Tuesday, August 14, 2018
By Nancy Friedman, Customer Service Speaker; President, Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training
It was in a Las Vegas hotel restaurant.
My husband Dick and I were seated quickly enough, but the wait for silverware, water, menu and a waiter seemed forever. (Over ten minutes for sure.)
Dick has a lot of patience (he’s never used any). Thankfully, this time he held it in for a while. After more than a few minutes of no service, no water, no menu, no waiter, he waved the closest person on the waitstaff he could see and said to him (and nicely I might add), “We’ve been here a quite a while and we have no water, no menu, no silverware and no waiter.."
Without missing a beat and with a big smile, the busboy, who he had waved over said with a lovely Hispanic accent, “I’m the busboy, but I will get it all for you.." And within 45 seconds we had everything – water, menu, silverware and soon, a waiter.
Did you notice he didn’t demean his job with, “I’m JUST the busboy”? He WAS the busboy. And he was proud of it.
There was no:
* I’m not a waiter.
* It’s not my job.
* I’ll get your waiter.
* Someone will be with you soon.
* I’ll check for you.
No excuses. He stepped up to the plate, handled and saved the situation.
“I’ll get it for you.." He took ownership.
The number one trait all business owners want – OWNERSHIP!
That’s the way it should be!
Don’t pass the buck. Handle the situation.
Normally busboys don’t get tipped. However, this time Dick made a special exception. A big-time exception. It was very impressive. Perhaps his English wasn’t so great, but his service sure was!
The following two tabs change content below.Nancy Friedman, customer service keynote speaker, is president of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training and a featured speaker at franchise, association, and corporate meetings around the world. A popular TV guest, she appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, CNN, FOX News, Good Morning America and CBS This Morning, as well as hundreds of other radio, television and print outlets around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. The author of 9 books on her chosen topics, Nancy helps corporate America improve their communications with their customers & co-workers.
You can see her 9 books here.For more information, log on to Nancy Friedman's website
www.nancyfriedman.com or call (314) 291-1012. Oh yeah you can email her at
nancyf@telephonedoctor.com. Nancy is a recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame Award - St. Louis Small Business Monthly