We have all heard the term 'mentor'. This is where you find a person whom you admire and they take on the role of an adviser. They share their experiences freely and help you to develop your own skills and style for running a business or working in a job.
This idea is similar. You find a business that you really admire and you build your business following their principles of success. Once you have become committed to offering quality service, your eyes begin to open and you really start to notice service in all of its good and bad forms. For example, you might go into a hotel restroom and notice how clean it is. The wastepaper baskets are empty, the soap dispenser are full, it smells nice, there is plenty of toilet paper and the whole area is sparkling clean. In the past, you might not have noticed if it was clean or dirty.
You might start to notice interactions between staff and customers that previously you would have paid little or no attention to. Each time you make one of these observations, try to remember it or jot it down on a pad. Write down the good and the bad. Learn from them all. This exercise will make it easier for you to be objective in your own business. You might recognize that some of the areas where you previously thought you offered pretty good customer service could be improved.
By becoming more observant of other businesses, you will soon pick up countless ideas that could easily be implemented in your business. Equally as valuable, you will see many of the mistakes commonly made by businesses. Observing these at first hand makes them much easier to avoid yourself.