job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not The A.C.E.S. model of exceptional customer service is a simple pneumonic and diagnostic tool that will help you evaluate your company’s ability to deliver service to the customer. Once you have your diagnosis, you then know where to apply corrective measures if needed.

A.C.E.S. helps employees focus on the three component parts of customer service. This model complements my 4 (and 7) laws of exceptional customer service.

The ACES model is a simple formula Attitude + Competence + Empowerment = (exceptional) Service

The first component, Attitude, contains the attitudes and beliefs that are required to provide excellent customer service. These include the basic imperative of providing service to others (as oppose to oneself), of improving the customer’s condition, that problems are opportunities to excel, that positive energy and good humor are essential, and so on. The attitude factor can be assessed at macro and micro levels including: the corporate culture, the overall workforce, the general tendency of a given person, or the specific communications during an interaction.

The second component is Competence. A positive attitude is only a consolation prize when competence is low. Many decades ago I was a new waiter at an upscale restaurant. A patron asked me if there was mayonnaise in the Caesar salad dressing. I checked with the chef and was told there was no mayonnaise in the dressing. He ordered it and proceeded to have a tremendous allergic reaction. I had a great attitude, but I was less than fully competent. The dressing was made from scratch. No mayonnaise was added, but it was made with the same ingredients, eggs and oil! A competent food server would have known better. For that matter the chef should have known better as well.

Employee competence is largely derived from intimate knowledge with all aspects of the product and/or services being offered. I live in Pennsylvania where you can only buy wine in state-owned liquor stores. While it has gotten somewhat better in recent years, most sales people in these stores could not describe the difference between a Chardonnay and Ripple! I therefore do most of my wine shopping in another state.

In certain jobs, competence in the job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not w

ude, contains the attitudes and beliefs that are required to provide excellent customer service. These include the basic imperative of providing service to others (as oppose to oneself), of improving the customer’s condition, that problems are opportunities to excel, that positive energy and good humor are essential, and so on. The attitude factor can be assessed at macro and micro levels including: the corporate culture, the overall workforce, the general tendency of a given person, or the specific communications during an interaction.

The second component is Competence. A positive attitude is only a consolation prize when competence is low. Many decades ago I was a new waiter at an upscale restaurant. A patron asked me if there was mayonnaise in the Caesar salad dressing. I checked with the chef and was told there was no mayonnaise in the dressing. He ordered it and proceeded to have a tremendous allergic reaction. I had a great attitude, but I was less than fully competent. The dressing was made from scratch. No mayonnaise was added, but it was made with the same ingredients, eggs and oil! A competent food server would have known better. For that matter the chef should have known better as well.

Employee competence is largely derived from intimate knowledge with all aspects of the product and/or services being offered. I live in Pennsylvania where you can only buy wine in state-owned liquor stores. While it has gotten somewhat better in recent years, most sales people in these stores could not describe the difference between a Chardonnay and Ripple! I therefore do most of my wine shopping in another state.

In certain jobs, competence in the job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not

ent is Competence. A positive attitude is only a consolation prize when competence is low. Many decades ago I was a new waiter at an upscale restaurant. A patron asked me if there was mayonnaise in the Caesar salad dressing. I checked with the chef and was told there was no mayonnaise in the dressing. He ordered it and proceeded to have a tremendous allergic reaction. I had a great attitude, but I was less than fully competent. The dressing was made from scratch. No mayonnaise was added, but it was made with the same ingredients, eggs and oil! A competent food server would have known better. For that matter the chef should have known better as well.

Employee competence is largely derived from intimate knowledge with all aspects of the product and/or services being offered. I live in Pennsylvania where you can only buy wine in state-owned liquor stores. While it has gotten somewhat better in recent years, most sales people in these stores could not describe the difference between a Chardonnay and Ripple! I therefore do most of my wine shopping in another state.

In certain jobs, competence in the job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not

nt food server would have known better. For that matter the chef should have known better as well.

Employee competence is largely derived from intimate knowledge with all aspects of the product and/or services being offered. I live in Pennsylvania where you can only buy wine in state-owned liquor stores. While it has gotten somewhat better in recent years, most sales people in these stores could not describe the difference between a Chardonnay and Ripple! I therefore do most of my wine shopping in another state.

In certain jobs, competence in the job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not

job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, ”Are you trying to break my airplane?” The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not wanting to miss an opportunity at friendly jousting with such an obviously talented person, I said, “Excuse me, but are your planes that easy to break?” She smiled and retorted, “Don’t worry honey. They give us lots of duct tape. You can use duct tape for everything.” (short pause) They even use it at the Miss America Pageant.” Now THAT is competence in handling people.

On a more macro level, it is important that the systems and procedures of a company are competently designed to provide the exceptional service. Netflix is an example of an incredibly competent system for renting DVDs. You do not have to leave your house. They come in the mail they are returned in the mail. If there is any problem, you simply contact Netflix on-line and it is taken care of (at their expense). The system is designed so that the incentive to get the most for your money actually supports the efficient returning of the DVDs.

The final component of A.C.E.S. is Empowerment. Generally this is a structural issue within the company. Employees must be empowered in terms of proper training as well as actual power to solve problems. The main question to answer here is, in what ways are employees able to resolve problems on the spot so that the customer feels like his or her needs come first (Dr Bob’s 2nd law of exceptional customer service). Any employee at the Ritz Carlton is empowered to spend up to $2500 to solve a guest’s problems. The result is that a guest feels like he or she is a queen.

As shown in the diagram on the right, there three possible situations where a person or company has only one quality. There are three possible intersections of two qualities, and one point where all three qualities intersect. The single quality points are self-explanatory. So, I will not describe them here. At intersection 1 we have a good attitude plus competence, but not empowerment. Here an employee knows how to do something and has a great attitude, but somehow is not empowered to do it. This situation can exist when there is a poor manager in charge of competent, motivated people. It is often depicted in movies of the hero who wants to do it, can do it, but is prevented from doing it by the system. In real life, this is the s