INTRODUCTION

 

 

Imagine that each time you visited a store, ate at a restaurant, shopped online, or called your cable company, you were enthralled with the service provider. You smiled after you finished the transaction. You had a sense of contentment. You enjoyed the experience.

With the right mindset on behalf of the service provider as well as the customer, ending on a high note is surely possible. The reference to music is not unintentional. Just like a great performance by a jazz band, all players in a service transaction have to be listening, paying attention, improvising, and working together to create experiences that are “in time,” follow certain rules, and are pleasing to the audience.

To continue the jazz analogy, musicians honor ...

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