The other evening I did one of my favorite things, I went out to dinner with my family. Going out to dinner isn’t really that unusual, we go out several times a week together. The restaurant we went to didn’t make it unusual, we went to Cracker Barrel a restaurant we have eaten at dozens of times. It wasn’t the food, the atmosphere, or the prices, none of them were unusual. What made this meal unusual was the server. (Servers were formally known as waiters)
As we sat down and our server walked over I immediately noticed his smile. He looked like he was enjoying himself. As he introduced himself his voice was the next thing that struck me, he sounded as happy as he looked and genuinely happy to be our server.
He did everything all the other servers have done for me at Cracker Barrel before, but he was different. He did it with more excitement, more energy, more fun, and in turn made himself more money! We talked to him more about things other than the menu and in the very short time we were there he had made a connection with us.
At the end of the meal he asked if we wanted desert, when we all said no he walked away with a gleam in his eye, you could tell he was up to something. A few minutes later he walked back to the table with 2 other servers and he was holding a piece of his Coke Cola Cake with ice cream. In the cake was a candle and all together the three servers sang Happy Birthday to my daughter. We looked surprised and he just winked at us and kept singing. When he was done he placed the cake on the table with 4 spoons and told us that he could give a few deserts away each night and he wanted us to have one of them.
All I could think about is WOW, what a server, WOW, what a nice guy, and WOW, how much I would love to have someone like him on my sales team. That’s right, he was a great salesman.
What I haven’t told you is that as we were talking about deserts every one of my family said we had not tried the Coke Cola Cake. He was telling us how it was his favorite. After he placed the piece down for us and we ate it, every one of us said that next time we go to Cracker Barrel we each wanted our own piece.
Tonight my family ate home, and the topic around the dinner table was how much we wished we had a piece of Coke Cola Cake tonight. I don’t know exactly what night, but I know in the next few days we will be eating back at Cracker Barrel and he will be our server.
I think you can tell by the way I have talked about this server that I was very impressed. My question to you is how many of the customers that you serve are as impressed with you? Do you make the right first impression?
How many of your customers do you have conversations with beyond your sales pitch? Do you really know your customers?
How many of your customers have you done something special for knowing that you may not get anything in return but hoping you were laying the groundwork for future sales? Or do you only do the acceptable minimum?
How many of your customers would take the time to write about you in their blog in as positive a way as I have done for this server? Or would you only make the “Don’t expect too much” list?
It is people like this young man that has changed the name from waiter to server. He was not only doing me a service, but he was doing a service for his employer as well. He didn’t just make an extra 10% tip from me, he has made a customer out of me for the future.
As you make your sales calls for now on, think about this server and ask yourself if you are giving the service to your customers he gave to me.
Lorin
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