Have you ever noticed the tendency of frontline employees to become defensive—even surly—when you bring a problem or misunderstanding to their attention?

Unless your business has chronic, unresolved issues (in which case, you may want to update your résumé), problems and misunderstandings are exceptions. By definition, exceptions do not conform to the general rule. This makes them infrequent. That’s why they’re exceptions.

When exceptions occur in your place of business, how are they typically handled?

In many cases, exceptions such as misunderstandings or unmet expectations, when brought to the attention of frontline employees, create a palpable communication barrier that neutralizes employees’ smiles, eye contact, and enthusiasm to serve.

It’s as if a customer’s misunderstanding, when expressed, drives a wedge between him and the employee. Instead of seeing the situation as an opportunity to serve, many employees recoil and judge the customer as being difficult or misinformed.

Here are two examples from guests of a leading hotel chain that I came across while trolling TripAdvisor.com:

As a [member of your loyalty program], I was on the Concierge Level with access to the lounge. My stay was from Thursday to Tuesday … the Concierge Lounge was closed from Friday 12 noon to Sunday 5pm. On top of that, nowhere were the hours posted on when any sort of food/service was provided (hours on when the lounge was open is posted, but who really cares if you can go there, without food?). Hours were not mentioned upon check-in, when visiting the lounge, or in the room. Two times that I went, I had just missed the food service. On both occasions, the attendants never once said, “Oh, I’m sorry you just missed our food service. Is there anything I can get you? So you know, we provide food between xyz hours).” Yes, I could have asked, but it made me feel a little cheap, to have to ask about the free food.

This feedback is priceless—especially the final comment about the guest being made to feel a little cheap. I can think of many different feelings hotels would like to inspire in their guests but “cheap” isn’t one of them.

Here’s the lesson I receive from this feedback: When a hotel’s Concierge Level guest misses the food service in the Concierge Lounge, it’s an exception. And exceptions provide opportunities for exceptional customer service.

Too often, employees view customers who “screw up” and misinterpret published hours of operation, pricing, directions, etc. as being difficult (i.e., “If only they’d read!”) when these customers should be treated exceptionally well. After all, due to a misunderstanding, their expectations have not been met.

In the case of the Concierge Level guest, why not make him aware of the Concierge Lounge’s hours of operation for the future (preferably by offering him a pre-printed card so he doesn’t have to try and remember them) and then provide a certificate for a complimentary breakfast in the restaurant?

And if he responds that he’d planned to take a plate back to his room to eat while working, then invite him to order room service and take care of the charge to make up for the misunderstanding. After all, when you consider the future spending of a delighted member of your loyalty program, all of a sudden $15-$30 seems quite negligible.

Now, some will say, “But what about the precedent you’re setting?” This concern, usually expressed by people who’d prefer to point to a sign or policy rather than go out of their way, never materializes. After all, it’s an exception.

Here’s another comment from a hotel guest that illustrates the same point:

We were very disappointed in the surliness of the [restaurant] managers both mornings… When checking in to our “breakfast included” room, we were told that breakfast was from 7 to noon. Oops – those hours were only for the [Thanksgiving Day] holiday, and Friday was ‘normal business hours’, which we discovered when we arrived at 10am on Friday for our breakfast. The male manager did not greet us with hello, but with a snapped “we’re closed for lunch”, but then allowed us to grab some food as they were still cleaning up the buffet. He directed us to “sit right here”, set some water without ice on the table, and we were scurried through the buffet under the watchful eye of a non-friendly female manager. No one offered coffee, juice, etc – yes, it was a tad late but we weren’t really causing them any trouble.

Once again, here’s a situation where guests are punished due to a misunderstanding. Instead of viewing this as an opportunity to make a positive lasting impression on their guests, the managers involved forgot their manners and treated them poorly.

In both cases, hotel guests experienced problems due to misunderstandings. Hotels, like most companies, have lots of moving parts and misunderstandings and unmet expectations are inevitable. And unless these problems are systemic, they’re exceptions and should be embraced as opportunities to pleasantly surprise guests.

According to a study by J.D. Power and Associates, when a hotel guest’s problem is resolved perfectly, it results in overall satisfaction averaging 80.7, compared to only 74.9 if there was no problem to begin with.

And the more satisfied a hotel guest is, the more he’ll likely spend. The same study found that guests who rate their overall satisfaction as a ten on a ten-point scale, on average, spend about 40 percent more on ancillary services (e.g., hotel restaurants, gift shop, business center, etc.) than guests offering a rating of six or seven.

So guests who experience a problem and have it resolved perfectly may be more satisfied than guests who do not experience a problem. And guests who are more satisfied tend to spend more money.

When frontline employees make this connection, guests who show up late for breakfast or question a room charge, will not be labeled as “difficult” and treated as such. Instead, these guests—these exceptions—will genuinely be seen as providing opportunities for exceptional customer service.

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?

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.”