Customer service that exceeds your expectations. That is what many companies say they aspire to, and it’s what consumers would like to believe is the case.

What does that really mean? What does it look like? Delivering the product or service as promised. Helping make sure the product or service is the right fit for the customer.  Willingly and cheerfully solving any problems that may arise.  Most of us would agree it’s all those things.

A recent communication to Neff of Chicago, however, suggests there is another aspect to true customer service, one that has to do with a mindset that results in a desire to go the extra mile – in every situation.

Here is the story:

A man was refinishing Neff cabinets in a house he and his wife had purchased a few years ago. He had removed the doors and taken out the screws that hold the plates that attach inside the cabinet. While in process of refinishing the doors, the bag of 60 screws he saved was thrown out by a clean-up crew handling a sewer back-up at the home.

One of the homeowner’s first calls in his effort to find a match for the screws was to the Neff of Chicago showroom. The design team member he talked with immediately offered to help find replacement screws. She even called installers and visited a neighboring hardware specialist in an effort to assist.

In the end, the man located suitable screws at a nearby lumber shop, but in the process, Neff of Chicago gained some new fans.

The man and his wife were especially impressed with the Neff designer’s interest in helping even though the couple had no plans to buy new cabinets for at least 24 months, and they were not even past customers. The designer went out of her way in a situation where there  “was little to no pay off for her personally.

“I can tell you that I only hope my [employees] all resemble Neff in commitment to customer service,” the homeowner commented.