Last week I had another one of those frustrating service experiences where the service provider looked me right in the eye, apologized sincerely and said the six saddest words in the service industry--"They won't let me do that." I had ordered a large cake for my niece's baby shower and the bakery agreed that they could match the design on the shower invitation. The problem was I didn't have the invitation with me. I asked if I could email the design to them and she said she would check. She came back and said they weren't allowed to give out company email addresses. So... I got creative and asked, "How about I upload it to my ftp web site and you can just go online and drag the design to your desktop." Again, she asked me to wait while she checked with someone from management. This time she was gone a little while. I could see her in the back of the bakery talking with someone in a very animated manner. I think she was trying to convince her manager that they should accommodate me, their customer.

The problem with my example above is that the bakery was looking at my situation through their lens and not mine--their customer. They didn't want to give employees access to the Internet for fear they would surf the Internet when they should be working. Consider these tips for ensuring that you are focusing on your customer's needs: