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102 The PCB Magazine • June 2016 Editor's Note: New columnist Barry Lee Cohen will be writing on all things related to marketing and branding. This inaugural column appeared as a blog on his website [1] . Exceptional service is often recognized by not being recognized. Exceptional—not good— service is demonstrated by actions that are as- sumed and relied upon by the cus- tomer to be the norm. Excep- tional service is providing the extraordinary and val- ue-added without being asked. For companies that break this trust, being "recognized" may very well result in disenfranchised customers and lost business. E x c e p t i o n a l service means con- tinually provid- ing the "extra top- pings" instead of the "order in, order out" mindset that is unfor- tunately undertaken by many good souls who range from the online customer sup- port person to the local pizza deliv- ery guy. They are all vigilantly following their company's policy. However, if not clearly un- derstood by the employee—the company's face- to-customer ambassador—the policy can nega- tively impact product quality, which is critical to establishing credibility, brand loyalty and increased profitability. I'm betting that each of us at one time in our youth had the dubious distinction of be- ing an accomplice to the pizza parlor pay-off. Like generations before us and what will be for generations to come, you were enlisted by your friends to help test the pizza delivery guy to see if he was going to get that round slab of irre- sistible cheesy goodness within the "30 minutes guaranteed or it's free!" challenge. It was rare we ever got the savory saucer without coughing up some dough. The pizza parlor may have caught onto our devious, youthful indiscretions— or just as likely, not. The same order could have been placed for a par- ty, family dinner or business function. Whatever the case, the pizza parlor thought that they had provided ex- ceptional service, as they met the cor- porate 30-minute delivery doctrine. Order in. Order Out. Corporate policy fol- lowed. Take that, you rowdy, rebellious runts! However, the pizza parlor's payday of the mere Hamilton or Jackson (soon to be Tubman) was short- lived. You see, the pizza-parlor pie maker (say that three times fast) was so focused on meeting the "one topping mandate" of speed, the pie was not baked to crispy crust perfection. Fur- thermore, the pizza delivery guy neglected to place the culinary delight in the insulated sack. It makes no difference if it was a bunch of ado- lescent pranksters. The flimsy, lukewarm pizza by Barry Lee Cohen Exceptional Service—Extra Toppings without Sacrifice LAUNCH LETTERS