Come as a Guest Leave as a Friend

Whether you know it or not, the goal for your business is to wow your customer or as our tagline goes, “Come as a Guest, Leave as a Friend” It is service that inspires and simply put, makes your customers/guests s go out and tell ten other people about your business. Trust me whether you run an inn or a Veeper in a Fortune 500 company… it’s all about the folks and their experience . The best lesson I got from a chef when I was at the NY Restaurant School was ” when you come in to work, leave your day at the door, you can always pick it up on the way out”. The customers dont want your “bad day”… My experience for the most part has been, that by the time I left, the baggage was gone. Word of mouth speaks volumes.

Couldnt have said it better myself… this says it brilliantly.

Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. Service is a monologue—we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guests’ side requires listening to that person in every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top.”

Yup, you got ‘er . Another in my infrequent series of 10 Commandments. Forthwith our 10 Commandments for “making Montana memories”. Apply to your own situation.

1. Thou Shalt greet each and every customer/guest with an enthusiastic smile (leaving your own baggage of the day at the door.. see above)

2. Thou Shalt treat your customers as if they are your grandmother or best friend. Give them a hug if you are inclined to do so. I cant tell you how many times this has happened. Between reservations, emails and perhaps a phone call, by the time they show up at the front door.. it’s like “old home week”.

3.Thou shalt provides something of themselves - an insight into their character, their lives, their homes - or something in which they personally take great pride - the food they cook, to get that that we get that sense of ‘connection’, of feeling at home.

4. Thou shalt surprise the guest with an extra perk or give them something for free. Tell them that it is your way of thanking them for doing business with your company.

5. Anticipate your customers’ needs and fill them. Imagine that you are a customer wishing that a company would carry a certain item, then later on walking into that business and seeing that item on the shelf. You would feel as if that business owner was reading your mind, eh? Gets ‘em everytime.

6. Thou shalt solicitt feedback from your customers and make changes to your business according to their suggestions or complaints. We have ‘em fill out a postcard size customer service questionnaire .

7. Thou shalt , have a “no problem” attitude and do everything in your power to help them. If by chance you can’t help them, find someone who can. Finding their problem resolved to their satisfaction, often become your best evangelists. They let the world know that your business keeps its clientele happy

8. Thou shalt be enthusiastic when you are helping your customer. Customers respect people who show passion for their work. After all, it’s why we got into the hospitality game.

9. Thou shalt be interested rather than interesting. Ask about them.. where they’re traveling… what brings them to your business (or in this case Montana). People love to talk about themselves.. find their interests and you’ll be on a roll. I’ve also found you can always find some common ground.

10. Thou shalt welcome them home.. their home that is. We send an email upon departure so they’ll have it waiting on their arrival home following up and seeing how they enjoyed their stay and the rest of their journey.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Author:Bonnie Jean Wasmund