Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide authors with guidelines for carrying out excellent qualitative service research. It describes the features that editors and reviewers use to evaluate qualitative research and pinpoints what authors can do to improve their manuscripts for publication. Design/methodology/approach: The paper identifies five features of excellent qualitative service research - relevance, rigor, integrity, narration and impact - and describes them with a focus on what they mean and what authors can do to meet these standards. Findings: The paper suggests that manuscripts are often rejected because they fail to meet key standards of excellent qualitative research. It calls for more discussion on research methodology and research ethics, especially when service research strives to make a difference such as investigating critical service contexts or dealing with vulnerable participants. Originality/value: This paper contributes to a better use and application of qualitative research methodology. It focuses on specific actions that researchers can take to improve the quality of their service research manuscripts.