Are You Looking At Me?
Having just gotten back from a short vacation, I was struck how two simple things made, or didn’t make, our experiences better. They cost nothing, but can mean everything. It’s not about price point, either. Some of the best experiences were with inexpensive restaurants.
Listen to this new 6-minute episode to see what I’m talking about and how easily you can implement these into your business.
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– Are you looking at me? I hope you are. Listen to this episode and find out what I’m talking about. Hey, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome to another edition of The Wedding Business Solutions podcast. Pardon my bad DeNiro impression at the beginning of this, but I had just got back from vacation, and something struck me at the different places that we went to. It wasn’t about the price, it wasn’t whether it was high end or low end or whatever the restaurant or the hotel, the store was. The thing that made the difference in our experience at every one of these places is whether somebody actually looked us in the eye and whether they smiled. Simple, right? It’s so simple.
We had breakfast at, if you know Cape Cod, we were in Chatham at Larry’s PX. Some of you’re going, “Yeah, Larry’s PX.” It’s basically an old greasy spoon diner kind of a place. And we actually have eaten there a few times, because it’s great. And the waitresses are friendly and smile and yeah, one of them is a little bit older, and she’s got a little bit of that attitude, which is part of the whole thing, but she still looks at you and she still smiles. And this made the difference in so many places, where at a mid-range or higher end place, where somebody didn’t, you didn’t feel as welcomed, or you walk into a store and nobody acknowledges you.
These are the simple things that we do that show people that we’re interested, not just interesting. And it’s really important when you’re dealing with people, and sometimes you’re doing this virtually with Zoom or whatever, and sometimes you’re doing this in person, and you’re of course, doing a lot in person, when those of you that are at the event, this is important for you, it’s important for your team. If you’re not familiar with the Marriott 15/5 rule, those of you that have worked at a Marriott property know what I’m talking about here. And I’m going to paraphrase it, but basically, within 15 feet of a guest, the Marriott employee is supposed to acknowledge that person, just with eye contact and a smile. That’s it, smile. Within five feet, they have to say something, just say hello, whatever it is.
But what’s also part of that rule is that you have to say it to each other. You have to say it to each other, because if a customer sees you not acknowledge one of your coworkers, they don’t know whether you’ve seen them once today, twice today, 10 times today, but they’re seeing that interaction for the first time, and that says to them whether or not you like working with each other, what the environment is like within the place. So which you have to keep in mind is if you are a venue or a caterer, every one of your servers has to abide by this. Just acknowledging people, smile, making eye contact. This is important, because people do business with people, they don’t do business with companies. They always do business with people. And what makes you go back to a business or refer a business is this experience that we have and the simple things of eye contact and smiling.
Think about it yourself, as a customer, you go to a business, and you have businesses that you go to because you feel more welcomed or you like going there, because the way they pay attention to you. You don’t care how they pay attention to everybody else, do you? You care how they pay attention to you. And that’s the same thing with your customers. They don’t care how you pay attention to everybody else, because they may not even see that, but they do care how you pay attention to them. So those little things, the smiling and the eye contact, make such a big difference. Here we are at not an expensive breakfast, just having again, diner-type food, but our experience was such that we went back the next day when we had many other choices of where to go. And then we had an experience on the way home. We stopped and we got some dinner, and it was kind of fast food place, but no smile from the person behind the counter, barely eye contact, only at just the minimum what you needed to do. Many people running around behind the counter. And while we are waiting for our food, we see people and nobody is acknowledging the wait. The same thing again. It’s like you’re not there. Are we going to go back? No, no, we’re going to go someplace else.
So if you want people to refer you, because we know you don’t necessarily get a lot of referral business as a wedding or as a bar mitzvah or as a quince, mitzvahs and quinces, you might with other kids there, and weddings, you certainly do. It’s all about the user experience and that customer experience and the experience of their guests is going to be influenced by the eye contact and the smiling. And those two things cost nothing. But not doing them will cost you profits. I hope this gave you something to think about. If you’re watching the video here, you can see me smiling.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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