| It’s really easy to point out bad customer service and bad business practices, maybe because there are so many examples. However, every so often there’s an example of something so good you can’t help but notice it.
We were visiting our daughter in Baltimore and went out for dinner at one of Baltimore’s classic restaurants, Mo’s Seafood, Towson location. We were greeted with, “Hi, I’m Patrick, I’ll be seating you and serving you.” None of the standard, worn-out line, “My name is Kyle and I’ll be taking care of you tonight.” No, you’re taking our order and serving our food; not taking care of us. Patrick should do waiter-training sessions. He was that good. He was upbeat, conscientious and observant. When my wife ordered a salad, he told her it was pretty big and asked if it was her entrée. When she said no, he volunteered to bring an extra plate so we could share. When he saw that my beer was 1/3 full he asked if I wanted another. I told him, “not right now,” he said he’d keep an eye on it and, sure enough, he came back when it was almost empty and asked again. Small things, but they’re the difference between average and great service. It turns out he owned restaurants for 25 years, was burned out on ownership and just wants to work with customers. His enthusiasm showed how much he liked what he was doing. And, thankfully, he never once said, “Enjoy.” “People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they’ll have good voice boxes in case there’s every anything menaingful to say.” Kurt Vonnegut |
