Interview clients of personal service firms (such as accountancy firms), and ask, "Why do you continue to work with your personal account manager and even the firm in general?"

You assume you know their answer. It’s skill. People like to work with skilled people.

Judging from accountancy services, prospects must love skill. Time and again, ads and brochures stress the company’s "commitment to excellence." Surely, clients seek the most skilled firms and employers need the most skilled worker, and retain them as long as they continue to demonstrate their talent.

But they don’t. That is not the reason most clients continue to work with services, nor is it the reason they continue to work with you as an individual. Skill is their minimum requirement, and they assume many people can meet it.

Instead, their answer is one word. You hear this word from clients and employers more than all their other words combined.

The word is comfort.

Hearing this answer can dishearten the staff in these companies. They want to believe, and often do, that they are the best. But overwhelming evidence shows that clients do not choose the "best firm" or employers do not choose the "best person". If they did, one firm or one person in every industry would own monopoly.

Among other reasons, clients and employers never feel convinced, even after long study, that they have all the information they need to decide who might be best. They have heard some firms referred to as leaders, for example, but a smattering of colleagues and friends have made them question that. They have not even interviewed all the possible contenders for the title of "best".

They cannot conclusively decide who is the best. That’s the same problem you as an ordinary individual face almost every week.

Your never feel certain which is the best coffee machine, life insurance provider, sandwich, lawyer, gardener, or the best thousand of choices you make in your lifetime.

You do not make the best choice. You do not maximize, as experts on decision-making insist. Instead, you "satisfice". You choose what makes you feel good. Or to repeat it again, you make the comfortable choice. Almost everyone with whom you come in contact makes that choice, too. (Just like your potential future employer). How many times have you ordered the same item from a take-away menu rather than trying something new? (Just because you feel comfortable with your choice.)

Consider the words you use when you make such a choice. How do you explain you choices? You do not. Your words are not words of reasoning; they are emotional.