Service is making coffee for the house in the morning. It is taking the kids to school. It is helping a colleague with a report. It is sharing a great idea for process improvement. It is picking up eggs and milk on the way home. Service is everywhere at almost any time in our lives. While Tom Peters says excellence is the next 5 minutes, it would appear that service is every minute.
Yet, we take it for granted. We don’t recognize its vital importance. Cooperatively helping each other has been a key contributor to sustaining us as a species. Engineering marvels. Space travel. Conquering disease. All because we are of service. It has made us the most advanced animal on the planet.
And it’s not much different when it comes to our workplaces. If customers are the lifeblood of our enterprises, service is the heart. It is what keeps customers coming back. It is as important to business as it is to our species.
Yet, again, it is taken for granted. Only certain people are expected to serve. Only those who touch customers are given that responsibility. And, just to clarify that service has a second-class status, the support for those roles is halfhearted at best. They are low paid, minimally trained, and seen as a cost.
But service isn’t a role or one role’s responsibility, it is needed throughout our organizations. Producers create value. Sellers sell value. Providers deliver value. Each link in the chain serves the next. Without one, the others cannot succeed. Without a desire to help others (i.e., service) at every level, struggle and failure are not far away.
But organizations miss this truth. They make other things priorities. They focus on self-interested motivations. And they do it at their peril. Service should be top of their list. It is what they need to master both inside and outside the organization. It is what we humans require and it’s so much more than customer service. It is the foundation of business and the root of human purpose.
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Neal Woodson 
Again, well said Neal. Interestingly my gratitudes today are around exceptional service. Here is my reflection:
Exceptional Service
Deep down we crave it (at least I believe we crave it) and it is so fulfilling when you experience exceptional service. We travelled yesterday and had several stellar examples of exceptional service. So for you, who recently provided exceptional service ?
Today I’m grateful for:
Serena – for tender loving care on our flight
Enock – for taking care of everything during our car rental check in at the self-serve kiosk – including all the required policy acceptances
Manny – for welcoming us and taking care of our dinner plans (actually, he ran the whole thing)
What are you grateful for today ?
Great stuff as usual Steve. Thank you for your insight.