Be a better customer.

When it comes to customer service, travelers and the companies that provide them with products and services agree: Great service can send a travel-related provider to the top of the heap, while crummy service can sink an otherwise efficient company. Sure, safety, security, cleanliness, convenience and the like all count, but when it comes to deciding which companies are the “best,” the awards almost always go to those that know how to treat their customers.

Accordingly, corporations spend a bundle on customer service training programs. Employees learn how to greet their customers, respond to customer requests and handle customer complaints. Still, this may leave you in the hands of front-line employees of questionable training, uncertain empowerment and varying competence. Nonetheless, you can increase your likelihood of getting the best available service by employing some of the same techniques the companies use to train their employees—only in reverse.

All these techniques are based on the same principle: Change the relationship between the employee and customer (you) from a business transaction to a more interpersonal exchange. In other words, reposition your relationship from that of a customer to that of a friend.

How do you do this? I called on the experts for answers. Mary Blundell, director of service excellence for Midwest Airlines (named the 2004 World’s Best Domestic Airline by our sister magazine, Travel + Leisure) and Jim Coyle, whose New York firm provides quality assurance consulting to the hospitality industry, helped me put together the following pointers.

Adjust your attitude. First impressions are real and influential. If you begin with a chip on your shoulder, your attitude will only evoke a defensive posture from the person you are trying to get to help you—and after an opening diatribe, it’ll be too late to step back and try to make nice. A smile and calm voice can do wonders to set the stage for improving conditions.

Use his or her name. There are few things more personal than someone’s name. Consequently, there is no other single behavior that goes as far in breaking down transactional barriers between you and an employee. Addressing a person by name, particularly by first name, has the immediate effect of lowering a stranger’s natural defenses. Moreover, using an employee’s name introduces an element of personal accountability on the part of that employee.

Ask for a supervisor. Depending on your reason for asking to speak with a supervisor, you may either vastly increase your chances of getting better service, or you may expect those chances to stall. Indeed, they could even get worse. If you speak to a supervisor to praise the job that your contact is doing for you, expect better treatment. But if you think asking for a supervisor will get you a different answer, don’t expect success. The supervisor most likely will support the position of his or her employee. After all, they must work together long after you have disappeared from the scene.

Slip ’em a tip. For the most part, nominal tips are expected and appreciated by people in the service industry, and they may help keep you in good favor. Tipping, however, is a delicate matter that—if overplayed—can actually work against you. Giving too much can cause resentment from others who did not receive anything extra, and it reintroduces business into the personal relationship you are trying to foster. What’s worse, your generosity may be interpreted as condescension.

Be careful. Use these techniques as guidance, but keep in mind that if you simply allow yourself to be friendly and congenial, a relationship will develop on its own that will better serve both you and the employees whose job it is to provide service.

____________________________________

terry riley is a psychologist (appliedpsychology.com) and internationally recognized authority on understanding, managing and influencing business travel behavior. His is also the author of Travel Can be Murder, C.H.A.R.M. School and The Complete Travel Diet. Email Terryat editor@executivetravelmag.com.