Services Seen as a Cake

Although people generally associate services in which there is a face-to-face human interaction with elements like "thank you", "please" or "yes, ma'am", actually there is much more to the process of performing a service.

Carl Sewell, the successor of one of the best rated car dealers in U.S., whose business has grown from $10 million in 1968 to nearly 1 billion today, states that if we would see the service system as a cake, courtesy, smiles and willingness to help would represent keeping the cake cool, while the systems that enable effective activities would be the cake itself.

For example, when a customer dines in a restaurant, waiters may smile until their jaws clench, may hold the chair to help him sit down and may change the napkins every time he leaves the table. Yet, if the customer doesn't like the food, the chances of returning are extremely low.

To Think About
Communication skills of front-line staff must be accompanied by systems that provide a high quality, efficient service, that meets and exceeds customer expectations. "Making the cake" entails creating

• a system to do the job right the first time, so that customers are  delighted, 
• a plan to quickly amend the processes when they do not work as they should.

Source: Sewell, C. & Brown, P.B. (2009). "Clienti pe viata. Cum sa transformi acel cumparator ocazional intr-un client pe viata". Bucharest: Publica