This morning I stopped by my local King Soopers to pick up a few groceries. One of the items on my list was a pound of sliced turkey from the deli counter. Sometimes I pass on deli meat if there’s a wait but today I was in luck as there was no line!

One aspect of my business involves mystery shop services, so I’m in the habit of evaluating wait times, employee behavior, cleanliness, and other aspects of customer experience. I started my watch.

As I stood in front of the deli counter, I noticed there were four employees present: a butcher preparing the display case in the meat department adjacent to the deli counter and three deli employees busily performing their job functions.

This is an important observation. As I waited, not one of the four employees was goofing off, sending a text, reading a newspaper, or talking with a coworker. All were on task.

While one employee had his back to me, the others were all facing forward. At six feet tall and 200 pounds, I am not a small man but no one seemed to notice me. I waited. Two minutes went by, then three minutes. As I continued to wait, a blog post began to form…

Consumer behavior is fascinating. There are a variety of ways that different customers might choose to deal with this situation. Some customers, in the absence of a bell, will wave their hand or call out to get an employee’s attention. Others, giving the employees the benefit of the doubt and being sympathetic to their side duties, will patiently wait to be acknowledged.

Personally, I’m inclined to walk away. Why should I reward poor customer service with a sale when there are three competing supermarkets within a mile of each other?

After three and a half minutes, I made eye contact with the butcher who smiled and nearly disappeared from view before he halted, recognized that I had been waiting a while, and called out, “Counter!”

The deli employee who approached me did not smile. Perhaps she was annoyed that I had interrupted her side work? She conveyed indifference as she prepared to execute another deli transaction: Take the order, slice the meat, weigh the meat, bag the meat, price the meat, and deliver the meat… “Next?”

Because of her demeanor, I made the decision not to reward King Soopers with a $6.99 sale for a pound of Private Selection Oven Roasted Turkey and decided instead to just pick up only the essential items on my list.

While in another part of the store, I encountered the assistant store manager, Ronnie, and shared my experience at the deli counter. She listened to my description of events, apologized on behalf of the deli employees, and made the comment, “It’s because you’re wearing a white shirt. You blended in!”

Ronnie was good natured and having a little fun—and I appreciate that. I did explain to her, however, that the reason I was overlooked had less to do with my attire than deli employees focusing exclusively on their job functions (the duties and tasks associated with their job roles) and neglecting the essence of their jobs (their highest priority): To create delighted customers.

She listened patiently, then offered to go to the deli counter and pick up a pound of the sliced turkey for me free of charge. I told her that was not necessary but she insisted.

While she was away retrieving the turkey, I checked-out and asked the cashier to charge me for one pound of Private Selection Oven Roasted Turkey and be sure to make Ronnie aware that I had paid for it.

The reason I did that is because there are many cynical employees who believe customers only complain to get something for free. That’s simply not true. Most customers complain because their expectations (for quality, accuracy, timeliness, etc.) were not met.

Ronnie met me at the store exit with the deli meat, smiled, and apologized again. Like many customers in the same situation, I thanked her for her help and left the store.

What happens next is entirely up to me. Will I put the experience behind me and return to King Soopers as I did following this incident or will I vote with my feet and shop across the street?

Of this I’m certain: If I choose to return, the quality of customer service I receive will be determined by whether or not employees choose to view me as a priority rather than an interruption—not the color of my shirt.

Like many who read this blog, I am a student of customer service. I’m interested in books on the subject, discussing the topic with others, speaking and writing about it and, of course, critiquing the service I receive as a customer.

One of the questions that’s often discussed and debated in the field is what differentiates an exceptional customer service experience from a mediocre one? And if the experience involves a live service provider, what separates an outstanding provider from a typical one?

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, then you already know my thoughts about job function and job essence. This concept seems to make its way into any of my posts that bemoan the prevailing tendency to receive average customer service.

In this post, I’ll begin with the difference between job function and job essence (exceptional customer service should always start with this discussion) followed by four other distinctions that separate exceptional customer service from the bland and ordinary service that you and I, as customers, typically receive:

1.   Function vs. essence. Most employees do not recognize the difference between their job functions (the duties associated with their job roles) and the essence of their jobs, their highest priority (which, for employees at most companies, is to create a delighted customer). There are several reasons for this. Read about them here.

2.   Mandatory vs. optional. Job functions tend to be transactional. They are also required—employees must perform job functions. This explains why many customer service experiences are described as process-focused and transactional. Delivering exceptional customer is optional. It requires a deliberate choice by the service provider. This explains why you and I, as customers, seldom receive exceptional customer service.

3.   Obligation vs. opportunity. Employees are obligated to perform job functions that are mandatory. They don’t have a choice. It’s what they were hired to do. Just read their job descriptions—it’s all right there. These same employees, however, have an opportunity to display optional job essence: express genuine interest in customers, convey authentic enthusiasm for serving others, provide pleasant surprises, etc. But these opportunities are most often squandered in the name of operational efficiency or some other management priority.

4.   Results vs. relationships. Mandatory job functions that employees are obligated to perform yield results that are measured and scrutinized by management. If employees do receive feedback on their job performance, it generally involves these results. Optional job essence that employees have an opportunity to display, develop relationships with customers that inspire loyalty, repeat purchases, and enthusiastic referrals.

5.   Cost vs. (little or) no cost. Mandatory job functions that employees are obligated to perform in order to achieve certain results require compensation—this is what they’re paid to do. Optional job essence that employees elect to display in order to develop relationships with customers cost (little or) nothing. There’s no added cost for a service provider to smile, offer a sincere and specific compliment, or share unique knowledge.

A typical manager’s routine involves job functions, mandates, obligations, results, and costs. It’s no wonder customer service tends to be transactional and uninspired.

What’s needed is a different approach—one that reinforces job essence, options, opportunities, relationships, and recognizes that it costs no more to smile and greet customers than it does to ignore them.

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

In my seminars, I talk a lot about job function and job essence. To me, recognizing the difference between them is central to understanding why customer service delivery is so predictably poor.

Awareness is key. People don’t know what they don’t know.

The first thing I would do to increase awareness and improve the quality of customer service delivery in any business is to ask my employees this question: “Would you describe for me, from your perspective, what you do—what your job entails?”

When I pose this question to employees I encounter in hotels, shopping malls, supermarkets, or airports, the responses I receive almost always apply exclusively to job function—the tasks or duties associated with one’s job role.

Here’s how a typical conversation with a supermarket employee might go:

Me: “Pardon me. Do you mind if I ask you what you do—what your job entails?”

Employee: “Are you from corporate headquarters or something?”

Me: “No. I’m just interested in what you do.”

Employee: “Well, my job is to sack groceries but when we’re not busy, I bring in shopping carts from the lot and sweep the store. Sometimes I have to check prices or clean up spills. That’s about it.”

Let’s examine this response:

• Sack groceries (job function)
• Bring in shopping carts (job function)
• Sweep the store (job function)
• Check prices (job function)
• Clean up spills (job function)

Every action listed has to do with job function. Rarely do employees reference actions or behaviors pertaining to job essence which, ironically, is their highest priority.

Job essence for employees at most companies is to create delighted customers, promoters—those who will enthusiastically recommend the company or brand to others, are less price-sensitive, and have higher repurchase rates.

While groceries need to get sacked and carts need to be brought in, if these tasks are completed without a smile, without enthusiasm, without attention to detail, or without genuine interest, the customer will notice.

In the absence of job essence, all that exists is a transaction. Transactions are not memorable. Transactional service does not make a lasting positive impression or inspire loyalty.

This begs the question: “Why do so many of the employees Steve interviews only cite job function and not job essence?”

Consider this: Job function is results oriented. Managers are interested in results. Job function is doing what your told. Managers appreciate compliance. Job function is doing what’s expected. Managers don’t like surprises.

Until managers actively model, recognize, and reward job essence, achieving results will take priority over establishing relationships, compliance will trump initiative, and customer service will be characterized by routine and predictable actions.

What they (employees) see is what you’ll (management) get. And most employees see job function being recognized and rewarded over job essence.

For instance, let’s assume the supermarket employee, during his new-hire orientation program, was told how important it was to provide exceptional customer service. Perhaps he was shown a mission statement, a poster, or was given a button to wear that contained the company’s customer service slogan. He was also made aware of his job duties which include gathering the stray shopping carts from throughout the parking lot.

Being enthusiastic about his new job role and wanting to perform well, the employee is conscientious when bagging groceries. He is careful to handle delicate items such as bread and eggs carefully and bag frozen food together to prevent it from thawing too quickly. He also insists on helping customers to their cars—especially when the weather’s bad—even though most of his coworkers avoid this step.

During his first several weeks in his new position, the employee is routinely approached by his manager who asks, “Hey, why are there so many carts in the parking lot?” But he never receives any feedback about the exceptional customer service he provides to shoppers.

So he’s conflicted: “During orientation they told me how important it was to take care of the customer. I try to do that but no one seems to notice or care. The only thing I ever receive feedback on is the shopping carts in the parking lot.”

It doesn’t take him long to learn that the way he’s going to score points with his manager is by spending more time in the parking lot, away from customers, retrieving stray shopping carts.

I recognize that job function is necessary—even critical (i.e., the shopping carts must be retrieved from the parking lot and the floor needs to be swept periodically) but it does not represent the totality of an employee’s job! It only represents a portion of his job. The other portion of his job, which is often neglected, is job essence—his highest priority: to create a delighted customer—a promoter.

When employees are made aware of the essence of their jobs and it’s reinforced (modeled, recognized, rewarded) by their immediate supervisors, then customer service quality will improve, fewer eggs will get broken, and we’ll begin asking the question, “Why is customer service so predictable great?”

It’s my blog. I can dream.

Last week, I worked in Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama for a client in the insurance industry. Over lunch she questioned whether or not the essence of an employee’s job could be captured in his job function.

My reply was that job essence and job function were separate and that there is a very real danger to combining them.

To clarify, the essence of an employee’s job is his overarching purpose—his highest priority. Job essence for employees at most companies is to create promoters—enthusiastic customers who will recommend their products and services, are less price-sensitive, and have higher repurchase rates.

Job function refers to the duties associated with one’s job role. For example, a job function of a receptionist is to greet customers who enter the reception area. Some companies script this greeting to ensure employees’ professionalism and maintain consistency.

Scripting and legislating customer greetings may appear to be an effective way to capture job essence (expressing genuine interest in the customer) in a job function (customer greeting) but that may not always be the case.

When I think of ineffective greetings, two companies come to mind: Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza and Best Buy. Both organizations have taken a behavior that is intended to make customers feel welcome in their stores and, by scripting and mandating the greeting, have marginalized its effect on customers.

Oftentimes when I enter Papa Murphy’s to pick up my pizza, employees hear the door chime and say, “Welcome to Papa Murphy’s” but don’t even bother to look up from behind the counter.

Best Buy “greeters” are, interestingly, positioned with their backs to customers as they enter the store. If they’re not busy inspecting customers’ bags, they may look over their shoulder and say, “Welcome to Best Buy.” It makes me wonder what their real function is—greeting customers or preventing theft?

As with the Papa Murphy’s example, this greeting has become institutionalized in the stores. It’s mandatory. It’s expected. It’s monotonous. It’s robotic. And it’s ineffective at making customers feel genuinely welcomed.

A sincere greeting is one that expresses genuine interest in the customer and conveys authentic enthusiasm for serving her. Unless it’s over the phone, it certainly includes eye contact, a visible smile, and, in every case, energy in the greeter’s voice.

While it’s efficient to provide greeters with scripts, it may be more effective to ensure that they recognize the essence of their jobs is to create delighted customers—promoters—and then rely on them to convey this in their own words and actions.

What do you think?

Have you ever heard someone in a committed relationship say that he or she no longer loves the other person?

When questioned, he might say, “I’ve tried. Really I have. But the love just isn’t there.”

It’s no wonder the love isn’t there—because love (the noun) is a result of love (the verb).

In the absence of demonstrating love for another person, there’s only a relationship—an association, an existence together. Heck, I have that type of relationship with my mailman.

In a committed relationship, it’s insufficient to view love as a noun—a mercurial feeling that vacillates between satisfied and unsatisfied. Love must be demonstrated. Love requires action. Love is a verb.

It’s the same with customer service.

Too many service providers view service as a noun—a role, function or department.

As a result, customer service is objectified and lifeless.

Last Thursday I had lunch with a colleague, Brian, who oversees the training of 4,500 call center employees for a Fortune 100 company.

He mentioned that call center employees are required to express empathy during phone calls pertaining to warranty or other repairs.

Brian said that if an employee simply repeats the customer’s problem back to him, then that would satisfy the requirement to express empathy during a call audit.

In other words, if a customer calls in and says, “My washing machine stopped working” then all the employee would have to say is, “I’m sorry to hear that your washing machine stopped working” in order to receive full credit for expressing empathy.

Brian was not satisfied with this protocol and is working to change it. (Easier said than done in a Fortune 100 company…)

He proposed that genuine empathy might look more like a call center employee detecting a crying baby in the background and saying, “I hear a crying baby in the background. Would you like me to look into the availability of a service appointment for tomorrow and call you back in a few minutes?”

Service must be demonstrated. Service requires action. Service is a verb.

Going through the motions, whether in a committed relationship or with a customer, will result in a routine, predictable, and lifeless association. This opens the door for a competitor…

Do not view service as a noun. Do not see “serving customers” as performing a role or function—whether or not it involves a script, checklist or a requirement to “express empathy.”

Service, like love, is a verb. As such, it requires action and effort. It must be demonstrated.

When done well—consistently, with genuine care and concern—you will make a lasting positive impression and ensure that your “customer” will only have eyes for you. ; )

Recently, I had an epiphany. It occurred to me that the most important aspects of my job (and likely yours) are nonessential.

Think about it. Most jobs consist of a set of essential job tasks that define a job role. These tasks might be described as mandatory job functions—the bullet points that make up a job description.

To the extent that employees define their job roles according to these mandatory functions, they will often describe their work as routine and monotonous. These employees presumably will view the essence of their jobs (their highest priority) as the successful execution of their assigned job tasks.

Sounds pretty boring, huh?

That’s because all of the fun usually resides within the dimensions of our work that may not appear in our job descriptions. I’m referring to those aspects of our jobs that are creative, interesting, and unexpected.

Customers describe these actions as “beyond the call of duty” or “going the extra mile.” In most cases, these tasks or behaviors are optional and support the true essence of our jobs (creating delighted customers).

Since these tasks and behaviors are optional, they’re seen as nonessential, unimportant, and elective. Because of this, as customers we don’t always experience them. But when we do, it makes an impression and reinforces our loyalty.

Here’s a recent example:

Many consumers see insurance as a commodity and regularly compare rates to determine whether or not they can find a lower premium. After all, as long as the essential elements of an insurance policy are present (sufficient coverage, reasonable deductible, affordable premium, etc.), insurance is insurance, right?

Maybe not.

For instance my Allstate agent, Kevin Johnson, recently emailed me a link to enroll in an electronic billing discount program offered by Allstate that he and I had previously discussed. I happened to be traveling when his email arrived and never got around to enrolling.

As my renewal deadline approached, Kevin took the time to personally enroll me and then sent me my user name and password with a short note saying, “I know you are running 100 miles an hour and we want to make sure you get the discount.”

Was Kevin’s action essential? No, it was optional. And, as it turned out, saved me about $115. Because of actions like this, I don’t compare rates with his competitors to see if I can find cheaper insurance. Why would I risk losing the personal attention I receive?

So while the essential aspects of my insurance policy have little to do with whether or not I decide to renew, shop around for a better rate, or recommend Kevin and Allstate to others, the nonessential aspects are vital to these decisions.

What are some nonessential aspects of your own job that are vital to your success?

Several years ago, I was out to dinner in Orlando with a colleague. At the time, she was the director of training at a large resort and convention hotel located near Disney World.

Her hotel competed for group business head to head with Disney’s own hotels. If you have experienced Disney, then you know how difficult it is for another hotel to win business when competing with them—especially if the deciding factor is the anticipated quality of service that group members will receive as hotel guests.

When I asked Theresa about her approach to customer service training, given her formidable competition on the other side of Interstate 4, she said that a key ingredient was to involve hotel employees in clarifying the difference between their job functions and the essence of their jobs.

Consider the definition of each term:

func⋅tion [fuhngk-shuhn]: –noun The action for which a person or thing is particularly fitted or employed.

es⋅sence [es-uhns]: –noun The most important ingredient; the crucial element.

Depending on the employee’s job role, the functions performed will differ. For instance, the functions of a bellman (e.g., deliver luggage to and from guest rooms, provide information about the hotel outlets and services, etc.) will differ from the functions of a maintenance employee (e.g., perform preventative maintenance, execute repairs, etc.).

Theresa explained that, while employees’ job functions will differ, the essence of their roles was the same: To exceed the expectations of their hotel guests by consistently delivering product and service quality that will result in delighted customers.

Bain and Company, a consumer research firm, equates delighted customers with a category of customers called promoters. Promoters are those customers who are the least price-sensitive, have the highest repurchase rates, and are responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of positive referrals to a company or brand.

Now, Theresa had defined the essence of her employees’ job roles based on their highest priority: exceptional product and service quality. Other organizations may define the essence of their employees’ job roles differently. For instance, my neighbor is the executive director of a halfway house that provides housing for men who are in transition from incarceration to freedom. He told me that the essence of his employees’ job roles is to convey respect towards the clients, his term for the men who occupy the facility.

The challenge for employers is that, oftentimes, employees think that the functions and essence of their job roles are the same. When this happens, employees become transactional and process-focused, treating each customer like the last customer. A factory mentality ensues. In the short-term it may be highly efficient (employees do more things faster) but in the long-term it is ineffective (does not fulfill the organization’s highest priority).

Consider your own organization. Do the employees really know the difference between their job functions and the essence of their jobs? If you’re not sure, just ask. My hunch is that you will be met with blank stares…

This becomes an opportunity for you to have a meaningful conversation with your employees about the difference between the tasks they are responsible for executing and your organization’s highest priority.