In customer service, as in life, being the best doesn’t always get you ahead. More often, it gets you stuck.
You become the one who’s always put on the hardest shift. The one who fixes the messes, handles the angry customers, trains the new hires, and covers the short-staffed days. Everyone knows you’ll get it done—so no one asks if you want to do it anymore.
It’s flattering at first. But over time, that praise starts to feel like pressure. And then it becomes something else entirely: a prison.
Customer service is the world I know best – so this one goes out to everyone doing the invisible work. But we all serve someone don't we?
My Three Rules of Customer Service
Let me explain this through my three customer service rules. These rules have helped me navigate and succeed. They’ve also helped me to understand why some of the best people in customer service stay stuck, while others move forward.
Rule #1: Shut up and do it.
If there’s something you can do, just do it. Don’t make a scene. Don’t overthink it. Just get it done. The best customer service people live by this. They listen. They see a need and act—fast. No drama, no delay. They smile.
This one is easy to learn—think of that charming barista at your favorite café. It doesn’t require a lot of experience, just a good attitude. As you get better at this, you start to pre-empt problems. Good for you—you’re a rockstar!
Rule #2: They are our rules, not their rules.
An excellent agent knows how to navigate company policies for the customer. They understand the difference between serving the customer and enforcing the rules. They know when to flex things to make someone’s experience feel seamless.
This one comes with experience, good training, and great leadership. When you’re really impressed that someone got the impossible done for you? It’s because they have this truly unique skill.
Rule #3: The customer is king, but I am the emperor.
This one trips people up. Great service isn’t about pleasing everyone—it’s about serving the business. That means making money, keeping things efficient, and using judgment. You don’t give away the store just to be nice. The emperor’s best agents know when to say no.
An empire works because it keeps the individual kingdoms happy—but if the kingdoms aren’t keeping the emperor happy in return, you’ve got a big, big problem. (Look at what’s happening in the U.S. right now if you need any more evidence. Mr. Trump isn’t happy—and we’re all paying the price.)
Why the Best Get Stuck
A business owner cares about happy customers, sure—but their real concern is the bottom line. If your coffee tastes bad, it’s a problem. If my business goes under, it’s catastrophic.
Being great at Rule #1? That’s your job. There’s no extra reward for that.
Being great at Rule #2 and you’ll be training the newbies… you might get you promoted to supervisor.
Being great at Rule #3 will make you successful.
Here’s what I’ve noticed:
- The best people in customer service are amazing at Rule #1. They grind. They get it done. They’re dependable.
- They often hate Rule #2. The rules feel dumb, unfair, or outdated—and they fight them constantly, because they care about doing things the right way.
- But they don’t understand Rule #3. They focus on making customers happy, but they don’t connect that work back to the business’s bottom line.
And that’s where the trap forms.
They become too good at doing. Too invested in perfection. Too emotionally entangled with customer outcomes. So they don’t get promoted. They don’t get pulled into strategy. They don’t step back. They stay right there—front line, essential, and invisible.
Excellence Isn’t Enough
Being the best isn’t always rewarded. In customer service, it often means you become the person others lean on—but never the one they invest in.
Because you’re too good where you are.
Because they don’t want to lose you.
Because you’ve never stopped long enough to ask, “What do I want?”
A Management Dilemma
Every manager has faced the problem of not being able to find good staff. It leads to hard choices and a lot of frustration. The innovative ones figure it out. The not-so-innovative ones? They keep their best people exactly where they are—because those people make their lives easier. They’re reliable.
But this reliability can create a ceiling. As noted in a Harvard Business Review article:
“Over the many decades my company has been studying the link between people practices and performance, we’ve seen a common trait among low-performing, non-agile, slow-to-change companies: talent hoarding. This is the practice of allowing managers to keep their top performers from moving anywhere else in the company.”
I don’t want to get too deep into management philosophy right now, but I’d be surprised if you haven’t been told you’re great at something—and that something hasn’t given you anything.
I know I’ve been there.
I bring this up because we can’t expect the company to fix this problem for us. The business does what it does—and our ability to change it is limited. Our ability to change ourselves, however, is everything.
What’s the Solution?
In summary: being a top performer at your job is commendable—but it can also trap you if you’re not careful.
This isn’t me giving answers. It’s a prompt. A provocation.
Because while I live in the world of customer service, I know this applies everywhere.
So—how do you get out of this problem? Let me know if the comments what you think.
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