My faith in great guest service is improving by the day! My husband and I were out to eat on Sunday having a leisurely brunch at Cyclone Anaya’s Mexican Kitchen, in Dallas. One thing you need to know is that anytime I can have chips and queso, there’s a good chance I’m going to be very happy about everything!
It’s hard to get hips as big as mine without having a lot of chips and queso! I digress.
So JD and I are enjoying each other and some wonderful Mexican food. Our waitress is spectacular! Before you know it, she’s talked me into “bottomless” Poinsettias. I don’t think I even knew what a Poinsettia was before Sunday (well of course I know they are beautiful flowers we must have a Christmas). But at Cyclone Anaya’s you have a choice of bottomless Mimosas or Poinsettias on Sunday morning.
I’m not wild about mimosas because orange juice does not sit well with me. I told the waitress that when she insisted we should have these bottomless mimosas with our brunch. I didn’t even know you could sell any kind of alcohol in Texas on Sundays before noon (and I’m sure I should not have entertained the idea of having a drink before noon on any day).
However, our server was very persuasive and she had a solution to my distaste for orange juice. She said, “Well you must have the poinsettia then.” To which my reply was, “I’m not sure what a poinsettia is.” She was more than happy to educate us and when she mentioned the poinsettia had cranberry juice and champagne, my resistance went right out the window and I had to say yes.
It seemed to me that she was very interested in making sure we had the very best experience. They must have a culture of “fun” at Cyclone Anaya’s.
The valet said, “Have fun in there,” as he gave us the valet ticket and parked our car. Our waitress said, “Hope you had fun this morning” when we closed out our check. Of course, I love that. I think I have a core value in my life that things ought to be fun. Oh right, I made a company with a motto of “fun training-serious results!” I was definitely intrigued by their focus on fun. Maybe champagne poinsettias in the morning assure that a fun attitude is had by all!
Finally the thing that impressed me the most happened as we were getting ready to leave …
Our waitress looked us in the eye and genuinely thanked us for coming and then she said, “I hope to see you next week.” She made it very personal. She asked if we lived in the area. My husband explained that our daughter, Leslie, lives close but that we live in Ft. Worth. We were in the neighborhood because I had driven Leslie’s car home to our house the night before and we were simply returning her car. I don’t know the waitress cared for all of that extra information but if she didn’t you couldn’t tell. She followed up with the fact that with our daughter in the area we should definitely come over on Sunday mornings and have brunch with her.
I was so taken with her sweet invitation and honestly feel like we need to go to Dallas for brunch every Sunday. Of course that great feeling is probably a combination of the sincerity of her invitation, my love for chips and queso, and the 2 ½ Poinsettias I had with brunch. Nonetheless, my faith in service and the ability to find great guest service is on the upswing this week.
Oh, and from a sales point of view, our ticket was $10.50 more than it would have been if we had not purchased the poinsettia – so Great Guest Service is GREAT SALES! (This is a program that we teach all the time! We would love to bring that message to your staff.)
Have you had outstanding service lately? Have you given great service? Is your staff sincerely inviting your guests to return tomorrow, next week, next month? I think it’s a great idea to get specific. It’s not good enough to take a chance on “see you next time.” I would love to hear your recent great guest service moments in the comments section below!
