Eat. Drink.
Do you like what you do every day? Are you fulfilled in your job? Are you happy at work? Guess what? Your customers can tell you if you are.
We are in the hospitality business. Every employee representing your company should enjoy what they do. If they are happy, your customers should receive a positive and memorable service experience and always want to come back.
Now more than ever, team members have myriads of job opportunities to explore. It is way more expensive to recruit, hire and train new employees than to retain existing employees. Determine what makes each individual on your team tick. Every person has different wants and needs to keep them engaged and happy at your business. Step away from your desk today and have a conversation with each team player.
As my previous employer, Blue Plate Catering used to say, “we are happy people making people happy”. Was I happy at Blue Plate, absolutely. Was it time for me to explore new opportunities for my own growth? Yes, I wanted to learn, travel and start a new business on my own. I left Blue Plate happy and continue to keep in touch. As a matter of fact, I was a customer of Blue Plate this past week and really enjoyed working with the team. It made my experience as a customer feel really good. It made me happy.
Inspire.
Everyone always asks me why I love Mexico so much.
When I am living in Puerto Vallarta, I take a quick morning stroll before getting on zoom calls with clients. It gets my energy going as well as allows me to get a few errands done before a busy day.
I remember one day in particular this past February.
My first stop was my favorite lavandería where I dropped off my 4.9 kilo bag of dirty laundry. Maria yelled “hola Jenny!” before even placing the load on the scale. My laundry was going to be ready for pick up that afternoon.
My second stop was my favorite juice stand, where Fernando said “hola amiga” before asking me if I wanted my regular jugo de naranja. The freshest orange juice was squeezed within a minute.
My last stop of the morning was a “pop-up” tamale stand on the corner. (Literally, a tray stand with an Igloo on top with a paper sign TAMALES-PUERCO). I figured I would give this “place” a try. The abuela smiled as she presented me two steaming-hot pork tamales. The tamales were delicious. I remember hoping she was going to be there the next morning.
This stroll kicked off a great start to my day. Every vendor was friendly and happy to provide me their product and service. They smiled and were grateful for my business. By making me feel so special, they created a loyal customer that looked forward to seeing them the next day and each day thereafter.