Imaginative Service: Be Elegantly Adaptive

Early one morning I was in my side yard and walked up on a huge elaborate spider web complete with its designer-tenant.  As I approached the artwork, the spider began to vibrate the web sending early morning dewdrops everywhere.  The next morning the web was gone without a trace.  But, nearby was a brand new elegant web spread between two trees.   

A friend was checking out of a Ritz-Carlton hotel early one morning.  Half-asleep, she noticed the ever-smiling clerk kept leaving the counter to go elsewhere with each step of the transaction.  It was then my friend embarrassingly realized she was at the concierge counter, not at the check-out counter.  She apologized for making the clerk work extra hard.  “Don’t be silly, Ms. Cook,” said the clerk.  “You can check out wherever you like.”  

Do your customers get service their way, or are they shoehorned into complying with your service procedures?  Do you willingly rebuild your service “web” without resistance?  Would your customers label you “elegantly adaptable?”