Service and Experience with J. N. Halm: Special requests: When customers ask for more than the menu allows

By J. N. Halm

It could be as simple as restaurant guests asking for special arrangements in terms of tables. Or even requesting ingredient substitutions due to allergies or lifestyle choices. Or a passenger requesting the radio in the taxi to be tuned to the dial of a particular radio station.

It could also be as complicated as asking for modifications in product compositions, such as the size of a new screen that is currently not in stock. Or even be as criminal as bank customers asking staff to massage debit and credit figures to print very impressive account statements. What all these have in common is that they are out of the norm.

The truth is that customer-facing employees are expected to perform various tasks throughout their workday. From greeting customers to processing transactions, from answering queries to resolving complaints, frontline employees have their hands full. However, there is one aspect of the job that many organisations fail to adequately prepare their employees for—and that is dealing with customer special requests.

A special request is any ask from a customer that goes beyond the normal scope of what the employee is expected to do. These are requests that fall outside the standard operating procedures of the organisation. They are the kinds of requests that catch employees off guard because they are unexpected. More importantly, these are requests that require the employee to make a judgment call—to comply or not to comply.

The issue of special requests is more critical than many organisations realise. On the one hand, failing to comply with a customer’s special request could negatively affect customer satisfaction.

An unhappy customer is never good for business. On the other hand, complying with every special request that comes along could produce unwanted consequences for the organisation. Some requests, if granted, could expose the organisation to legal liabilities or financial losses. It is a delicate balancing act that frontline employees must perform daily.

An interesting study was done regarding the types of requests customers make and how employees assess these requests. The study was published in the May 2016 edition of the Journal of Service Research. The article was titled “Frontline Service Employee Compliance with Customer Special Requests.” The researchers used grounded theory and content analysis of critical incident special requests from frontline employees to develop a framework that categorises both the requests and the employee assessments of these requests.

What the researchers found was quite illuminating. Customer special requests, they discovered, could be classified into four main types based on customer deficiencies. The first type relates to Physical Resources.

These are situations where customers lack the physical means to accomplish what they need to do. For instance, a customer who does not have a vehicle asks a delivery person to drop a package at a different location than was originally planned. Or a customer who forgot to bring a necessary item and asks the employee to lend them one.

The second category involves Knowledge deficiencies. In this case, customers lack the information or expertise needed to complete a task or make a decision. They therefore turn to the employee for guidance that goes beyond the usual job description.

An example would be a customer asking a bank teller for investment advice when the teller’s role is simply to process transactions. Another instance might be a customer asking a retail employee to help them install or set up a product that the employee is not trained to support.

Financial deficiencies form the third category. These are requests that arise because the customer lacks the financial resources to pay for the service or product as it is normally offered. A customer might ask for a payment plan that is not typically available.

Or they might request a discount or waiver that is not part of the organisation’s standard offerings. I have witnessed instances where customers have asked frontline employees to reduce prices simply because they did not have enough money to pay the full amount.

The fourth and final category is Time deficiencies. These requests come from customers who are pressed for time and need the employee to speed things up or accommodate their time constraints. A customer might ask to jump the queue because they are in a hurry. Or they might request that a service be completed faster than the normal turnaround time. In our fast-paced world, time-related special requests have become increasingly common.

Having categorised the types of special requests, the study went further to examine how employees assess these requests before deciding whether to comply. The researchers found that employee assessments fall into two broad categories—factors that encourage compliance and deterrents to compliance.

On the compliance side, employees consider their Motivations and their Ability to fulfil the request. Motivation speaks to the employee’s desire to help the customer. This could be driven by empathy for the customer’s situation, a genuine desire to provide excellent service, or even the hope of receiving a tip or some form of recognition. Some employees are simply wired to go the extra mile for customers, and this intrinsic motivation plays a significant role in their decision to comply with special requests.

Ability, on the other hand, refers to whether the employee has the means to fulfil the request. Does the employee have the necessary resources, skills, or authority to grant what the customer is asking for? An employee might be highly motivated to help but cannot simply do so. Conversely, an employee might have the ability but lack the motivation. The best outcomes occur when both motivation and ability align.

However, there are also significant deterrents to compliance. The first of these is Policy or Legal constraints. Many special requests, no matter how reasonable they might seem, simply cannot be granted because they violate company policy or legal regulations. An employee might want to help a customer but cannot do so without breaking rules that could lead to disciplinary action or even legal consequences for the organisation. In such cases, the employee’s hands are tied.

Another deterrent is Potential Risk. Even if a request does not explicitly violate policy, employees must consider the potential risks of compliance. Will granting this request set a precedent that will be difficult to manage in the future? Could it create safety concerns? Might it expose the organisation to liability? Frontline employees, often without the benefit of management guidance in the moment, must make these risk assessments on the fly.

The third deterrent is a Lack of Resources. Sometimes, employees simply do not have what is needed to fulfil a special request. The required equipment might not be available, or there might not be enough staff to accommodate the request without negatively affecting other customers. Resource constraints are a reality that frontline employees must navigate daily.

From the ongoing discussion, it becomes clear that the issue of special requests is far more complex than many organisations acknowledge. Frontline employees are essentially being asked to make decisions that could have significant implications for both customer satisfaction and organisational well-being. Yet, in many cases, these employees are not adequately trained or empowered to make such decisions.

I daresay that organisations need to be better informed about the types of requests their employees receive so that they can equip these employees to make the most appropriate decisions.

This means going beyond the generic customer service training that focuses only on standard transactions. It means having honest conversations about the special requests that are likely to arise and developing clear guidelines for how employees should assess and respond to them.

It would also help if organisations empowered frontline employees with some level of discretion. Employees who feel trusted to make judgment calls are more likely to make decisions that balance customer satisfaction with organisational interests. Of course, this empowerment must come with clear boundaries and support from management.

In my experience, the worst thing an organisation can do is leave frontline employees to navigate special requests in a vacuum. When employees are unsure about what to do, they either become overly rigid—saying no to every request out of fear—or overly accommodating—saying yes to everything and exposing the organisation to risk. Neither extreme is desirable.

The truth is that special requests are not going away. As long as businesses serve customers, there will be situations where customers need something beyond the standard offering.

The question is whether organisations will proactively prepare their frontline employees to handle these situations or continue to leave them to figure it out on their own. Companies that choose the former path will find that their employees are better equipped to deliver excellent service while protecting the organisation’s interests.

Those who choose the latter will continue to struggle with inconsistent service delivery and frustrated employees who feel unsupported in the difficult decisions they must make every single day.

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