When was the last time you had exceptional customer service? A “10” on a scale of “10”?
Great service?
Good?
I think we have come to expect mediocre service. We just hope they’re nice to us. Pray they don’t insult us.
And we make up all sorts of excuses when we get crappy service like they’re short-handed… Underpaid… Sick… Too young… Too old… Too busy.
In the best-selling book, “Unreasonable Hospitality”, author Will Guidara tells his story of taking over a struggling two-star restaurant in New York City and turning it into a four-star restaurant that eventually was named the best restaurant in the world. Rather than reduce service to achieve some success, he doubled down on amazing service to achieve record results.
Guidara takes the reader behind the scenes to see how they made the journey from average to good to great. It started with establishing a hospitality-first culture. Next, Guidara had to find the right people for this culture. Making people feel welcome and truly seen. This includes both his external customers and team members. This resulted in exceeding customers’ expectations with every opportunity. The book is filled with many examples of such experiences.
What would your business be like with a commitment to “Unreasonable Hospitality”? More and better customers? More and better employees? More fun? Better financial performance?
I loved this book. It reminded me it’s possible to deliver both a great product, exceptional service, and make money at the same time.
I highly recommend this book to any small business operator.
Last month I shared the TED Talk that author Will Guidara gave when the book was first released. In case you missed it, visit the link below.
https://www.ted.com/talks/will_guidara_the_secret_ingredients_of_great_hospitality