Happy Sunday Everyone:
Kim and I had a nice weekend in St. Helena, a delayed celebration of our 20th Anniversary.
If you’re like us, when you go to Napa, you eat, you drink, you rest, and you repeat, perhaps a small amount of exercise to make you feel better about yourself. The food here is amazing as are the expectations of the quality and the service. This story is truly one where I wish I had a go pro on my head for you to actually see what we experienced.
We hit our 1st restaurant for a glass of wine and an appetizer. It was around 5:00 in the afternoon. I’ve been there before, super cool inside, but this time it was empty. We walk in, straight to the bar and sit down. We are greeted by the world’s quietest bartender, borderline rude but honestly think he was just born without a personality. I try to engage him a bit, “how are you” etc…..nothing. He hands us a few menus, dinner, drinks, happy hour. I see oysters on the happy hour menu, I love oysters…I ask him “what size are your oysters”…he responds with “standard”. I’m thinking someone is watching me at this point. We get our wine, we get two other apps (no oysters for me), and we’re laughing but also talking about this experience. Then I see the owner. He’s sitting in a chair by himself drinking a club soda. He gets up, walks around a bit, walks by us, zero eye contact. 15 minutes go by, there are now 10 or so people in the restaurant, including two new people by us at the bar, experiencing the exact same thing. Owner is now walking around rearranging the decorative bottles on the wall, I’ve watched him not engage with a single person, staff, guests, anyone, the entire time I was there. It was honestly shocking. As you might suspect, this was a one and done.
Next place. Walk in, its packed. Friendliest guy on the planet sees Kim and I walk in, greets us w/ a huge smile. He’s franticly looking around to try to find a seat for us. Two people sitting at the bar get up to leave, he looks at us again w/ a big grin, we say the bar is fine. He runs around to the other side, buses our spot, cleans it, table settings, all within 30 seconds. Then, I swear this to be true, I hear the people next to me ask him about the oysters, he lights up, “medium sized, a little briny, they’re excellent”….to no surprise, they order a dozen. I then ask the bartender if they make a good Manhattan…..huge smile…”THE BEST”…so I order a Manhattan, which was excellent. I love watching people, thankfully Kim understands this about me, so we’re watching the guy that initially seated us dance around this place. He’s literally all over. I see him walk a lady to the bathroom, bus a table, make an espresso, answer the phone, tap different servers on the back to see if they need help, check in on us to see if everything is great. He of course turns out to be the owner. He could have been the host, the bus boy, the server, the manager, the general manager….he was everything.
Given what we do for a living ourselves, the similarities between our businesses is worth noting. My own observations:
* Engage w/ clients: Our primary job is dealing with our clients, not shuffling paperwork behind the scenes or turning wine bottles for decorative purposes.
* The experience we create starts w/ us. Both internally and externally.
o internally: The bartender at the 1st place matched the attitude of the owner. He was completely indifferent to the experience Kim and I were having. The employees of the first place were zombie like and it was a complete reflection of the owner. The employees of the 2nd place worked at a team on everything. The concept of “peek around the corner” to see what they could do for each other was alive and well. They seemed to sense when it was there turn to step up. There was no ego and no hierarchy in anyone’s actions, it was all about helping to create the best client experience.
o externally: As a client/customer of both places, I felt appreciated at one, I felt like a hinderance at the other. The food at both places was probably equal, it’s the service and how you make a client feel that differentiates you. As the owner of our own business you have to be asking if the client feels my gratitude.
* Servant leadership: We need to lead by positive example w/ no ego. If you have the right people on your team, they will follow your lead but we need to be asking “where are we leading them?”. Anything that isn’t working for your team is always a direct reflection of your leadership. It’s hard sometimes to acknowledge this but its 100% true.
* Try to remember to have fun, it’s infectious, and obvious when it’s happening.
Have a great rest of your day.