Many companies use terms like “guest” and “partner” to convey the intimacy they have with their customers but the reality is that most employees, when given the opportunity, do not behave as though they are serving a valued guest.

If you’d like to test this assertion, simply show up at your choice of retailer after it has closed for the day. Assuming you can make eye contact with an employee through the locked glass door, see if she is willing to do more than point at her watch and mouth the words, “We’re closed.”

Now, this is where corporate types jump in using words like: policy, procedure, overtime, security, protocol, etc. While all of their points are valid, it doesn’t mean they’re right.

To illustrate, imagine that you had planned a baby shower at your home from 1:00 to 3:00pm and that one of your guests was delayed for some reason and didn’t arrive until 3:15pm—after the event had officially ended and the other guests had left.

Would you refuse to open the front door and simply make eye contact with her through the glass side light panel, point to your watch, and mouth the words, “The party’s over”?

Of course not.

Then why is it acceptable to treat “guests” like that in a business setting?

If you’re going to cite the above list of policy, procedure, overtime, security, protocol, etc. as your justification for this behavior, at least stop referring to your customers as “guests.”

Instead, call them what they really are to your closing staff: a nuisance—an interruption; someone we accept money from during business hours but whom we’d prefer not to see after closing time until the next business day.

Just last week I was in Logan, UT. Being a coffee enthusiast and having read about the mountain grown, Triple Certified coffee at Caffe Ibis, I made it a point to stop by on the day of my arrival.

I showed up at 6:45pm and learned that the store closed at 6:30pm. I peered through the glass door and made eye contact with an employee who pointed to her watch and mouthed the words, “We’re closed.”

Before I returned to my car, however, an energetic employee named Natalie unlocked the front door and engaged me.

I mentioned that I was in town for one night from Denver and had hoped to try a cup of Caffe Ibis coffee that I had read so much about and pick up a pound of beans to take back home.

She said, “The machines are off and the register is closed but let me see what I can do.”

A few minutes later, she appeared with a steeping (literally) cup of coffee and a pound of Double French Roast Blend coffee beans.

I thanked her, paid her $15 in cash, and enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee back in my hotel room.

The following day, on my way out of town, I returned and spent another $28.05 on a latte, ground Espresso Roast Blend, and a Caffe Ibis t-shirt. That’s $43.05 in revenue from a guest that many employees would have labeled a nuisance—an interruption in their day.

And my purchasing hasn’t stopped. I’m back in Denver but enjoyed the coffee so much that I’m planning a repeat purchase of Double French Roast Blend coffee beans from their website. My potential future value to Caffe Ibis is significant.

If the first employee was my only impression of Caffe Ibis, I would have left empty-handed, kept my $15, and may or may not have returned the following day to spend another $28.05. And if I hadn’t experienced its coffee in Logan, I certainly wouldn’t be ordering it by the pound on-line.

This is key: Did the first employee do anything wrong? No. She was following policy. I get that. She was also behaving in a way that is usual, ordinary, and expected by most customers.

Natalie, on the other hand, treated me like her guest. She behaved in a way that was beyond what is usual, ordinary, and expected by most customers. She was refreshing and unique. As a result, she not only made a positive lasting impression, she made a sale!

More key points:

1.) Natalie recognized that, while her job function was to complete the closing checklist, the essence of her job—her highest priority—was to serve her guests.

2.) Her decision to open the locked door and engage me, unlike the completion of the closing checklist, was optional.

3.) And finally, her willingness to go the extra mile cost her employer nothing—it was free! In fact, it resulted in $43.05 in additional sales (and counting…).

Natalie created a promoter (that’s me).

Promoters are customers who not only buy your products/services, they wear your t-shirts, are less price sensitive, and recommend your business to others (as I’m doing now).

While the first employee’s service was ordinary, expected, and made me feel like an interruption in her day, Natalie’s was extraordinary, unexpected, and made me feel like a valued guest.

Care to comment? Be my guest.

I recently stayed at a full-service hotel in Scottsdale, AZ that offered a nice workout facility with treadmills and stationary bikes that faced a set of wall-mounted flat screen televisions. The audio for each television was accessed individually at the exercise equipment in order for each guest to listen to his/her preferred channel. To access the audio, one needed headphones that could be obtained at the front desk.

One evening, while I was awaiting a colleague in the lobby, I overheard a conversation between a front desk agent and a hotel guest. The guest had gone to the workout facility and realized that he needed headphones in order to access the audio of the television channel or radio station he’d selected. When he asked for a set of headphones, the representative said, “I’ll need a photo ID in order to hand out the headphones.”

Now, think about the realities of this situation. You have a guest who’s paying about $200 to stay in the hotel for the night, who has likely spent the day working and/or traveling to Scottsdale, and who is probably looking forward to a workout before facing another long day in the morning. The guest has changed from his work clothes into shorts and a t-shirt and has left his car keys, driver’s license, wallet, etc. in his hotel room.

The guest explains that, under the circumstances, he does not have a photo ID with him and offered his name and room number in addition to showing the representative his room key. The rep held firm to policy saying, “Our policy requires a photo ID in order to give out headsets. We’ve lost a lot of them in the past.”

Now examine her response. Several things caught my attention:

1.) The word “policy” is contradictory to good service. Customers do not want to hear about policies that stand between them and what they want. Sure, there are necessary policies. For instance, those that address certain legal, ethical, and safety concerns. It’s also advisable to have policies in place to protect the company’s assets (as in this case, involving the headphones).

That said, let’s consider the math in this illustration and see if we can identify the real asset. How much for a set of headphones—like the ones the airlines offer free of charge? I just checked on-line and found a set of Coby Ultra-Lightweight Stereo Headphones for $4.74—and that’s if I only bought one set. In quantity they’re even cheaper.

Now, let’s try and get past how difficult customers are when they fail to adhere to our policies and take an objective look at what this customer represents in financial terms:

At $200 per night (assuming no ancillary revenue from in-room services, food and beverage, gift shop sales, etc.), after you deduct the costs of preparing the room, in-room amenities, etc., you can figure the hotel captured around $125 in gross profit which may dwindle to around $15 per guest room per night in net profit for the company.

Obviously, the real asset in this example is not the headphones—it’s the customer. Managers (who devise these policies) and front-line employees (who get stuck—and, over time, comfortable—enforcing them) need to understand this. Policies must take into account the customer’s perspective and reinforce the value that the company places on its customers. Doing so will create more opportunities to satisfy customers, gain their loyalty and referrals, and grow the business.

2.) Requiring a photo ID in these situations is inconvenient and insensitive. Most customers making this request will be standing there in their workout clothes and will have left their wallets containing photo IDs back in their rooms. Knowing this reality makes the requirement of showing a photo ID impractical for hotel guests who do not want to hassle with returning to their rooms, waiting on elevators, and perhaps waiting a second time at the front desk if a line forms in their absence.

3.) Saying that “we’ve lost a lot of them in the past” implies that customers are irresponsible or dishonest. It’s critical to never offend customers by implying that they are irresponsible or dishonest. If we offend customers, then we are disrespecting them. Most customers will make allowances for a lapse in service. Few will make allowances for disrespect. When disrespected, customers will go out of their way to change providers and will share the negative story with anyone who will listen.

The guest in this situation was appalled at the desk clerk’s reply and lack of empathy. He did not want to spend the next 6 or 8 minutes returning to his room to access his photo ID only to find that the equipment he intended to use was now being used by another guest. His body language told the story: palms flat on the counter, heavy sigh, followed by an abrupt turn away from the rep in the direction of the workout facility.

This guest decided not to joust with the employee who was standing firm on “policy.” Instead, he resigned himself to an audio-less workout—content to read lips on CNN and make his best guess at what the correspondents were reporting.

As service is my business, I find myself observing lots of situations like this one and, on occasion, advocating on behalf of customers. In this case, I offered my photo ID to the rep and requested a set of headphones. She promptly handed them to me and I said, “Great. Now that gentleman will be able to listen to the programming in the fitness center.”

Realizing my intentions, she reverted back to “policy” stating that if the headphones were not returned to the desk, then my room account would be charged $80!

When I approached the guest in the fitness center a minute later and handed him the headphones, he smiled in appreciation and thanked me. It made my day. And to think, the gal at the front desk could have also had a positive exchange with this guest but instead dutifully enforced a customer-unfriendly policy.

Look around your own business. Are there any customer-unfriendly policies in need of revision or, better yet, elimination?