When you receive great service, make sure it is acknowledged
I am a connoisseur of great service and study it with intent while it is happening to me. I savor the experience and use it to teach, educate and measure all kinds of situations.
When I find myself on the receiving or witnessing end of excellence, I spend a whole lot of energy analyzing why I am feeling my socks being knocked off.
A few weeks ago over lunch with a colleague, we started talking about that elusive excellence in customer service, and he said the standards have been dropping for years. His theory is that what we now see as exceptional used to be the norm. He thinks Americans have dumbed down service to a point well below mediocre, and just about anything above awful has us awestruck. I think he is wrong.
Masselow’s, the new restaurant at Northern Quest Casino, has been getting a real positive word-of-mouth rating since it opened earlier this year. Yes, I consider myself adventurous, but not when it comes to new restaurants. I would rather wait for the kinks to get worked out before I visit a new eatery. So wait I did.
We took some friends with us to test the waters. It was one of those special events, and we had a couple of things to celebrate. I had arranged a bottle of champagne to be ready for us when we were seated. I had a lot riding on this being as good as people were telling me it was, and I had my service observer’s hat on.
Food servers can be annoying. You know the type: They interrupt, they hover and ask too many questions. Food servers can also be absent: They get the order and bring the food – end of involvement. Just hope you don’t need a new fork or a refill on that water.
We all know how to describe bad service, but let me take you to dinner with us and paint a picture of excellence:
•The champagne I pre-ordered sat on the table in a bucket, as all good champagne should, and none of us ever had to touch it. Travis, our server, made sure he was really serving us, without hovering.
•We had questions about the menu as the Salish-based menu is not something we were familiar with and he gave descriptions, suggestions and the philosophy of why that item was offered without making us feel like morons.
•He let us set the level of formality and mirrored our level of humor, involvement with him and capacity for conversation. This trait is what captivated me the most, because it changed as we did throughout our evening.
•The subtle way he sold us on dessert and appetizers was so laid back, we all thought it was our idea.
•He made us comfortable right away by letting us know he could laugh at himself and that he did not know it all. Sometimes formal dining can be off-putting. Not this night.
•Travis also knew when to leave us alone. We have all experienced dinners that make you feel like someone in the back has a stopwatch, prodding the server that the table needs to be turned. But we never came close to feeling pushed.
The casual elegance and informal competence at Masselow’s is by design. You can tell they are doing all this by plan, and it is working. Nobody ever walked by our table without looking to see if we needed anything removed, cleaned up or refilled. Service and care of the customer was everyone’s job, and we could all feel it.
Is this kind of service really a thing of the past except in special cases? I do not think so. I have written in this space of exceptional service many times, and frankly could do so almost each week.
But as consumers of service, are we quick to complain, complacent in mediocre events and quiet when we encounter excellence? I hope not, as there is nothing smarter than rewarding good behavior. Make the tip 20 percent, or write the owner or manager when someone knocks your socks off. If you keep your eye out for it, and be specific in what you are rewarding, I just know you’ll see more and more exceptional service.