Achieving Service Excellence

CHAPTER 1

Service Growth

1.1 Introduction

Service activities transform the state of an entity (e.g., person, business, community, and/or region/nation) or an entity’s possessions. Historically, service activities depended upon direct interactions between a customer (beneficiary) and provider (expert), as in the cases of business consulting, medical care, education, wealth management, transportation, food services, and others. Examples of such transforming activities are illustrated in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1. Service Transforming Activities

Entity	Examples of transforming services
Person	Foods, legal, entertainment, financial healthcare, education
Product	Design, maintenance, operations, logistics
Business	Management consulting, outsourcing ...