Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business by Frances Frei & Anne Morriss Summary

1. Strategic trade-offs require excelling in customer priorities while underinvesting elsewhere.
2. Fund service excellence through "palatable pricing," cost-reducing innovation, or customer self-service.
3. Design employee roles and culture to amplify customer-centric decision-making at every level.
4. Turn customers into operators by simplifying their tasks while rewarding cooperative behavior.
5. Align service models with competitive positioning to avoid wasting resources on irrelevant excellence.
6. Use attribute mapping to identify where your service beats competitors on customer-valued dimensions.
7. Embed service accountability in leadership roles rather than isolating it in support functions.
8. Leverage technology to reduce friction for employees and customers simultaneously.
9. Build operational transparency to help customers appreciate hidden service investments.
10. Treat customer behavior management as systematically as employee performance management.
11. Link compensation structures to customer outcomes rather than internal efficiency metrics.
12. Answer "Is Uncommon Service worth reading?" with its actionable system for service profitability.

About the Author of Uncommon Service

Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, authors of Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, are bestselling authors and globally recognized experts in organizational leadership and customer-centric strategy. Frei, a Harvard Business School professor and former Uber executive, combines academic rigor with real-world insights, while Morriss, a serial entrepreneur and leadership coach, brings two decades of experience building mission-driven organizations. Their collaborative work bridges theory and practice, offering actionable frameworks for operational excellence.

The book, a foundational text in business strategy, redefines service innovation by emphasizing intentional trade-offs and employee empowerment. Frei’s research on service operations and Morriss’s leadership initiatives with Fortune 50 companies and governments inform their methodology. Their follow-up works, Unleashed and Move Fast & Fix Things, further explore trust-based leadership and rapid problem-solving.

Frei and Morriss co-host TED’s Fixable podcast, resolving workplace challenges in 30-minute episodes, and have delivered acclaimed TED Talks on trust and organizational change. Uncommon Service remains a cornerstone in MBA curricula and has been adopted by enterprises worldwide to align customer expectations with operational design.

FAQs About Uncommon Service

What is Uncommon Service by Frances Frei about?

Uncommon Service presents a systematic framework for transforming customer service into a competitive advantage. Authors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss argue that companies must design their entire business model around service excellence by making four strategic trade-offs: defining customer priorities, funding excellence through pricing/cost adjustments, empowering employees, and shaping customer behavior.

Who should read Uncommon Service?

This book is essential for business leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs seeking to build customer-centric organizations. It offers actionable strategies for industries like retail, healthcare, and finance, where service quality directly impacts profitability and brand loyalty.

What are the four key choices in Uncommon Service?

The framework requires companies to:

1. Define excellence (align with customer priorities like convenience or price)
2. Fund excellence (via pricing, cost reduction, or customer participation)
3. Empower employees (through recruitment, training, and culture)
4. Shape customer behavior (encourage respect, self-service, or tech adoption)

How does Uncommon Service recommend funding exceptional service?

The book outlines four funding mechanisms:

• Charge premium prices (e.g., Commerce Bank’s extended hours in exchange for lower interest rates)
• Reduce costs while improving service (e.g., Progressive Insurance’s claims vans)
• Leverage customer labor (e.g., Ochsner Health’s self-scheduling portal)
• Align service improvements with cost savings (e.g., Intuit’s developer-led support)

What role does company culture play in Uncommon Service?

Culture is critical for empowering employees to deliver excellence. Frei emphasizes intentional design of recruitment, training, and job structures to align staff with service goals. Examples include fostering transparency at Riot Games and operational rigor at Uber.

How does Uncommon Service advise businesses to differentiate themselves?

Companies must excel in attributes customers value most while intentionally underperforming in less critical areas. For example, Southwest Airlines prioritized affordability over assigned seating, while Ochsner Health improved satisfaction by letting patients self-schedule.

What are common mistakes companies make with customer service?

Most treat service as a reactive cost center rather than a strategic asset. Frei critiques inconsistent investment in employee training, failure to align pricing with service priorities, and neglecting to design systems that incentivize ideal customer behavior.

How does Uncommon Service address employee-customer interactions?

The book stresses designing roles and workflows that enable employees to thrive. Examples include Intuit’s engineers handling support calls to gain direct feedback and Riot Games’ cultural reforms to reduce workplace toxicity.

What industries benefit most from Uncommon Service’s framework?

Service-heavy sectors like healthcare (Ochsner Health), finance (Commerce Bank), insurance (Progressive), and tech (Uber) successfully applied these principles to improve profitability and customer retention.

How does Uncommon Service compare to other customer service books?

Unlike tactical guides, Frei’s work provides a holistic operational model. It complements classics like The Service Profit Chain by linking culture and strategy, and contrasts with Delivering Happiness by emphasizing systemic design over anecdotal inspiration.

What are key quotes from Uncommon Service?

Notable insights include:

• “You can’t be good at everything… decide what you’ll be bad at.”
• “Service excellence is a design problem, not a people problem.”
• “Customers will pay for excellence, but only in the form they value.”

Why is Uncommon Service relevant for modern businesses?

In an era of rising customer expectations and AI-driven service, Frei’s framework helps companies sustainably scale personalization. Its focus on systemic design aligns with trends like self-service platforms and employee experience optimization.