Is your employee a "Rock Star"?

In the past service with a smile was the aspiration of every restaurant and retail establishment in America. As we entered the age of self-serve gasoline, self-serve laundry and DIY. The service industries lost their luster and with that we lost those ever present smiles that accompanied the service we sought. We also seem to have lost the idea of serving.
Without tagging generational gaps and separating each of us into our own lettered cubby I can say only this; The service workers of today have a flaw that has been metered on them by the likes of reality television and cell phones. They are going to be rock stars! No seriously, rock stars. Ridiculous?
Here is my explanation.
The employee of the service industry today has decided that their current job is only that, a job. They will someday be moving on to bigger and better things. The job that they currently hold has nothing to do with the glorious future that is playing out before them. Many have forgotten to be where they are, talking on the phone to someone about something that is happening somewhere else or worse texting the same. They will be famous or at the least rich. As we all know this won't happen to most if anyone we know.
It is our job to bring them back to this time period, if only for the time they spend working for us. Keep them centered, make them accountable and bring their sense of service back to putting themselves second and the customer first. Be the example, show them that hard work can be good work and working hard is working good.

Royalty passed.

This weekend, in my little town of Santa Cruz, we lost a woman who represented one of the last bastions of a by gone era. Gilda of "Gilda’s' on the wharf” A quaint little restaurant nestled half way down the pier on the Santa Cruz wharf.

Gilda was known as the "Queen of the Wharf". There wasn't anyone that didn't know her and more importantly she knew all of them too. She made a point of remembering who you were and this made her special. She was a service guru, personal service, not just here are your eggs on time service. She smiled, greeted you like family and took care of you just the same.

Busser, hostess, waitress, cashier, you name it she did it. She believed in doing all these jobs everyday, all day, 5 days a week. Up until she died at the age of 83. Gilda passed away the way she said she always wanted to said nephew Geoffrey Dunn, a Santa Cruz author and historian. "She told everybody she wanted to die with her boots on at the wharf."
(Quoted from Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Gilda believed in what she did. She loved her restaurant, her customers and her town. She had an influence on the people that she touched. She taught us that hard work and resilience are keys to success.

What are you the Queen (King) of?

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/story.php?sid=64640&storySection=Local

Do more for less, it will reward you.

All inclusive or studio fee? Add another product stay with what you have? More advertising or less? So many questions, and really, not a correct answer for the bunch. You can do any of these things or none of them.

With the steady rise of competition and so many uses for discretionary income it is no longer what you do that will bring your customers back. It is how you do it. Do what you do the very best and there will be no competition. Best greeting, best paint talk, best bathroom, best, best, best. Strive daily to make your service undeniably superb and people will gladly shell over gobs of cash to be in your shop.

Don't add a class, teach people for free. Instead of charging extra for a new paint or activity, let people try it for free. Create lore about your business that will be told to others and returned back to you. The greatest thing that you can do for your business is to nurture those that frequent it. Simple but sometimes forgotten.