by Dean Zatkowsky

I generally ask marketing workshop attendees to share their best and worst customer service experiences. The stories, while always entertaining, also skew heavily toward negative experiences.  Everyone can remember the bad times, but people struggle to find examples of exceptional customer service.

Increasingly, I'm pleased to experience simple competence and graciousness, and I encountered three good examples yesterday.  As long as I have this forum available, I see no reason not to publicly praise the Getty Museum, The Stinking Rose restaurant, and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Every time I visit the Getty I find it hard to believe that admission is free. The architecture is stunning, the art exhibits outstanding, and the general ambiance inviting. Considering the number of visitors yesterday, it was relatively easy to find a parking space, the wait for a tram was minimal, and the galleries and cafes were comfortable and easy to navigate. Best of all, everyone we encountered was friendly and knowledgeable. I witnessed three occasions of snack bar employees patiently helping foreign visitors understand their meal and payment options. I took pride in these U.S. ambassadors.

Later, on our way to dinner, we groaned to realize we would have to drive by the Golden Globe Awards. But the LAPD did a really good job providing advance information via electronic signs, and keeping the heavy traffic moving along Wilshire Boulevard. I'm sure that many drivers complained about the inconvenience, but looking at the mass of traffic and potential for disaster, I felt genuinely relieved that the experts were on hand, taking care of business. We sometimes condemn our local police for what they do wrong, or what they don't do that we think they should be doing. But we ought to spare a moment now and then to remember all the things they make possible. Little things, like a media event at the busy intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, and big things, like sleeping soundly at night in your safe community.

Finally, kudos to the staff at The Stinking Rose. Every restaurant wants its coworkers to be icons of customer service, but last night The Stinking Rose nailed it. From the valet to the hostess to the waiter to the expediter to the busboy, everyone we met was cheerful, helpful, attentive, engaging and hospitable.

During the Great Depression, companies that bit the bullet and did not cut back on their advertising survived. They invested more to make it through the tough times. I'm not writing this to brag about the fact that my wife and I had a lovely day at the museum and a lovely dinner to boot. Rather, I'm saying that in a non-profit arts organization, a public safety and law enforcement organization, and a restaurant - one of the toughest businesses out there - I saw what it will take to survive and prosper in tough economic times: leadership that decides to try a little harder to do a good job and please one's customers.

Dean Zatkowsky is co-author of The Entrepreneurial Investor: The Art, Science, and Business of Value Investing, and Two Billion Dollars in Nickels: Reflections on the Entrepreneurial Life.