Automatic Age

SERV ICE
Service, according to one of America’s leading editors and pub­
lishers, is the biggest word in the English language.
This may be true. Certainly it is true that “service” is one of the
hardest words in the language to define satisfac­
torily. Formerly the word meant something quite
different from what modern usage has read into it.
And it is this modern sense that proves so elusive.
In the average business man's definition, “service”
is approximately equivalent to efficiency plus good
will. The first half of the definition covers the ma­
terial side; the latter covers the mental and intangi­
ble side. Service is not complete without either, and
neither can be neglected by any business man who
strives for this most-sought-for of all assets.
t
Efficiency covers a vast complexity of machinery
—mechanical and human; it involves a host of rou-
lne details; it is the final result of perfectly serviced operation, in­
sofar as that operation is mechanical.
Good will covers an equally vast complexity of humrni relationships,
of them human and delicate; it involves adherence to a firm policy
—-the principle 1
of putting yourself in the other fellow's shoes; it is
the final result of the right attitude of mind towards your work, your
eniPloyes, your associates, and your customers.
Service isn’t something to be said. Service is something to be lived.
Service is something to be thought, to be felt, to be acted every mo­
ment of every day by every person in a first class business organiza­
tion; from the owner down to the delivery boy.
There is a great deal in this thing called “service.” It has been
the key to success for many, many enterprises.
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