Let’s say you work for a nondescript, middle-of-the-road airline.

I will forgive you if you don’t look up when I address you at the counter before take-off. Forgive me, though, if I roll my eyes as I turn away.

And when I ask you for the second time if you would check to see if I can move from my middle seat to an aisle or window seat—because I didn’t hear your muffled reply the first time—and you cop an attitude… I’m mostly okay with that, too. Air travelers are so high maintenance!

Once we’re in the air, you promise headsets to watch the movie on the 3-hour flight. I think the cost is $5.

A few minutes later, you say that your operations folks forgot to put the headsets on the plane and that you’ll leave the movie on even if we can’t hear it.

I grouse for a minute or two, but then I say to myself, “Well, that’s today’s airlines.”

It’s no fun being in the middle of an C-plus organization. Or being near the top of one, for that matter.

Customer service is drudgery when your brand stands for nothing. And when you are only one of an army of nondescript workers trying to earn a decent living at an average company in an industry that is on its heels.

No doubt, it’s just a job. It pays the bills, maybe provides some insurance. You hope you don’t lose it.

Most of us don’t work for Under Armour or Apple or Google or some high-flying nonprofit creating entrepreneurs in Asian villages. We work for decent organizations, but dynamic or entrepreneurial they’re not. They’re not the leader in much or of much.

So how do you do “remarkable” work at merely a slightly above average place?

Many folks think that “when I find the right organization that is really going somewhere – then I’ll give it my all.”

But the old adage is true: Your organization cannot make your self. You must bring your self to the organization. That’s especially true in a C-plus firm. A C-plus organization needs its ordinary folks to attempt to make the honor roll.

Okay, now I sound like a aging motivational speaker with too much hair gel.

Even if you’re in a moribund setting, for executives and middle managers alike, you must learn to swim upstream. A leader always swims against the current, no matter what grade your organization gets.

You can start by looking your customer in the eyes when he asks for a window seat, even if you know already that the flight is full.

There is a new SARS virus: the Serious Assumptions Regarding Slang.

I am referring to the increasing use of the word guys in businesses across America. Throughout the service industry, from restaurants to airlines to retail sales, professionals commonly address their customers as guys.

Think about the time you last entered a restaurant:

You were probably greeted with, “How are you guys this evening?”

After you were seated, a server asked, “Can I offer you guys something to drink? Would you guys like anything else?” After paying the check: “I hope you guys will come back again soon.”

True, guys feels friendly; it’s a way people attempt to warm up to their customer. The problem is customers are not friends. In time, some might become friends. But it’s presumptuous to assume that upon your first encounter. Customer service is built on respect—forged through experience and acquired over time.

Notice the difference in each of the sentences when guys disappears:

• “How are you this evening?”
• “Can I offer you something to drink?”
• “Would you like anything else?”
• “I hope you will come back again soon”

The above demonstrates professionalism, respect, and courtesy.

Sometimes the variations of guys sound silly:

For example, at the end of a meal a waitress told our party, “I’ll get you guys’s check right away.”

Is guys’s a word? It was part of our waitress’ hackneyed lexicon. The impression she left didn’t match her intentions. Impressions last. Most of us would be hesitant to go into a client’s office and announce, “I have a new product to recommend to you guys.”

Nor would we report to the board of directors, “I have an announcement you guys will like.”

The specific words we use communicate volumes to those who hear us—and those we want to build lasting relationships with. Consider what messages you want to communicate to your customer, then choose the right vocabulary.

Is “guys” necessary, helpful, appropriate?

What do you guys think?

Dr. Parkinson is professor of TV and communications at Northwestern University and co-author of Becoming a Successful Manager.