Are You Serving Your Customers With Honor?

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To serve a customer in its purest form is to enter a covenant that promises worth will be exchanged for worth in a manner satisfactory to both. Covenants are implied agreements with an underlying expectation of goodness, honesty, and fairness. No customer likes the value of what they receive to be less than expected, any more than the service provider wishes to be disappointed should the customer not live up to his or her promise. Therefore, poor service is not only rude business manners but also business practices without honor.

Honor is the conscience of the covenant and, therefore, the sentinel of customer trust. Trust and its manifestations, such as reliability, predictability, and consistency, are what renowned customer service researcher Leonard Berry called the single most crucial feature of customer service. Someone with an honorable spirit strives to make service wholesome, not just excellent, tell the absolute truth, and pursue a high standard of beauty and attraction.

My first impression of Martin's advice was that it was a plea for excellence—a kind of bootstrap, be-all-you-can-be sideline cheer you might hear from a motivational speaker. As I learned more about Steve Martin's character, I realized he was using a double meaning—be your best, but also be a good person. Customers trust service providers with the discipline of goodness. It is a foundation on which they want to build a relationship, not on a cheap gimmick that governs a single transaction. They enjoy how they feel when embraced by wholesome service providers.

We asked Jessica, the front desk clerk at an Embassy Suites in Chicago, to recommend a nearby seafood restaurant. The restaurant she recommended provided a delightful experience. When my business partner and I declined dessert after a delicious meal, the waiter brought a plate of small cookies and overgrown strawberries. "These are compliments of Jessica," he proudly announced. We had to know more about the structure of this unexpected, equitable partnership.