I no longer know whether I picked up this book and read it because I was irritated by the level of customer service I often get, or if my irritation is caused by learning from this book how ridiculously easy it is to provide good service. It's probably a cyclical thing. This I do know for sure: more than any book I've read in years I want to hand out copies of this one.... not in restaurants or grocery stores. Those folks tend to provide good service. I want to hand it out at the hospital, at the nursing home where my grandfather stayed for a time recently, at the social services agencies where other family members have been treated very badly. These are the places who take their customers for granted... who behave so abominably that one wonders how they can possibly feel any pride in their work.

Blanchard writes fun fables, but this one comes complete with a golf-loving Fairy Godmother named Charlie, who introduces our open-minded hero to a series of new colleagues who can explain the simple process of ensuring an exceptional customer experience. As with so much else in life, excellence starts with vision... a vision of the service you want to provide. It includes developing high-quality, actionable feedback from the people you serve, and committing to continuous improvement. Easy peasy!