Sweat the small stuff, PLEASE!
Friends of ours just returned from vacation. They spent an extra US$250 per day to rent a private cabana poolside. The sign reserving the area for them misspelled their name. No matter how great the service was or how refreshing the daiquiris were, the misspelling brought them back to reality every time they returned to their shaded canopy.
The other evening my family and I were enjoying a dinner buffet. As I was finished with my salad plate and was ready to move on to an entrée plate, I set my salad dish to the side. After five minutes of waiting for it to be cleared, I placed it on a nearby clean table to simply get it out of the way. (If I had seen a track jack, I would’ve bussed my own plate, no worries.) We then counted 12 servers and two managers who passed by the dirty plate for 10 minutes and 48 seconds (yes, I timed it).
What small details have you noticed in our industry that could be easily remedied? For years, I’ve been hiding coins in areas that should be cleaned, just to see how long they remain untouched. For anyone in the Washington, D.C., area, be sure to search for hidden pennies on the bridge of the “A” contained in different store signs at several mall shops. A well-known kitchen supply store left my penny alone for almost 10 years.
Please sweat the small stuff!
Follow me on Twitter.