Service is a concept Britain struggles with. Perhaps it’s a hangover from those Upstairs Downstairs days when being “in service” meant you were looked down upon for being a servant with a place at the bottom of the social heap.
It’s often confused with being servile - a “Suits you, Sir” style of humility (real, or faked) that implies the person you’re serving is inherently superior to you.
And that’s what sticks in the British throat.
Despite the chasms between us in wealth and circumstance, we Brits like to reassure ourselves we’re every bit as good as the next man or woman - and woe betide anyone who dares to suggest we’re not.
That fierce sense of personal dignity and equality is incompatible, some feel, with being a waitress, a bell-hop, or having any kind of role that might involve kow-towing to other members of society.
Whole comedy routines have hinged on characters trying to hide the fact that they’re in service roles - Joey in Friends and Lauren in The Catherine Tate Show among them - and we laugh because we understand, even if we don’t agree, that they feel embarrassed about being at other people’s beck and call.
But it isn’t universal.
French, Italian and Swiss waiters, for instance, are genuinely proud to offer excellent service and don’t feel it makes them seem subservient at all, which is why you’ll find them at hotels like The Ritz in London.
Then there’s The Queen.
Seventy years ago, she made a very public vow that she would devote the rest of her life to service - and even those who loathe the monarchy and would abolish it in the blink of an eye concede that she’s kept her word in every respect.
She even signed her Accession Day message: “Your servant, Elizabeth R.”
In the world of commerce, however, the customer is King - and businesses that treat their customers like Royalty tend to prosper.
That’s how we at EweMove overcame the appalling reputation that’s long dogged the world of estate agents - the least trusted professionals, alongside journalists and politicians - to become, for seven years, the number one estate agency on TrustPilot, based on 14,000 reviews.
That’s quite a reign.
And our secret’s dead simple: we give our clients the sort of superior service we’d dream of receiving if we were buying, selling or letting a property ourselves.