Service breakthroughs: changing the rules of the game, Heskett, James L.

At the heart of breakthrough performance, the authors contend, is a sometimes intuitive
but thorough understanding of the self-reinforcing service cycle that replaces traditional management of trade-offs. The cycle is a paradigm derived from the research results suggesting direct links between heightened customer satisfaction, increased customer retention, augmented sales and profit, improved quality and productivity, greater service value per unit of cost, improved satisfaction of service providers, increased employee retention, and further heightened customer satisfaction. With detailed examples and dramatic case studies of Mark Twain Bancshares, American Airlines, Florida Power & Light, Federal Express, McDonalds and many other companies, Heskett, Sasser, and Hart show how this self-reinforcing cycle of behavior differentiates breakthrough leaders from their merely good competitors.