The week before Christmas, I brought my car in for maintenance. The dealership offers both a waiting area as well as a shuttle service to take you to local destinations while your vehicle is being serviced.

While leaving my keys with the service department, I inquired about the shuttle driver and learned that he was off site and would return in the next 10-15 minutes. I then asked the rep if he’d have the driver locate me in the waiting area upon his return in order for me to run a local errand while my car was being serviced.

The rep agreed, made note of my name and cell phone number, and assured me that it would be no more than 15 minutes.

So far, so good.

While I was sitting in the waiting area, a client called. I took the call and moved to a quiet corner of the waiting area to talk.

Within five minutes or so, the shuttle driver appeared and called out my name. I motioned to the driver that I was on the phone and would be a few minutes.

The driver left the area, returning a few minutes later.

As I was listening to my client and taking notes in my planner, the driver walked towards me, pointed to his watch, motioned for me to wind things up and said, “I’ve got places to go.”

Stunned by his actions, I instructed him not to wait on me and that I would just take the next available shuttle. Clearly annoyed, he let out an audible sigh, turned, and walked away.

Think about the irony of this situation: Because I’m making myself available to serve a client over the phone, I’m reinforcing his decision to hire me. Because he hires (and compensates) me, I can afford to have my vehicle serviced at the dealership. Because I’m servicing my vehicle at the dealership, there’s a need for a shuttle driver. And because there’s a need for a shuttle driver, this employee has a job.

After my call ended, I approached the dealership’s general manager and we sat together briefly in his office.

I shared what had happened, recognizing my contribution to the misunderstanding. I realize that conflict doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Conflict is the result of a failure to meet expectations—and I clearly did not meet the shuttle driver’s expectations. After all, I had requested the shuttle service and then wasn’t available when the driver returned. I get that.

Even so, I told the GM that the driver’s behavior made me feel devalued as a customer. His dealership spends a lot of money to evoke certain feelings from its customers and I’m certain ‘devalued’ isn’t one of them.

What the GM did next cemented my loyalty to his dealership and the Cadillac brand.

He said, “Here, take my car” as he handed me the key to a white CTS in the parking lot.

As we walked from his office to the showroom, he apologized on behalf of the shuttle driver, thanked me for my business and said, “Take as long as you need. I’m here until 7 o’clock.”

Misunderstandings are inevitable. How employees respond to them, however, is optional. Those employees who truly value customers, seek understanding, and give customers the benefit of the doubt (or, in some cases, the keys to their car), are one step closer to resolving misunderstandings—and creating loyal customers.

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.