PEOPLE – YOUR GREATEST BUSINESS ASSET
Having been raised in the hospitality industry by Polish parents was a huge learning curve in the provision of world-class service. What we as children learnt from being diligent in taking care of the details was, what we now believe, to be our foundation for independence, success in the workplace and pure grit. What we endured as punishment would be considered down-right child abuse by today’s standards but back then, that was just normal character-building.
My mum was the driver whilst my dad formed the back-end support and worked as a builder outside of the hospitality business. There was never a chance to say “I don’t feel like it, I want to sleep in”. You didn’t dare. Up at 6 am to clean the ashes out of the huge coal stove, and bring in wood and coal from the shed to get the stove back on the burn. We were at boarding school during the week. Weekends and school holidays were devoted to keeping the family business afloat. Mum taught us to portray genuine friendliness and helpfulness to our customers whether they came to do business or to just ask for directions.
We were taught never to eat or drink in front of customers, not even chew the last bite. All food and drink items of ours had to be out of sight of the customers. We were to be dressed neatly and modestly. The customer was most important and had to be treated with the utmost respect and servitude. The customer was definitely always right and if they were wrong, they were still right.
If they were rude to us, we were to smile and bring the situation to mum’s attention. She would deal with it from there. That could mean that she’d send us back into the fray with further instructions. It was quite harrowing for a kid to go back and say, “sorry, we ran out of eggs, so can’t make your mixed grill.” It was even worse when you knew that the scones were mouldy, the cream was sour, there’s no ice-cream and the last piece of steak was given to a customer yesterday. So, when the customer asked “Is there anything on the menu you do have?”, as the go-between you’d have to be quick on your feet not to take offence and offer a solution. “Well I could offer you fish and chips or a toasted Ham, cheese and tomato?” Just as an aside, our lack of stock was purely due to frugality as a result of my parents having experienced extreme conditions during the Second World War.
This short illustration has shown several little life hacks which come naturally if exposed to it at some point in your life. You would need to be exposed to it long enough to make a lasting impression. It was only later on in life that we recognised the advantages to growing up the way we did. For example, I learnt that serving people meant putting your own pride aside. You served them with a smile until they walked out of the door, knowing that it made them feel better that they were right and they’d recommend us, if not for anything other than the service. If it was beyond acceptable behaviour, you called mum! Herewith the birth of a servant leader.
My sister and I started a branch of a national telecommunications company. We were taught to sell, attended all the necessary sales training, body language interpretation, how to deal with objections, etc. I found this to be so clinical and a manipulation of the potential buyer’s ability to make a non-emotional decision at the height of the pitch. I myself, was not in sales but would get involved in every aspect of my business, to know how things worked at every level. And so, I subjected myself to going out and canvassing customers for a couple of months. Turns out that in the history of our business, I sold the biggest system by simply being genuine, showing the product simply and offering to get back on issues I wasn’t sure of.
Every single person is struggling with something more often than we realise. You may walk into a bank, and unbeknownst to you the teller on the other side is struggling with a sick child at home but she is at work serving you. You walk in and your back is up immediately, noticing that she is remiss in offering a smile or even a glance to acknowledge your presence. Immediate reaction? Your spine is tingling and your heart starts to race as you gear up for the impending conflict. You choose (1) to call her out on her obvious unfriendliness and lack of customer service; or (2) Smile and tell her that her lipstick is a really lovely colour/you love her hairstyle, her blouse or nail polish. Which of her reactions to your ‘bait’ will be beneficial to both of you? It’s very rarely really, that you simply get horrible people who are just horrible for the sake of being horrible. There are 2 things in life which motivate us – love and fear. A person always reacts to anything either with love (e.g., servitude, grace, kindness), or fear (anger, rudeness, aggression, sadness, etc.). So before you judge a person for their negative behaviour or attitude, assume first that there’s more to it than meets the eye, something that you don’t need to know about. A genuinely kind gesture will either overthrow the situation immediately, or at least, the person will go home and realise that undeserved kindness was extended to them that day.
Ultimately, learning to approach people with a genuine heart of service, will win them over. In your business the same would apply. This works its way down the ranks – staff naturally follow the culture established by management. If you love your business because of what you do for people, they will love working for you and doing business with you. If they love doing business with you, they’ll talk about it. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” – Simon Sinek.