A few weeks ago I ran a half marathon with my husband. Well, not with him, he was ahead of me, but we ran the same race and he met me at the finish line. The night before we had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant where we had a stupendous bus boy. Why stupendous?
He did a great job of always making sure our water glasses were full, overheard our complaint that our candle had burnt out, so came and replaced it without being asked. Offered information when questioned, was pleasant, smiled and seemed comfortable in both his job and his skin. So that impresses me because he was motivated to offer good service without being prompted and without looking like it was an incredible effort or overly taxing. He out shone our waiter by a long shot. I like efficiency and I like it when people pay attention. He paid attention.
Businesses have a definite challenge to train and educate their staff to leave their patrons feeling well served. Most times it feels like I am bothering them. We should be shocked at poor service not good service and I shouldn’t be so easy to impress…how low is the bar? I am compelled to believe it’s a top down issue that those ‘poor servers’ must be in some way lacking a leader who sets a good example or a leader who is simply absent. Ergo, not much of a leader.
I have seen a steady decline in customer service and wonder why people don’t want to do a good job anymore, or if they do want to, what prevents them? Management? Lack of leadership? Under challenged? Over qualified? It has to come down to motivation. Or an apparent lack of motivation. So how do you motivate them?
You hire well, you delegate well, you encourage people to use their talents to better your business and themselves. You show up, you pay attention, you ensure they know they matter and you set a stupendous example.