I was in New York City for a business trip a week or so before my 10-year wedding anniversary. One afternoon, I stopped by the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on 6^th Avenue to look at anniversary rings.

A thoughtful representative named Duncan showed me several rings as he explained some of the nuances of color, cut, clarity, and carat weight.

The rings looked magnificent beneath the showroom lights. I recall that of the half dozen or so rings that I looked at, there was one that I kept going back to. Duncan noticed it too. And, of course, it cost 25 percent more than the others.

After about 30 minutes together, I thanked him for his time and told him that I wouldn’t be buying the ring today. I mentioned that I had an appointment in two days with a representative at the Denver location of Tiffany & Co. He congratulated me on my 10-year anniversary and wished me luck in finding the perfect ring.

Two days later I arrived at the Denver location of Tiffany & Co. and met with a representative named Cynthia. Cynthia brought me into a private room to show me a set of anniversary rings that she had selected based on the criteria we discussed. As she revealed each successive ring, she would say something like, “Now, this ring combines the color you are hoping for with the mounting we talked about.”

After introducing several rings in this way, Cynthia produced the final ring saying, “Now, this is the ring that you were especially taken by when Duncan was showing you rings at the 6^th Avenue store on Tuesday.”

I was absolutely floored! I said something like, “Huh? What? How did you…?”

Cynthia sensed my astonishment, smiled, and then explained that she had received a call from Duncan shortly after I’d left the 6^th Avenue store and that together they had made arrangements for the ring to be shipped overnight from New York City to the Denver location of Tiffany & Co. in time for my appointment.

Duncan and Cynthia worked together to deliver customer service that was completely beyond the realm of customer expectation. I had no reason to expect that the ring I’d looked at in New York would be among the options made available to me in Denver.

Does this level of customer service influence sales? Guess which ring I bought?

I wrote to the president of Tiffany and Co. about his employees’ legendary service and committed to “never purchase a significant piece of jewelry from a jeweler other than Tiffany and Co.”

After customers make such a commitment, there is no coupon or incentive program out there that is strong enough to lure them—and their future spending—away.

How about you? What retailer or brand are you committed to and why?

What happened the last time you asked an employee to do something that was not his job?

Did he cheerfully accept the responsibility and work beyond his job description to fulfill your request? Did the employee begrudgingly fulfill your request—making sure you knew through body language or words that he was doing you a favor? Or, worse yet, did you hear some variation of “That’s not my job”?

Last night, I stopped by my local King Soopers grocery store to pick up a princess balloon for my daughter who turned five years old today. The floral area where the packaged mylar balloons were sold was accessible to customers but, due to the late hour, there was no employee manning the counter with the large helium tank used to fill the balloons.

I went in search of a store employee and encountered Sean. Knowing right away that it “wasn’t Sean’s job” to operate the helium tank, I prepared myself for disappointment. Based on my experience as a customer, I expected him to say something like, “That’s not my department,” or “I don’t know how to operate the helium tank,” or “That person doesn’t come in until 7:00 o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Instead, Sean accepted the mylar balloon package from me with a smile. As we walked towards the floral area, he said, “I’ve never worked the helium tank before but I’m sure I can figure it out.” Although he didn’t say it, Sean was communicating a refreshing response: “That’s my job!” A minute later he had the balloon out and followed the instructions on the packaging to properly fill the balloon.

His first attempt resulted in a large explosion as the $10 balloon burst due to being overfilled. Undaunted, he retrieved a replacement from the rack and tried again. This time, he put a little less helium in it and within minutes I was leaving the store with a large princess balloon that he had tethered to a strand of pink ribbon.

Making a lasting positive impression on customers is not hard to do. It simply requires genuine caring and the willingness to work outside of one’s job description when necessary in order to fulfill customers’ needs. Communicating “That’s my job!” is a great way to accomplish this while, at the same time, providing a pleasant surprise—because most customers won’t expect such a refreshing response.

How about you? What is your experience or example?

Honestly, I never thought I’d be writing a positive customer service story about a cable company in my lifetime. Cable companies, in my mind, have always been grouped together with poor service heavyweights like the postal service, IRS, and DMV.

My Twitter conversation last month with @ComcastBill changed all that. For the uninitiated, Twitter is a social networking website where you can post short messages of 140-characters or less. You can choose to follow the Tweets (short messages) of other Twitter users, and they can choose to follow yours.

Below is the chronological series of Tweets that made up our Twitter conversation. Note that my initial message at 8:59 AM on Feb. 26th was addressed to no one. I just launched it out into the Twittersphere. Fortunately for me—and the productivity of the remainder of my day—@ComcastBill was “listening.”

8:59 AM Feb 26th from txt
Comcast is out at my home. Tried resetting modem. No luck. Forced to find a good cup of coffee and Internet connection elsewhere.

9:06 AM Feb 26th from web in reply to enthused
@ComcastBill @enthused can i look into for you

9:11 AM Feb 26th from web in reply to ComcastBill
@ComcastBill Wow! Didn’t expect that. I just arrived at It’s a Grind in Aurora, CO and accessed my Twitter account. I’ll DM (means “direct message” in Twitter speak) you w/ details.

9:17 AM Feb 26th from web
@ComcastBill Not able to DM you. Can you DM me or send e-mail to info@stevecurtin.com? Thanks!

9:19 AM Feb 26th
@ComcastBill There, got you. I phoned Comcast (local service #) and an auto attendant lead me through the process of resetting my modem… (cont.)

9:20 AM Feb 26th
@ComcastBill (cont.)… No effect though wireless signal is strong!? My home # is (home telephone #). Thanks for any help you can offer from Pennsylvania!

9:29 AM Feb 26th
@ComcastBill @enthused I think the connection just came back up, can you confirm? I am showing everything good.

9:31 AM Feb 26th
@ComcastBill I’ll check it out in ~an hour when I return home. Either way, excellent service! And if you’ve been to my site, you know I’m a critic! ; )

9:33 AM Feb 26th from web
@ComcastBill @enthused having DNS issue in CO right now try changing your DNS to (DNS #) and (DNS #)

12:21 PM Feb 26th
@ComcastBill Yes, up and running…Thanks! Can Social Media Improve Customer Service? I think yes! A blog post in the making.

12:55 PM Feb 26th from web
@ComcastBill @enthused were trying

Wow! Did you also notice that @ComcastBill’s initial reply was within 7 minutes of my original Tweet—even though that message was addressed to no one in particular? That’s responsiveness! The issue was addressed, diagnosed, and resolved within 30 minutes of my original message!

My experience with @ComcastBill has transformed the way I view customer service and responsiveness by Comcast. Rather than being a critical detractor of Comcast customer service based on the negative reputation of the industry and my own personal experience, I am now—as evidenced by this blog post—a promoter!

I wonder when the postal service, IRS, and DMV will begin Twittering?