Many businesses still fail hugely at the empowerment of employees to handle problems and communicate in a way with the customer that brings great results.
Now this goes way beyond simply when a customer is at the 'solve-my-problem' stage. I remember when I was at a retail store one time and an employee was talking with a customer for a couple of minutes and the customer was really enjoying the conversation and was engaged. Suddenly I hear this voice calling out from this little room telling the employee to get back to work. The employee immediately left the customer to himself and went off to do...something.
To me this is a manager missing it. Now if this was someone the employee knew and they came around all the time to just gab and it took away from serving real customers, I could understand what happened. But that wasn't the case here, as the place was a tourist destination.
All of this is a matter of training to me and understanding interaction with customers. How many times do you see those little restaurants that have their customers come in all the time to grab something quick and talk to those serving them? In a sense they're paying for the privilege of somebody to talk to for a little while.
Being engaged with customers may do more to enhance the bottom line than any other strategy out there. Employees simply need to know what the guidelines to doing it are for your company. But the guidelines need to be flexible. If you're so tightly scheduled that the work can't get done and there is no time for interaction with customers, you may need to rethink your options.
Good customer service begins with making somebody feel welcome. At times that means employees taking a little time just to be friendly and talk a little with them.
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