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INSIGHT: Get ready, company's coming |
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By Dee Dee Raap For the Sioux Falls Business Journal
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Tuesday, 03 July 2007 |
Ever wonder why the sitcom TV show “Cheers” was so popular? It was just a bar, right?
Wrong. It was a bar where “everybody knows your name.” And that made Norm feel at home, invited to return again and again.
We all know “there’s no place like home,” thanks to Dorothy, another fictional character. Repeating that phrase returned her home to Kansas, freeing her from the Wicked Witch, the Munchkins and the Wizard of Oz.
Sometimes traveling makes us feel the same way Dorothy did – a long way from home. Weary from long drives with kids, vacations can become less than fun. Someone needs to use the bathroom, someone is hungry and someone else is tired of riding in the car.
Sometimes, we just want to return home for the comfort of the space where we can relax from hassles and be ourselves because everybody knows our name.
I travel frequently. I like it very much when I feel at home on the road, so I look for service that genuinely makes me feel good. My criteria are not complicated; neither are the criteria of visitors coming to Sioux Falls this summer.
Thousands of families will be here for part or all of their vacations. They will stay in hotels or campgrounds, they’ll eat in restaurants, visit attractions and shop in stores. They will spend money. Lots of money. And they’ll spend more money if they receive great service.
I’m in Detroit as I write, in a hotel for two days instead of Ann Arbor because of a friend’s medical emergency. It wasn’t what I’d planned, and I’d rather be home. But as I write, I’m in my pajamas and a Marriott robe, sitting outside in a garden, under an umbrella, with my cup of coffee, notebook and pen.
I feel like I’m at home.
Making visitors to Sioux Falls feel at home means making them feel like a guest in your home: comfortable, welcomed, like you want them there, and you’re so glad they came you’ll even invite them to come again.
Service this good becomes an affordable marketing tool. Your customers will want to come back, and they’ll tell others about you so their friends can have the same great experience. Here are three simple things that make service this good:
• Smile and greet each guest. If someone came to your home, you’d smile and greet them. Give guests a genuine smile and a friendly greeting. It’s not hard. Just make eye contact with every person who comes into your store and act like you’re glad they came.
• Be engaging. Invite employees to ask customers where they’re from, if they’ve been here before, and then suggest things they could do in Sioux Falls.
In the past 12 hours, a waitress shared my delight in the vegetarian chili and my choice of Chardonnay, a Filipino housekeeper talked about where my dad fought in her country in WWII, and my shuttle driver asked me if I’d ever been to Detroit and suggested things for me to do. Your employees can engage guests and offer the local angle on great places for guests to visit to make their time here even more fun.
• Show appreciation. Encourage your employees to thank every guest for coming and invite them to come again. They have choices, they chose Sioux Falls. Say thank you, and invite them to come again.
Wouldn’t it be great if every customer to Sioux Falls this summer had service this great? It’s easy. Just make every customer feel at home, and like Norm, they’ll come back, again and again.
Raap, founder of JourneyWorks, is a customer-care consultant
www.DeeDeeRaap.com |