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!
