the entitled employee lament, “If you want better service, be a better customer.” That’s like saying to your son or daughter, “If you want better parenting, be a better child.” Service, like love, should be unconditional. Attaching conditions to the quality of your customer service is a slippery slope that will reduce your effectiveness as a service provider in the same way that attaching conditions to the quality of your parenting will limit your effectiveness as a parent.

A better way to phrase the above sentence is this: “If you want better customers, provide better service.”

I once worked for a manager who was fond of saying, “Every two weeks, you and the company are even.” What he meant was that every pay period, after you were compensated for your previous two weeks of work, the company didn’t owe you anything. I agree with him.

Too often, when I overhear disgruntled employees banter or read blog comments from disillusioned employees, I sense a recurring theme of entitlement: having a right to this or that. Oftentimes, these comments have to do with money or customers.

Here’s an actual blog comment that depicts entitled thinking:

“Anything less than 20% is a bad tip. If everything is right and timely, that server did their job – they served you. 10% is a slap in the face and embarrassing to only the payee of the bill. You go back and they will drop your food on the floor and serve it to you, believe me. They get paid two dollars an hour and work harder than most people.”

It sounds as though this person is saying that, as long as customers receive the correct food orders within a reasonable time period, the server is entitled to a 20 percent tip. I disagree. Accurately capturing an order, conveying it to the kitchen staff, and delivering it to the table in a timely fashion are all examples of job function (the duties and tasks associated with one’s job role). Job function, however, is only half of the server’s job. The other half is job essence—of which there is no mention in the above blog comment.

Job essence is an employee’s purpose or highest priority at work. And for restaurant servers, their highest priority should be to create a promoter of the restaurant—a delighted customer who is less price-sensitive, has higher repurchase rates, and is responsible for 80-90 percent of the positive word-of-mouth about the restaurant. Whereas job function deals with processes, job essence deals with personality.

Executing job functions in a restaurant (e.g., serving hot food hot and cold food cold according to customer specifications within a reasonable timeframe) may earn a server a 15 percent tip but a 20 percent tip hinges on the server’s ability to demonstrate job essence (e.g., expressing genuine interest in the customer, anticipating needs, paying attention to detail, following up, sharing unique knowledge, using appropriate humor, providing a pleasant surprise, etc.).

Restaurant servers are no more entitled to a 20 percent tip than you and I are entitled to indefinite paychecks from our employers. Remember, we’re even every pay period. Your employer, regardless of your tenure or the quality of your work, doesn’t owe you any more than is outlined in your employment contract such as severance pay, outplacement services or access to portable benefits. To think otherwise is naïve and irresponsible.

What’s worse, the above blog comment suggests that if a customer tips 10 percent after receiving an accurate order within a reasonable amount of time (job function) regardless of the server’s attitude or personality (job essence), then the server is justified in retaliating by dropping a customer’s food on the floor before serving it to him during his next visit (assuming there is a next visit).

Really? Does this sound like something a responsible person would do?

I suspect there will be readers of this post who will disagree with me and sympathize with the author of the adversarial blog comment. Without reading my bio, they will accuse me of never having served a customer and will chastise me for offering an elitist perspective from my ivory tower of theory and abstraction.

If that’s you, I have one question: If you operated a restaurant, would you hire the person who wrote the above blog comment to serve your guests?

Entitled thinking poisons the mind and undermines customer service quality. As soon as you begin to think that you have a right to a steady paycheck, a promotion, a pay raise or a 20 percent tip, you begin to feel justified while judging others, complaining, and even while retaliating against customers—which is inexcusable.

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

Earlier this month during a presentation, a participant posed the following question:

“What difference does it make if one customer leaves dissatisfied when there’s a line of customers waiting to take his place?”

Having worked in high-volume environments in New York City and Orlando, I’ve detected this sentiment—if not heard this same question—from frontline employees who took for granted that there would always be a line of customers waiting to hand over their money.

Some employees are fortunate to work in bustling environments where demand is strong and customer volume is high. Such operations often charge price premiums and realize solid profits.

Consider the hostess at a swank downtown restaurant requiring reservations. The entrance is standing room only and there’s a month-long wait to secure a table for dinner. And imagine the movie theatre employee working behind the concession counter, staring out at a sea of anonymous customers in the minutes leading up to the start of the latest blockbuster.

Because their products or services are in demand and profitable, employees in these establishments may rationalize that if they lose a dissatisfied customer, they will make up for the lost revenue on the next customer (or 10 customers) in line.

This rationale is flawed, fuels arrogance, and produces attitudes of indifference toward customers and entitlement to their spending.

What these employees fail to recognize is that, regardless of demand, individual customers are irreplaceable.

I first read this notion in the outstanding book, Exceptional Service Exceptional Profit by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon

Conventional thinking about customer retention is that customers are replaceable. That is, when one customer leaves, another customer will take his place.

But the authors are not talking about the anonymous masses. They are talking about the dismissed couple who was admonished by the condescending hostess because they lacked the foresight to reserve a table in advance at such a popular restaurant. And they are talking about the frustrated moviegoer who, after waiting a full five minutes in a line that failed to move, chose to skip the buttered popcorn and Coke so he didn’t miss the dramatic opening scene.

If the dismissed couple and the frustrated moviegoer are not satisfied with their experiences, they may choose to defect to other providers in search of more flexibility, responsiveness, respect, efficiency, or a number of other factors. And because a majority of customers do not complain—you may never know that they left or why they left.

And here’s the scary part: The admonished couple and the anonymous moviegoer are irreplaceable.

When they decide to quit doing business with you, they mean it. So, even if you attract a new customer’s spending, you won’t receive another nickel from these three individual customers ever again.

Recognize that when an individual customer defects, he or she is irreplaceable. And his or her lifetime contribution to your business—including future spending, feedback, and referrals—cannot be replaced. Never. Ever. Forever. And forever’s a long time.

How would you respond to the opening question?

Tipping is a form of recognition—a way for customers to say, “Thank you” to service providers. Tipping, in most settings, is voluntary and left to the customer’s discretion.

Even so, many restaurant servers feel entitled to 15 percent or more from every table they wait on. Likewise, bellmen and skycaps feel they’re entitled to $2.00 or more per bag they handle. I’ve even been presented with charge slips asking me to tip, total and sign when I simply purchased two bags of whole bean coffee.

It’s easy to choose the path of least resistance and avoid confrontation—or, worse, retaliation—by rewarding indifferent (or non-existent) service with a tip. Americans are confronted with tip jars wherever we go. In most quick service restaurants, a tip jar is conspicuously placed near the register in hopes of capturing the remaining 90 cents of your $8.10 burrito. (Never mind that the employee who prepared your burrito may not have smiled or in any way expressed genuine interest in serving you.)

For employees in tip positions who demonize customers who don’t tip to their satisfaction and bemoan their compensation structure (generally a minimum hourly rate that, when combined with tip earnings, meets or exceeds the prevailing minimum wage), recognize that you’re no different than any other entrepreneur. Ultimately, you will be paid what your worth. If you’re unhappy with that arrangement, you have options.

Stories abound of hotel doorman and restaurant servers who make 20, 50, or even 100 percent more than their peers. To discover how they make more, all you have to do is identify what inspires you to increase the gratuities you offer to such employees.

What are the attributes, for example, of a restaurant server that inspire a 20 percent tip?

Here are a few from my list:

• Smile
• Eye contact
• Energy in voice
• Attentiveness without being intrusive
• Sense of humor
• Anticipate needs
• Sense of urgency
• Follow-up

Your list may look different than mine. That’s why the highest paid restaurant servers are adept at reading their customers and detecting which groups prefer chatty versus discrete table service in addition to other service preferences.

I recall a conversation with a Las Vegas taxi driver in which I suggested that he could increase his gratuities 20 percent by simply opening and closing the sliding van door for his passengers. Read about it here: An experiment in customer service

Tipped employees are no more entitled to 100 percent tipping compliance by customers than I’m guaranteed 100 percent sales by prospective customers.

As an entrepreneur, I recognize that there are no sure things. No prospective customer is obligated to take my call, let alone hire me and pay me money. I bet for every 20 contacts I initiate, I book a single event. At the risk of sounding like renowned sales trainer, Tom Hopkins, each of those 19 “Nos” brought me one step closer to that single “Yes!”

It’s the same with tipped employees, only their odds of success are much better. For example, for every 20 taxis ordered, a hotel doorman can expect to be tipped by at least half of the guests. So, while I’m rewarded for my efforts 5 percent of the time, the doorman’s rewarded 10 times as often!

Perhaps it is I who should shake my fist and shout, “There’s no justice!”

But, alas, after five years in business, I’ve tempered my expectations. I recognize that batting 1000 is a fantasy. One summer during my youth, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals went 4-for-4 in a game against Toronto, raising his season batting average to .400 (meaning he got a hit four out of every 10 times at bat). This was such a significant achievement that the game was halted while fans gave Brett a standing ovation as he waved from second base.

It’s okay to bat under 1000. Expect it. Don’t allow the inevitable setbacks to derail your success at work.

Look at it another way: What’s your mood worth to you? If you were under-tipped, what amount of money would justify altering your mood from positive to negative? From upbeat to downtrodden? From happy to sad? From optimistic to pessimistic? From outgoing to withdrawn? From engaged to disengaged?

Let’s say a waiter provides adequate service to a couple whose check totals $50.00 and who leave a minimal 10 percent gratuity of $5.00. This waiter, after discovering the amount of the tip, is now free to choose his response. If he becomes angry, bitter, or resentful toward the couple, he has allowed his disposition to be adversely affected for $2.50—the difference between a low 10% tip and a standard 15% tip.

And because human beings are emotional creatures, it’s natural to allow our resentment and negativity to spill over into our interactions with other employees and customers. When this occurs, we undermine those relationships and sabotage our success as one “bad table” turns into a shift filled with “bad tables.”

Let’s make a pact: I commit to not allow my 19 “Nos” to influence the quality of service I provide to my 20th prospective customer. And you must commit to not allow $2.50 (or whatever the number is) to dictate your behavior, undermine your relationships, and sabotage your success at work.

Deal?

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