At some time we have all experienced the customer service “wall”, where front-line staff with little or no authority tell us they cannot help us and then make it difficult to reach someone who has power to deal with non-standard situations.

More recently I hit a wall trying to get someone at Air Canada to help me fix an innocent mistake without it costing me more than my original ticket price. That, apparently, was so much to expect that as I moved to more senior customer personnel, the response of the people I spoke to was to attack me. It was probably the most bizarre customer service experience I’ve had yet –my response was to initiate a campaign of 150 tweets / retweets to share my experience with others.

My recent experience highlights one of the key advantages of being small.

When you run your own company, you have agility and flexibility that is not readily available to a larger company or franchise. Here are some ways that you can take advantage of your size to outshine larger competitors.

1. Create an amazing customer experience. The business world is shifting so that customer service is expected as a minimum standard. It has been said that customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job. What counts today is the overall customer experience.

   Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, has said, “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

   From the minute a customer first hears about your business right through their entire lifecycle of interacting with your customer, each interaction will shape the way a customer views your business and what they tell others. Just like user-experience is an important part of website and software design, customer experience design is a powerful tool that has a direct impact on sales.

2. Make sure staff share your mission and vision. Many small companies do not have the formalized training systems found in larger businesses, which can make it difficult to provide a consistent customer experience. What they do have is the ability for the owners of the company to connect with each employee, sharing the vision and mission of the company so that everyone is working towards the same goals.

   This is easier talked about than done, which is probably why small businesses often find reasons to avoid the task of articulating and sharing company’s mission and vision statements. Yet with so much emphasis on the connection between leadership and success in business, this is one area that business owners and leaders need to make a top priority.

3. Embrace social media. I recently had a terrible lunch that started with our waitress ignoring us and then serving cold, undercooked food. My review detailing the experience was submitted to a popular social media site before the lunch was over and while the meal lasted less than an hour, my review will live on in the social space for many years to come.

   People who interact with customers usually know when someone is having a good or bad experience. Since people are more likely to share an experience that is at either extreme, this is both an opportunity and a risk.

   When you recognize that someone is having a great customer experience, ask the person to give you a testimonial on the social media sites most commonly used by your client-base. And when you know someone is having a bad customer service experience do what you can to help turn things around before they share their anger with their friends and peers.

4. Listen. Bill Gates once said that our most unhappy customers are our greatest source of learning, yet it is amazing how many large companies seem to want to do anything but listen when they confronted with an upset customer.

   An important part of listening is to understand that there are often several layers to why a customer is upset. Listening can help you address underlying issues to turn the situation around. It can also help you identify opportunities for you to improve your business for all customers.

5. Be honest. Being a smaller company may mean you are more agile, but it can also mean that you have fewer people available when you suddenly find yourself needing to support several customers at the same time. If you find yourself unable to prioritize a customer’s needs, communicate this in an open, yet positive way. And if you make a commitment, follow-up and stick with it.