I was down in Montana and had an opportunity to visit my favorite breakfast place. It is famous for its breakfast. Unfortunately my service experience was something different. It was the experience of minimal speech! "Two?" "Coffee?" "Ready?" Can you see it? We walked in and in a word she confirmed how many in our party. In another word she had covered off the drinks order. Finally she got things ordered with one more word. Efficient.
One of the keys of service is the idea of hospitality. Hospitality is communication. When did, "Good morning. How are you today? How many people in your party?" become "Two?" Sure I go out enough that I understood her meaning and I got through it without injury. But her elimination of words made communication impersonal and at times confusing. We were definitely a number not a customer.
Whether it be through service training (http://evolvebusinessgroup.com/training/serviceTitans.php) or just through systematic reminders for your team to talk to your customers and make it an experience for them. You have to ensure that common place never takes the place of service. This is a common pitfall of any staff who talks to customers. It becomes commonplace for them and they forget its new for each customer, everyday. Service scripts are a first step and hospitality is the next step. Establish plans for both in your operations.
Keep using the right words and remember the words create the experience for customers.
1 comment:
I believe that there can be very huge differences between the level of service and the number of words. Often the fewer words are shared the more it seems like the value is not there.
I know that one coffee shop i frequent, they know me by name. It is no longer taking an order when i come in, they just say hi, maybe have a chat and next thing i know my drink is on the table. That is good service, that is why i frequent this store.
At the end of the day some places, survive on the one word questions for everything but they are have a particular atmosphere which does not appeal to everyone, while others excel because they say what needs to be said in as many words as they need.
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