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The flip side of your statement is that I give those same low-level employees a lot of credit when I get a refreshing breath of honesty from them. The last time I faced a major delay at an airport, the guy at the airline counter just came out and told everyone: “There is a two-hour delay posted for this flight, but based on the nature of the problem I can tell you that the flight is very likely to be canceled. I would suggest you let us try to re-book you on another flight tonight or tomorrow.”

No gripes among the passengers there, as I remember it.

True. The customer-facing employees who go the extra mile should always be applauded. Also, you can bring out those traits by being respectful and nice to these employees in the first place.

There's a common saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" and some clients take that too much to heart. The reality is that a rude and nasty approach usually has the opposite effect. If you are polite and emphasize with the employee, while still being persistent, they will often go that extra mile to take care of you.

A few years back, I brought a large party to a restaurant (about 20 people) and due to staffing, the restaurant only had one waitress to assign to our table. She obviously had her hands full keeping up with all the drinks and other requests and some of those with me muttered that I ought to complain to the manager.

Not only did I not complain but I tipped her and wrote a nice letter to the restaurant praising her (while subtly hinting they should put more waitstaff on). I ended up getting a gift certificate for a dinner for two and next time we got that same waitress, she remembered and went out of her way for us the whole night.