American Home Shield 2003 Annual Report Download - page 3

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ServiceMaster    1
 ,
We are experts in what we do. It’s not easy. Our customers don’t come to us – we go to them, where they live and
work, some 45 million times a year. We confront conditions that vary by home and business, by season of the
year, and by customer preference.We have built leading brands by delivering expert service under these conditions.
We have eight brands that are number one in their categories.Yet we view our current position as just a starting
point. Every one of our brands has significant share-growth potential – a potential that can be unleashed by
following a basic process. Listen to customers, refine and innovate based on what we hear, deliver those refine-
ments and innovations through tens of thousands of dedicated service workers, and then repeat the process.
  
We completed 2003 with confidence that we know more about our categories than we have known at any other
time in our history. We know more about consumer behavior, needs and decisions in every one of our service
lines. We know more about how we’re meeting the needs of our current customers. We know more about how
to reach out to past customers,to customers who are using competitive services and to non-users of our service
categories. We believe we know those answers better than anyone who has ever competed in our categories.
Today we know that customers are settling for the experience they have come to expect in our
categories. We have measured the gap between what customers hope for and what most service companies
deliver; and the gap varies from a small gulf to a wide chasm. The company that succeeds in closing the gap by
redefining the experience will be the winner. The company that sets the standard will reap the rewards. That is
the opportunity that beckons us. The growth and profitability upsides are extraordinary.
  
We are using this hard-earned knowledge to change the way our customers do business with us. Part of
improving that experience will come from making improvements to the service offering itself: not just a weed
application, but an application that kills weeds immediately; not just termite protection, but a choice of
termite protections geared to different budgets and different customer requirements.
However, the experience of doing business with us involves much more than just the service offering.
It includes everything from the way we respond to customers on the phone or the web, to the way we schedule an
appointment, to the way we show up when we say we will and get it right the first time, to the way we follow up
and communicate and maintain the relationship over time, to the way we guarantee and stand behind our work.
Message from the Chairman