By inviting evaluations of current services, firms create the opportunity to improve. As the Japanese manufacturers say, a “defect is a treasure.” In other words, by eagerly seeking out your “defects” and studying them carefully to identify why and how that performance failure occurred, you get the opportunity to improve. If you avoid feedback from those you serve, you never get the chance to learn how to be a more effective competitor. To study “defects” a manufacturer can examine the product on the shop floor. A professional service firm does not have this option: if there is a flaw in performance, only one person’s opinion counts: the client’s.

Excerpted from ‘Managing the Professional Service Firm’ by David Maister, page 62