Poeple Driven Vs Process Driven

In our constant endeavor to keep aligning our efforts towards our professional / departmental / organizational goals we come across the terms PEOPLE DRIVEN and PROCESS DRIVEN. Wanted to initiate a discussion and seek and collate thoughts in this direction. Whilst both the approaches have inherent advantages and disadvantages, being in the services, most of us tend to skew towards a People Driven approach.
There are numerous advantages to be process driven; there is sense of predictability, the process and result are standardized. On the flip side, while holding onto the existing customer seems to be imminent challenge, the Process driven approach might make it difficult for the customers. We have heard the words which put us off immediately-"I'm Sorry, We can't do that". What we understand is that they "won't do that". This was a recent personal experience of mine when I visited an upcoming Chinese restaurant with two of my very accomplished associates. One of them is a connoisseur, and he requested a shiitake mushroom in his gravy. Though they were available in the menu on a different dish, the steward was refusing to accept our modified order, as it is not an item by itself in the menu. For him, "It is not a part of the menu, so I can't give you that". While my associate was trying to convince the steward that it is not a very big deal to add the mushroom and even offered to pay extra for the same, the steward did not budge. We finished our lunch, over which we discussed the reasons why he could have refused to serve the shiitake in our gravy. On my next visit to the same restaurant (Couldn't resist their starters) with a different set of friends, the same steward was serving us; he was slightly apologetic and revealed that their rules are inflexible and cashier wouldn't appreciate any modifications as it involves extra work for him in creating a special bill. It dawned upon me that if the steward was given the liberty to modify the order basing on client needs, and be not so bound by process, he would have not only billed us for more, but also won our loyalty. Too many processes are inflexible that they fail to understand their customers. Most of us will not give additional business to those who "Couldn't do that". When it comes to building customer loyalty, nothing is more effective than being flexible in our 'rules'. While the same is not applicable to all industries and practices, the human touch always helps. Of course, there will be some that will take advantage of our willingness to work beyond and around the rules, however, what we gain from the vast majority who do not game the system, significantly overcomes the stragglers.
Please share thoughts...