Jennie and I are trying to learn how to turn the reins of our company over to two capable people. For the Coffee Pot, it’s our Director of Operations, Colette. Arnie is General Manager on the pottery side. We are blessed to have these highly motivated individuals whose goals are what’s best for the company, and what is best for our customers. They, in turn, encourage the rest of our team members to work toward that same goal.
Jennie and I just returned from a road trip to California and Arizona where we were both appalled at the widespread disregard we saw businesses exhibit toward their customers.
We observed the gamut from not smiling and being unfriendly, to not caring that there was no water in the squeegee bucket. At one national franchise, we only received half as much ice cream in our sundae cup as we received at the other franchises, yet no one seemed to care. When requesting a table overlooking a beautiful Arizona vista, we were met with scarcely concealed eye rolling, in spite of the fact that there were many unoccupied tables available. It is such a simple thing, when there is a waiting line, to look up, smile and acknowledge that you know that the wait is inevitable. These pleasantries never occurred during our time away, and we felt as if we were intruding on the servers’ day, rather than feeling as if we were valued customers.
There are always things to learn from every experience, and what we learned reinforced our knowledge that we have some spectacular employees. The respect and care we see given to each customer by all of our staff on a daily basis, makes us proud. There is an old adage that states, “Your team will emulate what management cares about.” All of our managers care about customer service. Arnie and Colette reinforce this on a daily basis. With this mindset, it makes it easier for us to turn over the reins, knowing that what matters to us also matters to our team.
Jennie and I just returned from a road trip to California and Arizona where we were both appalled at the widespread disregard we saw businesses exhibit toward their customers.
We observed the gamut from not smiling and being unfriendly, to not caring that there was no water in the squeegee bucket. At one national franchise, we only received half as much ice cream in our sundae cup as we received at the other franchises, yet no one seemed to care. When requesting a table overlooking a beautiful Arizona vista, we were met with scarcely concealed eye rolling, in spite of the fact that there were many unoccupied tables available. It is such a simple thing, when there is a waiting line, to look up, smile and acknowledge that you know that the wait is inevitable. These pleasantries never occurred during our time away, and we felt as if we were intruding on the servers’ day, rather than feeling as if we were valued customers.
There are always things to learn from every experience, and what we learned reinforced our knowledge that we have some spectacular employees. The respect and care we see given to each customer by all of our staff on a daily basis, makes us proud. There is an old adage that states, “Your team will emulate what management cares about.” All of our managers care about customer service. Arnie and Colette reinforce this on a daily basis. With this mindset, it makes it easier for us to turn over the reins, knowing that what matters to us also matters to our team.