Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and one of the sharpest minds in behavioural economics, tells a story about a luxury hotel that replaced its doorman with an automatic door.
Cheaper. More efficient. Technically, better at opening doors.
But the doorman was never really there to open doors. He was there for the welcome. The reassurance. The quiet signal that someone was looking after you. The hotel could measure what he cost. It couldn’t measure what he was worth.
That story stays with me because it explains something we keep getting backwards.
Every morning, I walk into my office building, and I’m greeted by the modern-day doorman … security. Unfortunately, in Melbourne CBD right now, that extra security has become necessary. But here’s the thing: I get two for one. I don’t just feel safe. I get a genuine, warm welcome every single morning before I’ve even made it to my desk. That’s not a security function. That’s service.
Who actually wants to walk through a world served entirely by robots? What a flat, beige existence that would be…BORING, I reckon.
We’re wired for variety. For a little uncertainty. Life becomes boring the moment it becomes fully predictable, the moment we know exactly what to expect, every time.
This is what makes service valuable. Not the efficiency. The imperfect, present human on the other side of it: their genuine care, the patience that restores someone’s confidence, and the attention that turns frustration into trust. That becomes the story someone tells about YOU for years.
And there’s something in it for the giver too. The person who offers that warmth, that attention, that small unscripted moment of care, they’re feeding a human need of their own: to contribute, to matter, to leave someone better than they found them.
You can automate a transaction. You cannot automate that.
If service in your organisation has become too transactional, too scripted, or too focused on efficiency alone, it may be time to reconnect your people with what customers actually remember: warmth, trust and genuine human care. ServiceQ helps leaders build teams who understand that great service is not just what gets done; it is how people are made to feel along the way.
Explore how ServiceQ helps organisations make service feel more human, consistent and memorable: Embedding Service Habits