I had two customer experiences recently that stuck with me - for the same reason.
Scene 1: My local Sherwin-Williams paint store
I was down to the final details - edging and a second coat around the light switch and receptacles - when I ran out of paint and went back for a quart of “Taupe of the Morning.”
The associate accidentally mixed a gallon. I felt terrible.
She said,
“I can sell you the gallon at the quart price… or you can wait five minutes and I’ll remix it.”
I hesitated. A quart price for a gallon felt unethical. And the gallon was way more than I needed, which is wasteful. (Plus, I’d just dealt with a paint disposal disaster that required an entire driveway reseal this summer. I'll post about that once a therapist and I have worked through it all).
I said, conflicted,
“I don’t want you to get in trouble or waste the paint.”
She smiled and said,
“I won’t get in trouble. My manager will just ask one thing: did the client get what she needed? Taupe of the Morning is one of our top sellers - someone will want this gallon soon.”
I waited the five minutes. Problem solved. No drama. No waste.
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Scene 2: Amazon (two weeks later)
Amazon shipped me a nightly sleep remedy instead of my protein powder.
It took multiple steps: chat, refund, dumping the product, re-ordering.
At the end of it all, Amazon asked one question:
“Did I solve your problem today?”
Two very different companies. Same operating principle.
At Exemplary Performance, this is exactly what we see when we study top performers:
The best organizations don’t just train people to “try harder” or “care more.” They make the definition of success unmistakably clear - and align the system around it.
When people know:
What “good” looks like What question they’ll be held accountable to answer And what actually matters in the moment
They make better decisions without escalation, scripts, or heroics. Exceptional experience stops being rare and starts being repeatable.
Which raises the real question: what decisions are your people being quietly trained to make?