ABSTRACT
The experience of great service vanishes in the blink of an eye. It is timeless, unobtrusive, and invisible. Great service is being seated for dinner at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago or Roger Verge's Le Moulin de Mougins in the south of France at 10:00 p.m. and looking at your watch at 1:30 a.m. not knowing where the time went. It is checking into your hotel room without effort. Some may argue that people remember only the extremes. However, while poor service is remembered, great service goes unnoticed. Creating a service environment where customers are given the gift of experience without interference from the service provider is the challenge in restaurants, hotels, transportation systems, and national parks.
