I just got back from a conference in Las Vegas (you can read about it in our Best in Shows feature, where the weather was warm and beautiful. I stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Casino, probably the swankiest and most expensive new place on the Las Vegas Strip. It’s a great hotel in many ways, so I was really surprised that the customer service was so lousy.

Don’t get me wrong—the staff throughout the hotel and casino was incredibly polite and courteous. That’s all well and good, but courtesy without any real action behind it to solve your customer service issue is just happy talk. I’ve been seeing this more and more recently dealing with companies, and I have started to call it “Courtesy Without Consequences.” For me, it represents customer service that focuses on saying the right things without actually following through and doing the right things. It manifests itself in workers saying how sorry they are, or how much they want to give you good service, but in the end ignoring any real action to explain or fix your problem.

U.S. airlines are particularly good at delivering Courtesy Without Consequences. I had one particular experience with United Airlines recently where the customer service agent I was talking with (by phone) was so focused on apologizing or telling me how much she wanted to help that she was completely unable to concentrate on just what it was I needed. This was so frustrating that afterward, I e-mailed customer service at United to complain, only to get an e-mail version of what I had just heard over the phone. It was no more helpful (although much more aggravating) the second time around.

At the Wynn Las Vegas, I had to call housekeeping twice one day to get someone to clean my room. Despite the “We’re so sorry you are having a bad experience” happy talk, I didn’t get my room cleaned until nearly 8:30 p.m. Had someone bothered to call and follow-up after the first time I called (at 4 p.m.), they might have gotten the problem fixed sooner, saved me a second phone call and truly performed some customer service.

I could list all sorts of other minor, but annoying, customer service issues I encountered at the Wynn, but the point is this: Good management focuses the workforce not only on courteous interactions but also on taking responsibility to right the wrong, and then, on following up to make sure the customer is truly satisfied. At the Wynn Las Vegas, they’re batting .333 on this score. That’s good for baseball but terrible for any organization that lives and dies by keeping customers happy.

Arte Nathan, who was Wynn’s great HR chief before his recent retirement, told Workforce Management last year about Wynn’s hiring strategy for the company’s new casino and hotel in Macau. When I was in the midst of my customer service experience this week, I couldn’t help but think, “This wouldn’t be happening if Arte Nathan were still around!”