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Having taught marketing and sales management for almost 10 years and worked in marketing management positions for the past 20 years, I think I have finally figured out what separates exceptional from poor customer service.

It's quite simple. But before I explain my observation, please indulge me while I digress.

Several years ago I saw an interesting TV program describing the work being done to create a "smart" computer that could beat a human at chess. It was the classic match-up between man and machine. In one corner was world chess champion Garry Kasparov and in the other a mega-computer called Deep Blue. Surprisingly, in the second round of play, the computer won.

So how could a computer beat a chess grandmaster? It basically "out-thunk" Kasparov using parallel processors to analyze 200 million possible chess positions per second, and thinking through more moves than Kasparov. For anyone who has played chess, you know that the key to winning is to think out more moves than your opponent. Although I can only think, at most, two or three moves ahead, Kasparov and other grandmasters analyze the consequences of many more moves than that.

And now to my point. As in chess, exceptional customer service involves thinking through the series of moves involved in each transaction.

For example, I recently had lunch at a local restaurant where my meal cost $13.53 excluding the tip. I gave the waitress a $20 bill and in return she presented me with a $5 bill, a $1 bill and 46 cents in change. I left her the dollar bill and coins as a tip. If she had thought a couple of moves ahead, she could have gotten a larger tip. If she had brought back six $1 bills and change, I would have given her two $1 bills and the extra change which would have approximated 20 percent of my original bill.

Having not thought a step or two ahead, she lost out on a bigger tip.

On another occasion, I called a local electronics store to inquire about a particular chip I wanted to purchase to extend my computer's memory. When I asked if they had the chip, the clerk said confidently, "I think so." Since they were closing within the next few minutes, I rushed over to the store only to find that when I arrived they didn't have the chip in stock after all.

If the clerk had thought through the obvious next steps, including looking for the chip in question before I got off the phone, he would have saved me the trip, my disappointment and my negative opinion of the store.

In contrast, one of the best examples of thinking ahead a few steps is the typical customer experience anyone has with online retailer Amazon.com. Their system automatically thinks ahead and regularly sends me recommendations of books I might find of interest given my previous purchases. Their extra steps lead to increased customer satisfaction and revenues.

Closer to home, during the flurry of major snow storms we recently experienced, I found an example of "smart" customer service that's worth noting.

After the first major storm, my wife and I spent hours calling every home and hardware store we knew of in town to locate a much-needed snow shovel. Most of the clerks we spoke to were increasingly rude as the day progressed. I'm sure the avalanche of calls they received that day by desperate shovel-seekers was getting aggravating. But instead of thinking of these calls as an opportunity to grow their customer base, they saw the calls as problems.

There was one exception - and only one exception that day: a representative at an Ace Hardware store who gladly accepted our call. She said she understood our concern and that she would be happy to add our name to a waiting list. When the next shovel shipment arrived, she would call and be sure to save one for us.

Now that was thinking a couple of steps ahead. And as you can imagine, they won our dollars for their effort.

Now that's my kind of gamesmanship - checkmate, Ace!