This would have been perfect if it were chocolate milk (see below).
Two experiences this week that caught my attention.
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First
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My family came by the agency to eat downstairs at Gina and Guiseppi’s. As we struggled to commit the kids to a drink selection, the waitress suggested chocolate milk (which wasn’t on the menu). She was met with a resounding “Yes!” from our little ones.
Later on, the kids asked for refills. The waitress politely offered soft drinks instead. She explained they ran out of ingredients for the chocolate milk. To make the first batch, she got what she needed from the coffee shop next door. She had just offered chocolate milk to us, she didn’t want tell us they were out.
In the end, she got a nice tip from us and we’ll definitely recommend Gina and Guiseppi’s to our friends.
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Second
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I stopped by QuikTrip to grab a cup of coffee the other morning. The place was slammed as usual. (You have to understand that QuikTrip dominates the convenience store business in my area) As I set my cup o’ caffeine on the counter, I notice the cashier isn’t as fast as usual. She hesitates now and then, seems just a little lost. The young lady at the other register slides over and says, “Let me take your register. We’ll switch.” Just like that, she takes over and quickly starts tallying transactions and cheerfully sending us on our way.
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Bottom Line
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The bottom line is to know the bottom line: make the customer happy.
How do you do that? Well, typically not through corporate policies and a command-and-control management style. Corporate policy wouldn’t want cashiers swapping registers. Who would be accountable for an unreconciled till? Command-and-Control wouldn’t want waitresses borrowing from neighbor businesses on their own initiative.
You make customers happy by empowering your employees to do so.
“I don’t trust my employees to do the right thing.”
Then you have big issues, my friend. Either you’ve hired the wrong people, or you underestimate their ability when given clear objectives (see a trend here? You should by 6 lines into it.).
What are your objectives?
Do you hire the right people to fulfill your objectives?
Do they know the objectives?
Are they empowered to do it?