Hospitality Lessons from a Pro by Ken Bernhardt Regents' Professor of Marketing and Assistant Dean for Corporate Relations  Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University Atlanta Business Chronicle - November 23, 2007 Setting the Table, a new book on how to differentiate a service business, has been getting a great deal of attention lately. Written by Danny Meyer, owner of a number of highly successful restaurants in New York including Union Square Café, Grammercy Tavern, Table and The Modern (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), it explains how to create a successful business through hospitality. Unlike most manufactured goods, services entail the product being consumed and experienced while the customer is present. This enables the ability to gauge customer reaction in real time. Meyer explains the important difference between service and hospitality: "Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of the product makes the recipient feel. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top." It's about soul. Service without soul, no matter how elegant, is quickly forgotten by the guest. Meyer offers a series of lessons he learned that every service business professional should apply to his business if he wishes to deliver hospitality with soul. Understand consumer expectations so you can exceed them. Gather as much information as you can about your "guests." The more information you collect, the more frequently you can make meaningful connections that make people feel good and give you an edge in business. Meyer uses technology to capture consumer information, starting with the reservations where he asks a number of questions to determine consumer preferences. The more specific information gathered ahead of time (such as whether it is a special occasion and if these are first-time guests), the greater the chance of creating a "rave" experience. Understand the concepts of trial and repeat. Most businesses are better at coddling regular customers than they are at focusing on first-timers. Both are crucial to any business, and it is critically important to excel in each. At Meyer's restaurants, the host station is alerted to reservations from first-timers, and the staff makes a special effort to deliver a memorable experience. Each manager is asked to take 10 minutes per day to make three gestures that exceed expectations and take a special interest in the guests. This yields about 1,000 special gestures per year, and the restaurant has 100 managers. That can create a lot of repeat business. Hospitality is a team sport. Meyer reminds business owners that they are not going it alone; they are leading an ensemble. The key to delivering superior hospitality is to hire genuine, happy, optimistic people. The team members' emotional skills are as important as their technical skills. Meyer looks for optimistic warmth, intelligence, work ethic, empathy, self awareness and integrity in hiring his staff. He argues that anyone who is qualified for a job at his company is also qualified for jobs at other companies, so it is important to provide solid reasons for employees to want to work for him beyond just the compensation. His company is highly involved in community outreach and, as a result, they have been able to hire a better quality work force, one that intuitively cares about making other people happy. He gives employees a big say in who is hired, requiring potential new employees to "trail" five or six different current employees, each of whom has veto power, before they are hired. Meyer avoids what he calls "whelmers," saying that "overwhelmers" earn you raves and "underwhelmers" either leave on their own or are terminated. Whelmers send a dangerous message to your staff that "average" is acceptable. Apply "defensive hospitality when things don't go according to plan." He quotes Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus fame as saying "the road to success is paved with mistakes well-handled." Perfection is impossible in business. Success lies not in the elimination of problems (which results in employees playing it safe to avoid mistakes), but in the art of creative, profitable problem solving. In other words, when the inevitable mistakes are made, he applies the 5 As: awareness of the problem, acknowledgement of the mistake, apology, action to make amends, and additional generosity to demonstrate your concern and wow the customer into returning. In the end, what's most meaningful is creating positive, uplifting outcomes for human experiences and human relationships. Business, like life, is how you make people feel. It's that simple, and it's that hard.