Conclusion

A maddening thing about service organizations is that they permit you to lie to yourself. You get to believe you can be great at everything. You get to pretend that your employees are your problem, or that your customers won’t notice when your commitment to them falters. And the cost is not failure, at least not at first—just an insistent, unsatisfying mediocrity.

The antidote is honesty. The path to uncommon service goes directly, and sometimes painfully, through the mirror. Our goal in writing this book is to help you hold that mirror up to yourself and to your own organization. If you haven’t averted your eyes at this point in the story, then we’re optimistic about your capacity to excel.

It’s of course easier for us, as outsiders, ...

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