This week I am at the itSMF conference in London at the Novotel hotel in Hammersmith. It is wonderful to experience the dedication and passion of the people here who are so focused on delivering exceptional customer service for their businesses and the users within them.

The presentations have been thought provoking and I was surprised to learn just how many of the topics addressed organizational change as being key to delivering all that is best in Service Management. The visionaries and luminaries here were talking about the continual velocity of change and the practitioners and methodologists about the need for good process.

In the exposition downstairs are more than 20 vendors with Service Management offerings and 10 companies who train and certify individuals to deliver great service.

Even Lenny Henry at the evenings festivities was able to find much humor in bad service and encouraged us to always demand good service. He did make fun at the conference hash tag of #itsmfuk11 … and why not.

I delivered the message that putting up with bad tools is more expensive in the long run than replacing them and pointed out the real cost of delivering poor service can directly impact the bottom line, staff productivity and customer retention.

And all of this appeared in microcosm at lunch in the hotel restaurant. Slow service, surly staff and complete lack of communication about the delay or resolution. Result only half a bill paid, a promise from a journalist, a PR agency and a blogger to never eat there again and a loss of much future revenue.

Get service right and the world beats a path to your door. Get it wrong and you quickly become very lonely.