While visiting a friend, we stopped at a Starbucks. After getting her drink, she realized there had been a communication mix-up. She asked the barrista for another shot of espresso.

The woman, looking a bit miffed, did so.

When my friend thanked her, the woman, not looking up, said in a frosty tone: "You're welcome."

Curious if I was imagining things, I asked my friend if she noticed the 'tude.

"Oh, yeah" she said and then recounted a story that made my jaw drop.

She stopped into this same location the day after Christmas and asked for an egg nog latte. The barrista said they weren't serving any more that year. My friend expressed surprise, since we're still in the holiday season - as any egg nog lover knows.

"We're tired of making holiday drinks and we get to choose what we sell, so no more egg nog" was the response.

Case closed.

That's something you would expect in a comedy about lousy service in America, not from a person who works for a company that is supposedly dedicated to pleasing the customer.

OK... enough of that... now how about you and your team.

1. Do you keep a "we're here to delight the customer" vision in front of your people?

2. Do you get feedback from your customers to make sure they feel like your CSRs have a "we're happy to serve you" attitude?

3. Do act swiftly if you see someone acting or talking like serving the customer is an annoyance?

In a future posting, we'll explore more about the cost of not doing it. I just read a research finding that will blow your mind about how much business bad CSRs can drive away.

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