In many service businesses, the industry—not the client—defines quality.  In advertising, when most creative people say, "That's a really good ad," they don't mean that the ad might build the client's business.  They just mean that it has a good headline, good visual—it's good.  Neat.  Cool.  Many architects treasure buildings that are enormously inconvenient for the people who work inside.  Still, architects call them great buildings.  Ask: Who is setting your standards—your industry, your ego, or your clients?

-Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible

Customers come in all shapes and sizes, and we can probably all agree that the most difficult is the angry customer. This is someone who has been wronged (in his/her opinion) and is upset and emotional. We get it- mistakes happen, and you will have upset customers. Did you know that ~80% of dissatisfied customers tell 10 people and ~20% of dissatisfied customers tell 20 people? You don't want this negative publicity- NO WAY!  So as soon as it is apparent that your customer is upset or that there is a problem, it is absolutely necessary to deal with the situation ASAP.  Unlike the customer, you are not angry, you are in control, and your only problem at the moment is helping him/her with his/her problem so that the stories these customers tell are positive and ones that showcase proper service recovery instead of the other way around.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

-Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia"

Consider everything as a work in progress and don't panic if it doesn't work right yet.  Remember Mosher's Law: "If everything worked right, you'd be out of a job."

-Pablo Guevara

In the grand scheme of things, service is service, right? Or is it? The degrees to which successful and unsuccessful service is delivered has varying effects on the outcomes. The service industry provides many levels of delivery outcomes. The range can be dramatic. For example: a rude cashier at the 7-11 is annoying while a rude floor nurse not focusing on details is far from annoying- the outcome of this lack of service can be life threatening. So the questions is, "Is it right to expect less from the cashier than we do the floor nurse with regards to service?" The universal answer has arrived at "yes," but perhaps therein lies the service mishaps. How can we develop consistencies in service expectations?  Let's take a look at three industries with separate service challenges, their insights, and comments to three questions. From their perspectives and expert opinions we should be able to gather some overall standards which should be applied across every employee role in every industry.