Resonance Episode: Hospitality As Sales

In this episode Steve, Randy and Mike explore the essence of hospitality through personal stories and industry insights, emphasizing the importance of genuine service, relationship-building, and effective service recovery across all business sectors. And how profound hospitality can be an effective sales tool. 

 Key Takeaways

The impact of genuine hospitality on brand reputation

The importance of service recovery and relationship-building

How employee empowerment influences customer experience

What the brand impact is of both good and poor hospitality 

Chapters

00:00 The Essence of Hospitality

06:00 Service Recovery and Brand Impact

11:20 The Importance of Relationships in Hospitality

16:51 Mindset and Training in Hospitality

22:43 Empowerment in Hospitality

26:05 The Essence of Genuine Hospitality

28:23 Listening with Empathy

30:02 Passion vs. Job Satisfaction

36:09 Service Recovery: Disney Style

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is Resonance, the podcast for leaders that unpacks the power of song, silence, and strategy.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

We believe the great leadership begins with deep listening, not just to others, but to the still small voice within.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

It's not just about being a successful leader, it's about being soulfully aligned as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

In a world moving fast, resonance invites you to pause and reconnect with purpose, people, and possibilities.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

We'll dive into some cool stories, celebrate with friends, and dig deep into the music too. Cause song has a way of staying with words and not alone.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

So whether you're leading a business, a team, or just trying to lead your own life with more meaning, this is Resonance. Resonance, Resonance.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Hey folks, Steve Azar here with my pals Mike, the monk guy feral, Randy Harrington. We are excited for another episode of Resonance, making our way into year two, really, for us is a calendar year. Today we want to dig into the world of hospital. Mississippi is known as the hospitality states. True story. Back in the nurturing days, my parents were very good at uh making sure that we appreciated people and appreciated the effort that folks made to make you feel really good about being somewhere. I think all that played a big role in my life later when meeting fans after shows. To be honest with you, the work got started. It didn't feel like work, but as far as the hours got started for me, well after the show. And sometimes the show lasted 45 minutes to an hour, maybe 75 minutes, and meeting folks lasted three hours. I'll never forget those times. And I carry that with me today in my work today. And that's been something to me, to be honest with you, that's been easy for me because I grew up in that world of understanding that and seeing people that way to me. We're gonna unpack that. We've had some unpleasantries in the hospitality world that we've discussed offline that we all have sort of gone through recently that's interesting. Why, how, and why folks don't get it. Mike, I know that you've uh stumbled across a little situation recently. We may not talk about the brand of the place or uh maybe you will.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

We actually might talk about the brand because uh the brand is pretty well known for good stuff, and this wasn't so good. So uh, you know, I this whole idea of hospitality, I think, and we're, you know, obviously when you when you mention the word hospitality, most people think restaurants, hotels, you know, entertainment, those kinds of things. But this whole idea of hospitality is every single business needs to think about this and how it impacts your customers. And if you do it really well, it can turn into a great sales model because it creates that word of mouth. It creates them coming back again and again. And that's what's so important. So we're gonna kind of unpack some of that today. But what I want to start with is what just happened to me in the last five days at a uh a Ritz-Carlton. I'll go ahead and throw the brand out there. I won't, I won't say which one, but I will say it that, and you know, Ritz-Carlton has been a story that I've talked about for many, many years as really the flagship of understanding what hospitality is. Well, in this particular case, I was uh the first day that I got into my conference where I was speaking at, I was dead tired. All I really wanted to do was go to bed. So I ordered room service and ordered a sandwich from room service, and it came and it was missing half the ingredients, and the bun was burnt to a crisp. But I was so tired, it's like, you know, I'm not even gonna fight this. I just want to eat it and go to bed and call it a day, you know. So that was fine. So next night I order, order room service again, and this time I just order your basic cheeseburger, you know, nothing fancy. And again, I get it, and the bun is burnt to a crisp. And so this time I call down. I said, you know what, guys, you know, you messed one up last night. I didn't say anything. Tonight I gotta say something. This is this is not the standard that I expected, or it's Carlton, you know. And oh, yes, sir, Mr. Farrell, you know, we'll take care of it right away. We'll send. And it took him 45 minutes to get me the first one. So we'll get one up to you right away. I'm gonna I'm gonna call the chef and have him do it right now. You know, 40 minutes later, the second one showed up, and that bun was burnt to a crisp. Oh my. I'm thinking, man, I don't know who's manning the bun station. Their quality standards are a little off. And so I called back down, and you know, and by this time I'm an hour and a half waiting for something to eat. And I'm thinking, well, I'm sure as heck not gonna wait any longer for another one to come back. And so I told him about it. And so then I stopped down at the front desk the next morning because I really wanted to talk to one of the managers. And of course, there's no manager around. And she said, But you know, we're gonna make sure that we take all that off your bill and all that kind of stuff. And I said, Yeah, you are. So about three o'clock that afternoon, I get both both a voicemail and an email from the the manager of food and beverage. And uh he said, Mr. Farrell, I understand you've had some problems with broom service. We'd like to host you for dinner tonight. You know, come on down to our restaurant and you know, we'll take care of everything. And so I did. I went down, I had a wonderful dinner, fantastic food, fantastic service. They knocked it out of the ballpark. And I'm thinking, okay, that's a that's a great, you know, a great recovery. Uh they took care of it. At that, I would say, good, you know, I'm I'm back in good graces with them.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

The next night, or the next, the next afternoon, we had a group of us that that uh went for a lunch, uh, and it took almost an hour to get our food. And some of the food, some of the people's food were was cold when they got it. And then that evening, we all gathered in the lobby bar, and it took 45 minutes to get a drink in the lobby bar. And then I started hearing some of the stories from some of the other people that were at the event, and I didn't hear a lot of good stuff, and I'm thinking, man, alive, this is a Ritz-Carlton. These guys are usually the you know, the stars of the of the show when it comes to hosp the hospitality industry, or certainly one of them. And it just it just never got better. And I'm I'm thinking, boy, I'll tell you what, there's a Ritz-Carlton that's got a that's got a problem. And so from that perspective, I heard a lot of people say that was in it, and there were probably 60 people in the in the group that I was working with. I heard a lot of people say, We're not going back to a Ritz-Carlton, not a chance, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

So that that right there affects all Ritz-Carlton's. It just doesn't affect the one. That's the one. So they're a grant that that advertises as one big we are that big every so yeah, that one reflects on all of them, which is not fair in a lot of ways, right? Right, right, right. But I mean, you talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

There's probably just maybe a couple of people. It sounds to me like the the food and beverage bob was out to lunch in some way. So maybe one person or two people can bring down a brand experience in that kind of a hotel environment.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

You know, that's exactly right. Yeah, really crazy.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Yeah interesting. So where's the breakdown, do you think, as far as you've got GM running everything, right? And then you've got people that come in from Miss Carlton that are above them. They're always sort of supposed to be checks and balances along the way to make sure that everything is to a T so they can have return customers and and everybody can leave with this experience the opposite of what you had. They did try to rebound, they threw a touchdown offering you that night. Um but then they go again. So where is it just is the hospitality business in general in most areas of the country now, is it is it like a lost art or are they not teaching it like they used to? Or a lot of people not not wanting to be in the hospitality business, so they're they're like probably uh lacking a lot of like the pool of the all-stars, you know, or you know, I know schools, some schools, you know, teach hospitality. Sure. But what's going on? Where is that disconnect you feel?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

If we if we if we go back in time, which we are wont to do on this channel, and we look at sort of what is the foundational element of hospitality in human anthropology, you know, and what we find out is that it really does go back a long, long, long way. And if we look into it, mostly we can I guess the earliest use of the term comes from the Greeks, which is so normal for this kind of thing. But but it has to do hospitality as a word implies a literally sacred relationship between the, and they would use this term, the master and the guest. So who or the the homeowner or the whatever, the the person that is welcoming and then the person that's coming in. So it's this sacred relationship between the guest and the purveyor of whatever it is. And hospitality implies clear rules and roles for each. It's important for, in this case, it's important for uh Ritz Carleton, right? They have a whole bunch of things they're responsible to fulfill in that relationship. But then so does the guest. The guest has brings some responsibility too into it. And so one of those responsibilities, I think you did that very nicely, was you called them out on it and you said, you know, this isn't up to standard, and but I'm not gonna freak out about it. I'm just gonna let you know. And it's up to you now to do the right thing. And they kind of didn't do the right thing and then eventually did. And so the other thing I wanted to underline in your story was the criticality of service recovery. And we're gonna, I want to put a pin in that and cut back around to it a little bit more because I don't know about you guys, but I have had terrible service experiences and then had the service recovery be so good that it actually eclipsed the regular experience, you know. Right. And I have one story I'll tell in a minute about that. But uh but the the the thing I wanted to get to is that if we go back in time, what we find out is that hospitality resolves in relationship. It doesn't resolve because you ticked off boxes or you you did the thing in the right order or steps. I feel a sense of actual hospitality when I have a sense of relationship, period. And so if that's not there, even though everything is nice, maybe it's clean, maybe it feels good, but uh it doesn't ring my bell. It's you know, the hospitality experience comes from your first trip in the car. And Steve, why don't you tell us about driving up to Vale before you talk about driving back to the car?

SPEAKER_02 10:30

You want me to do this back real quick? So up to Vale, then Yeah, up to Vale.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Alice, are you in a good mood? You're in a good mood. You're going to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

We're ready to go, right? Yeah, right. We're gonna go to the ski. You were going to go injured. If you call what I do skiing, then we can we can say that, but not get injured, yes. That's important. I'm always that just like I'm doing here, chasing Gwen. I'm chasing Gwen down the mountain, she's good. Lincoln Falls, two years in a row, maybe three of the last four years I haven't fallen, so I've, you know, we've gone. So that's a plus. That is a big plus. Yeah, but I'll tell you, on the way, the guy, the guy was so wonderful once you got in the car with him. There was a specific brand. This was called, do I get to we get to mention brands? Because we should. It was called Rocks to Rocks. I'm gonna give them a hundred and I'm gonna give them a zero. So here we go. The uh this guy, his last name was Fox, and he was the sweetest guy. And we have started to have, you know, see you get in these cars and you're you're Gwyn and I are in the backseat, and we're, you know, and you wonder if you're ever gonna have a conversation, or do you want one, or you want to take care of business? I always kind of like to talk for a little bit to the people that are driving us. Well, we talked the whole time. I got to know about his kids. He's got a really great athlete in the family that just that just scored 76 points in a basketball game recently, uh, but he wants to play college football. Yeah, yeah. And so anyway, we had a really great conversation, and this guy is on dialysis. So I was like, how many often he's just three times a week? And and he's you know, needing it of a kidney. And so anyway, long story short, I really ended up really bonding with him, and we had already tipped before we got there, but I tipped him, like big, you know, big time. I I feel like it was big time. But I I did. I went because I felt like this man is going through hell right now, and he's got he says, I want to be around for my kids. Got a lot of kids, and he goes, I want to be around for them. And and they are I'm trying to be strong for them, and they are really upset about it. And he goes, So I'm trying to be stronger than I'm capable of. He said a lot of really prophetic, prolific things that he was going through. So I feel like he's facing his mortality. I mean, he's facing it, right? He's like up against the wall. Right. He needs cleaning. So anyway, off the charts, wonderful man. And so we thought, okay, I hope I'm getting him back. So I text back because I had his number and I said, I'm hoping you're gonna give us the ride back. He goes, Well, I can't. This other guy's coming, but you know, they'll take care of you. So I get a text message in the morning saying you have to be in the car between 8 and 8.15. I said, That's fine, we'll be down there. We were down there at 7.50 and waiting, and of course it didn't, it showed up at 8.20. And so we're we're there and we're looking for our car because we had a private vehicle. Uh that was like a van. It wasn't like crazy, whatever. We know we shopped around, made sure that made sense. But anyway, long story short, uh, all of a sudden a big sprinter pulls up, and this sprinter is dirty. And I'm looking at it and going like, man, that thing looks like college. You know, like it just has college kids are gonna jump out of that thing right now and going, woo! And all of a sudden, this guy gets out, opens the door, and and he goes, uh, uh, are you Steve Azar? I said, Yeah, he goes, This is we're here to pick you up. I said, We have a private car, and uh, this is not private, and there's five people in the cars, two adults and three kids, and one of the kids was sick. So they were hacking, like, and you know, you know the stuff, the noise. And I'm like, oh man, the basically the whole trip. So he I said, Look, we have a private car. He goes, here's the deal. Get in or stay. That's what he told me. Get in or stay. And I went, oh my gosh. So there's a part of me that wanted to pin him against the thing, but I said, No, we gotta go. We get in. I want you to picture this. I don't, I've never seen so many holes in a vehicle. I've never seen holes in a vehicle. They're this big, this big, this big, this big. They're still moving. And the you're feeling the air from the outside. They're in the doors and in the ceiling, and everywhere. So I took pictures of it all because I knew I had to do this. In the meanwhile, it had just snowed a lot, which they needed in Vale, so that's a hallelujah, and in the mountains there, and in Colorado. But so we've got to get from Vale to Denver. He's flying down the highway, and the windshield wipers and the fog defogger isn't working. And he's got to crack the he can't, I can't see through it. So I'm taking, I had to take pictures of that because there's no way he could see. And I'm going, this is crazy. They've got Christmas lights all above the thing, right? And I'm going, Christmas lights? And the thing was filthy. So we be we're hoping, I'm telling you right now, hoping we're gonna get there alive. It was very stressful the way he was driving, he couldn't see out the window, and there were 18 wheelers and all that. And we're going, like, this could be it. And I'm worried about these kids in the back, or they're never gonna be able to get life past the age they are. So I'm I'm I'm a little over the top, but not really. So we get there, we get out, and I decide to send an email to to the company, Rocks to Rocks is the name of it. And so I said, I I explained everything. I I called first, and they said, You got to send pictures. And I said, Oh, I've got pictures. So I sent pictures and uh I sent everything and explained. Well, this morning they answered, and they answered pretty quick within 48 hours, uh, and said, they had already answered, said, give us a second, and then they got back, said they're gonna offer half of the return fee. And I said, first of all, I would never ask for the a way down to Vail because he deserved more, and I gave him more. But the but this happened, and I said, No, no. I thought about it. I prayed over at church. Then when I'm doing something wrong here, do we just let it be? But the get in or stay, and the 24-hour rule. I took the 24-hour rule and I get a thing today saying that, and they they say that they brought up their contract, which said something into the thing that if you would see our, you know, that there's a clause in there that this happens in case it happens, you know, maybe that you got to be stuck with what we got. So I said, okay. So we looked on the contract and everything that they have online, and this is what it says all rocks to rock services, private or shared, feature professional drivers, immaculate vehicles. Now, the word immaculate vehicles to me is you can use the word immaculate, and this was filthy. So filthy. I'm telling you, and I and I said, We would have been itching as college kids in this thing because we felt like something was jumping on us. But either way, the bottom line was uh and then they had pictures of vehicles on their website which were not even close to what we wrote in. You know, I'm so I said, if you're gonna throw the contract out at me, then then okay. You know, I would have been happy with the 50%, but I'm not happy now because you're throwing you're throwing legal stuff at me, some legal jargon that's hidden somewhere. Right. And I said, I'm I'm gonna give you something that's not hidden. And so I said, I'll just use it. The great and the beauty of American Express is that you get to dispute things, and so I'm gonna dispute it, and I'll keep disputing it for 50 years if I have to, because these people are wrong, because they're they brought up some key elements that to me are not in their favor. But you know, you're hearing me rant, I'm grateful for the road there, I'm grateful we got there, and I could let it go. It's not a big deal. You're expecting to pay for it anyway. It's not the point. The point is what is the get in or stay? That's the that is not hospitality, boys and girls.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

There you go. And so he killed the opportunity for relationship at the very beginning of it. There was no chance to recover from being an a-hole at the very top of the joke. We've had a number of incidents with our vehicles that we blah, blah, blah. And I'm very, very sorry. And I've already called my manager about this, but this is the best we have right now, and so you know, I understand this is an inconvenience. All of that kind of obsequious, you know. And you need a little, but without that, yeah, you're you're you're angry from the get-go, and it spirals up, right? So you think he doesn't care, and then you start looking at it, and it's obvious he doesn't care.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

He doesn't even care about his own life, apparently, because uh well, the safety the guy the the difference between the two, the one that got us there and the one that brought us back, were nowhere. The word relationship, you couldn't build that because he started off with everything wrong. And the and the the first guy, that's saying was Fox. He was a great, great guy, like I said, very humble man, going through tough times, like we talked about. But he was a little late because he kept going to the he told us to go to one gate gate and he couldn't get there because that gate was under construction. So yeah, in Denver Airport, you have to go all the way back around. He had to do that twice. Then he goes, I'm on the other side. Long story short, right, right. But long story short, once we got in there and started talking, and he was asking, I am so sorry. And then he was uh just immediately saying he was very apologetic, and I was going, it is all good. And at no point were we upset, but he didn't say get in or stay at the beginning, right? Right. He he was apologetic, you know, right, you know, right, right. Which we as long as we get there, we're fine. But the vehicle was, you know, was adequate and all that. We felt comfortable, we felt safe, and that's the bottom line. You know, you can put me in whatever you want to put me in. And I'm I'm a warrior, but when you have when I have my loved ones with me, and or a loved one or loved ones, then I become extremely protective. It's how it's how I'm built, you know. So anyway, yeah, we're gonna see what happens. But it's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, and we'll throw a little we'll throw a little Benedictine wisdom on you. You know, the the idea of of hospitality, the Benedictins have embraced that for 1,500 years. It's it's a core tenant of who they are. And in fact, right in the rule of Benedict, he talks about welcoming guests as if they're Christ. And yeah, that whole idea of welcoming, you know, I talk about uh attention to detail and authenticity and surprise and delight. You know, that's kind of that's kind of the the surprise, no delight on that case.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

You know, you know, Gwyn, I was I was gonna say something. So you you bring up all of that, and so we can't always put things down. It's rare that we go through these situations, very rare. There's a Fifth Avenue Hotel in the Beekman by Thompson in New York. Gwyn, and everybody asked me, why do you keep going back? Why don't you find something new there? You know why I don't find something new there? Because they treat you like you. It's unbelievable. Talking about building the relationship. Yeah. You remember you. They remember what you like to drink. They remember the and I'm telling you, it's like going home. It's the only way to explain. And and I'm gonna keep going back to those two hotels because I know how I'm gonna be treated. And and the the rooms and the accommodation, everything from start to finish. The people, the people, the ones that are opening the door for you, the ones that are getting you a car outside. They're like wonderful. And so you know, and so there is a place where you can continue to go and you want to go because they are very hospitable.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yep. And I think that's the that's the idea here is that a lot of leaders, a lot of businesses don't understand the impact of how they take care of not only their customers, but how they take care of their people. Because I can tell you right now, if they're not taking care of their people, and and I would bet if I if I started digging a little more on what happened to me over these last five days, I would bet that I would find some management and training issues that those people aren't feeling like they're being taken care of, and therefore they're not delivering the high-level quality that's expected from the the overall brand. And so I think that it's something that businesses really need to understand to say every single time we touch a customer, whether it's a phone call, whether it's an email, whether it's in person, every single time we touch a customer, we have to be looking at what we can do better. How can we make that customer feel like they're really the Most important customer to our business. And when we do that, then we begin to create that environment that says people want to do business with us because of the way we take care of our other customers, you know, because of the word that comes out because of that. And so, and it and it's, you know, the part that kills me, and I've done a lot of training in this area. The part that kills me isn't that in most cases, hospitality doesn't cost a dime. Yeah, exactly. It's a mindset. It's a mindset, and it's the way that we take care of people and train people. And it doesn't cost a dime. And yet it's also amazing to me how many people don't even think about it. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Well, it's what separates the great from the good, the good from the bad, the whatever. But you're you guys as consultants, I mean, like Randy, I know that you got a an instance you want to talk about. But Randy, before you go there, and tell me, like, how do you go in? Who do you go see? And uh, when are the red flags happen? When do they happen for the company? Right. What's going on down there in in uh Salt Lake?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

There's a couple of things I think that are important from uh from an organizational perspective. And one is that if I don't have a sense of agency, if I don't have a sense of flexibility and potential as the person greeting the customer, you're gonna have a crappy experience. Yeah. So I could be the nicest person in the world, and but my bosses says, this is what you do. You do these five things in this order, and that's the way you do it. And so I have a customer now who needs something in a slightly different order, but I'm sorry, I'm going, I'm sorry, Mr. Azar, but I can't. We have to, we have to do it this way. And so, and so you the service experience is broken automatically simply because I don't feel like I have the opportunity to do something different. One of the great parts of the Ritz Carlton story, of course, is that every employee is empowered with actual money that they can use, spend or whatever to make that guest experience happen. And it doesn't matter who you are, if that guest needs something, you can make the decision on the spot to make that better for that guest. Wow. And so that that sense of empowerment, I think, is really the first place where if that's not there, you're not going to have hospitality. A very brief story was uh I checked into a hotel in the Southwest. I don't know exactly where it was now, maybe it was even Texas, but they had obviously gone through a training that said something about how to greet the guests when they first come in. And so I'm checking into the hotel, and I don't know about you, but when I'm checking into a hotel, the quicker that can happen and blah, blah, the better it is. I just get to my room usually. And so this woman, very, very nice woman, and and she was obviously trying uh her best. She does this. She goes, Yes, Mr. Harrington. Welcome, Mr. Harrington. How was your flight today, Mr. Harrington? Yeah. And I said, uh, my flight was fine, thank you. Mr. Harrington, you're this and that, and this and that. Would you like one key or two keys, Mr. Harrington? I think she said my name at least 37 times in the four minutes I was there. And in the book, they said, when you say the person's name, it makes them feel better. And it was kind of the first two times she said it. Yeah. But after the 37th, I was like, geez, woman, just stop. And then I went, so I I actually did get a little pissy. I was like, what's your name? Oh, well, thank you, Susan. That was very nice, Susan. I appreciate it so much. But but so so this is where you see performative hospitality, where it's really not genuine. She was told to say my name, and so she was laying it on thick, and she missed it. Now, compare that to I'm in a a Hilton Garden Inn in just outside of Detroit, and I had checked in the night before, came down midday the next day, had to get a ride. As I'm walking in, the woman who checked me in the day before sees me in the lobby. She's walking across the lobby, and she looked at me and she said, Everything's going okay today, Mr. Errington. Nice. Different. That's not. You remembered from last night that was who my name was. And that was, I was like, Yeah, okay, very good. That was she got she got like 17 brownie points for that. Not that that adds up to anything. Dark. I did feel that sense of amazingness.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yeah. Well, let me let me let me go to another whole spectrum. You know, being on the road most of my life, there were breakfast places that you like to frequent. Waffle House. Let's go. Waffle House. Well, I'm I'm a fan, man. Come on. So so everybody listening goes, hey Steve, get over yourself. Or you sometimes you have to sub tough it out. Hey, I've toughed it out a lot. And I like tought it out in certain places. But but but the bottom line is like you go to Waffle House, that's hospitality. You feel like the person, I don't care what town you're in, it's almost like they have the same tone in their voice, but they're it's not but it's not the same. They really are welcoming you.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Come on in, sugar. Yeah. I know. You sit you can sit right over there if you want, or you can sit over there. You pick.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

So whoever's leading the charge of Waffle House, and you think about that, probably not going to uh get their master's degree or their doctorate at some university to be the one that's so dang hot hospitable. And and the rocket scientist is back there figuring out all these orders, is cooking everything always the same and getting a thousand orders right, never getting it wrong. Never. I've never had my order wrong at Waffle House. I can actually say it. But we couldn't wait to go there. When I still see the Waffle House on the road and I'm in a hurry and I can't stop, it hurts me that I can't stop. I love their, I love the way they treat us. They treat me, they treat my band, they treat, and so there are places that aren't Rich Carlton's and aren't, you know, wherever that can deliver hospitality and that do deliver hospitality, uh, where a lot of times it's just we I hope we never take that for granted because how consistent uh like a Waffle House is. Chick-fil-A, known for it. Absolutely. Whatever they do, and nobody does better. Everybody should study them because they go, they get your name, but then they they sort of trick you a little bit because, okay, Mr. Steve, you know, they say Mr. You know, da-da-da. You feel like in normal, it's just the way they talk to you, right? And then they uh but they're so kind. And the kindness starts from the first person, and they're out there in the rain sometimes. They don't care, they're going out there to wait on you. Oh, yeah. And by the time you're in one of those lanes, everybody that has touched you, you know, talking-wise and emotionally, or touched your food or brought it to you, whatever, everybody feels like they really care.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Well, this is it. The training is rooted at uh Chick-fil-A, the training is rooted in empathy. Yeah, it begins with the awareness that everybody is bringing some kind of energy, either positive or negative or whatever, but they've had a good day or a bad day or whatever, and they're bringing and you need to react, you need to catch that person where they are. It's not, they're not just automatons, right? It's I'm going to look at you.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

And that is what makes all the difference, I think, for and I mean the other the other piece is that they understand, and it's not just Chick-fil-A, there's there's a lot of examples out there, and a lot of examples that aren't don't have anything to do with food and restaurant and and entertainment, but they understand the importance of listening with the ear of your heart.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

They understand that first and foremost, when you ask the customer a question or the customer asks you a question, you need to listen. You need to listen what to what the response is, you need to listen to what the question is, because Randy, as you said, you don't know whether they're having a good day or a bad day. And if you're not listening for that, there's absolutely no way that you can respond appropriately because it's just going to be like noise coming out. You know, all I'm hearing is yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and without that empathy, without listening with empathy and compassion and understanding, there's no way that we can return that favor without understanding it. And so I think that, you know, when when we talk about training people for hospitality, first and foremost is you gotta train them how to listen. They're not listening, doesn't make any difference whatsoever. You know, there you go. He still got his word.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Learning Hey, you know, can I say something? You think that a lot of folks are just ended up doing jobs and that they're not passionate about? Let's let's talk about the golf industry versus just somebody going to a job. Golf industry people get in the golf industry is because they love golf. They like to be around the greens, they like to be around the grass, they like to be in the pro shop, they like they like golf clubs as toys, right? And you when you walk into 99% of pro shops or at golf courses and stuff, even though some of these guys were trying to be PGA professionals or whatever, and they ended up being club pros, they're so happy. Like they're they're in they're in their environment that they wanted to be in probably since they were kids. So it's a profession that requires extreme hospitality, you know, in a lot of cases. And sometimes it can get a little Eddie Haskell-like, you know, you get it, you feel it, and it's a little bit like whatever, but most of the time it's sincere and genuine. So do you think that maybe the chef at the restaurant or whatever wasn't paying attention feels like he deserves to be at a Michelin star restaurant and he's not? Or maybe I'll see somebody this. How do I end up here, you know, doing breakfast for Mike the Monk Guy Farrell or dinner at the Mike the Monk by Farrell, making him a burger and fries? I don't know. I always think about our Cecilia and the path that she's taken as a chef. And if she, because she's doing some private chefing as well, but she's really doesn't have a say on some of the things versus the Michelin Star restaurant versus where she, you know, the creative part.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

And I just hope she never falls into the the pit of where it becomes where cooking literally becomes work rather than this joy. And the joy ends up that you can taste it in the food, right? And the people that serve it.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

So anyway, I'm just I'm wondering if lack of but I think, yeah, and I think I think you bring up a great point there, Steve, because the other piece of that is you can't tell me that somebody working at Waffle House or Chick-fil-A, that that's their their lifelong desire. Right. But they they absolutely love that. So I think you have to look deeper into it. You have to look at what kind of vision, what kind of care are they getting from their employer? I mean, I'm I'm gonna tell you right now, I know lots of golf pros that are miserable, and you know it the minute you walk in the shop. And so I, you know, I think that I think that it it more comes to how are they being taken care of, what do they truly understand the vision of the organization, of the business that they work for and what they do and how they want to take care of their customers slash clients. Because if that's not being portrayed, I don't care if you're flipping burgers at Waffle House or if you're the head golf pro at one of the fanciest country clubs in the country, if that vision hasn't been portrayed to you and you haven't bought into it, you're not gonna be very good at what you do. So you're saying fashion, Randy, answer please.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah, well, so a woman um that I I have great respect for, her name is Joanne Edwards. And she and I have worked together on several projects over the years. In fact, she was a crucial person in the development of the Speaker's Edge program at the University of Mississippi with the business school and all that. She's an amazing woman. Anyway, she's retired now. And I was speaking with her and I said, So how what are you doing? What are you doing in retirement? She said, Well, I took a job at Target. And I said, Really? Okay, this woman is an academic guru, you know? And I said, and you're working at Target. Why in the world are you working at Target? She said, Well, I only work there three days a week and I do this and that and this and that. And I said, Do you like it? She goes, I love it. And I said, Okay, tell me why you love sorry, so what do you do? She says, I do all kinds of things, but mostly they love me on the checkout. Okay, why? Well, I'm nice to people. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

All right. But she said, for her, she gets so much joy because she makes up a story in her mind about every single person who's coming through based on what comes across that belt, right? Uh she'll see somebody with like uh, you know, some you know, tchotchkis for the house, blah, blah, blah, maybe a little thing and a thing, and then a pregnancy test kit. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. So there's this, you know, so every single and every single time, you know, and so then somebody's coming along and oh, they've got all the thera flu and all the stuff. She goes, You just people are giving you a snapshot of who they are with what that stuff is on the belt. And she thoroughly, she's she's caught up in it, just trying to see and imagine. She she enjoys the experience of building some sort of empathetic relationship. I said, Do you talk to these people about what's on their card? She said, No, that, of course. But but I am certainly looking at it and understanding this is where these people are at.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

I'm never gonna go to the store ever again. I know, no, it's all insta-cart from here on to the rest. You know what's funny is you bring up this thing. When we lived in Nashville in the beginning, there was this guy at a quick stop, right? And we live, I'd walk down the from our townhouse and I'd go over there and go in there, and he'd he'd go, uh he'd always ask, like, if I'd get milk, he goes, Would you like some Captain Crunch with that? It wasn't like Siri, it was always this. And so he was always, always doing that. And it was a game to me to go in there to see what he was gonna do. So one day I got sent in to get women's feminine needs, right? Yes. And that was very uncomfortable, still is to this day, but I had to do it. And so I go down there and I get it, I walk up there, and I was going, What is he gonna say? And he goes, Would you like a rose for the young lady? I just said, I'll never forget it as long as I live, you know. I've got these on the thing, and would you like a rose for? I mean, like, what was he was so colorful and creative, and I loved him. Like, you know, I couldn't wait for that.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

You know, anyways, and he loved and so he thought about that made his job fun every day. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. That was enjoyable. Okay, here's one more story for you. This one is a favorite of mine. So this was this happened way back, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I can't recall. I was down in Orlando giving a speech at a conference, and uh, so it was maybe seven o'clock in the morning now. I'm downstairs in the lobby of this hotel where they had set up a breakfast buffet thing, you know, and and for all the attendees, and I'm going through the little breakfast thing. Now, the night before, all the attendees, and I want to say 300 and 400 people, were hosted at Disney World. Sure. And uh they it was a party, it's a private party thing at Disney World, which I had never really done or been there before. And it was very nice, and and it was kind of cool because at maybe eight o'clock at night or something like that, it started to rain a little bit like it does in Florida, but instantly the Disney people are phomm phom-phomp, walking around with umbrellas for everybody. It was just amazing. Umbrellas came out of everywhere. You know, it was just like, wow, okay, and the party kept going. It was like, wow, this is really cool. Well, at 10 o'clock, um, everybody got on buses and went back to the hotel. So now it's the next morning. I'm down in the little line going through getting my food, getting my little muffin, getting some coffee, and a stretch limo pulls up out front. And you sort of notice that because it's seven o'clock in the morning and a stretch limo pulls up and the doors swing open. And I want to say nine people pour out of this thing, and they are wearing mouse ears and every Disney thing you can imagine, and they are hammered drunk. They are spilling out of this thing, seven o'clock in the morning. Like, holy smokes! So they're staggering in, and somebody, I overheard this. Somebody says, What? Where have you been? What's going on? And this woman says, We got stuck on the Tower of Terror. So, sure enough, at about 9:30, lightning hit, and they were on the ride. Well, you're good on this ride, but you're sitting there and your feet are hanging, dangling down, and all nine of these people are sitting there. The thing gets frozen and they can't get down. The ride did not work. And so they were they were freaking out because it was literally lightning storm and you know, yeah, you know, rain and it was a mess. And it took, she said, about 30 minutes before they were able to get them down safely. And so what happens though, they're while they're sitting up there, they're talking about who they're gonna sue, how they're gonna sue people. This is just not okay. Everything you can imagine. They get off the ride, and the general manager of the park greets them. It's now like 11 o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

And he says, you know, obviously, we're super sorry about this, blah, blah, blah. We're gonna do what we can to make it right. But you know what? I just I don't know if you want to do this or not, but once I wake up like this, I really can't go back to sleep. And I was asleep, he called me up out of bed to come here for this, and so now I'm awake and I don't know. Do you guys just want to play? Do you guys just want to have fun? I mean, you got a backstage pass to all of Disney right now. Wow. And so they were like, Yeah, that sounds cool. So she said, the guy takes them on a tour of all the backstage, all the tunnels, all the cool stuff, all the stuff you'd never see in a million years. And then they would go to a ride thing, or they would do a thing, or do you want to do this? And uh she said, and everywhere we went, the little bar cart just followed us right along, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

I thought they were sending them drinks up on the tower of terror.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

No, they were the bar cart, followed them around for five hours. They were on this tour, and the last stop was the Disney store. They walked in, the guy said, Get anything you want. Just whatever you want.

SPEAKER_03 39:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Well, basically, as much as they could carry is what it seemed to be, because they had just just so much junk all over their bodies. And and so then the story through the rest of the day was I wish I had gotten stuck on the Tower of Terror.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Right, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Yeah, so that's how service recovery works, where the recovery was so amazing that you almost want the insult to be able to justify that kind of backstage experience. But there you have it. Service recovery Disney style. And also including alcohol, I think, was was probably a smart I gotta be honest, I've never had a bad experience at Disney World.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

I'm a sucker for it, so I just want you to know that.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Second, he's probably one out of places in the whole world. She loves it there.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Put me in it's a small world, and I with my kids or or alone, it doesn't matter. I'm like, wow, there's something so incredibly magical. But also the way everybody treats you there, it's off the charts. I agree. Do you want to take us home, Mike or Randy? Who wants to take us home?

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah, so anyhow, you know, today, today we have been talking about hospitality, both good and bad hospitality, and talked about some of our experiences. But I think the most important part is to really understand the impact that hospitality has on any business. It doesn't have to be a restaurant or a hotel or entertainment or anything like that. Every single business, no matter how small you are, no matter how large you are, every single business needs to focus on this. They need to think about how they deliver it. They need to think about making sure that it's not just delivering it to their customers and their clients, but are they doing it for their own people? Because the better they do it for their own people, the better their people do it for their customers and clients. And so I think that's what's really important as we talk about this idea of hospitality today. Use it as a tool to improve and increase your business, not to just do good customer service. You know, there's there's you know, you can have good customer service, and quite frankly, if you don't have good customer service, you're probably not gonna be around very long. But there's a big difference. There's a big difference between good customer service and profound hospitality. And Mr. Farrell can be a product level.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

What'd you say there, Randy?

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Mr. Farrell's doing a fine job as being Mr. Farrell. Mr. Farrell. Yeah, Mr. Farrell. He's the king. Innocent, he's the king of profound hospitality. He is the king of profound hospitality. He is Homo La Lagenda, the man, the legend. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

Until something's wrong with a steering bus, probably, but that's all right. Look, I'm gonna I'm gonna take us all the way home now. Give me the steering wheel. Give me the get get out of the driver's seat. You guys get in the back seat. I'm gonna show for you home resonanceleader.com. You can check us out everywhere you listen to podcasts. You can check us out on YouTube if you want to see our mugshots doing whatever they do. And also know that you can bring in residents live to uh your business, your conferences, and everything, and we'll put on a show. We're always uh loving to get together. And you're talking about hospitality, we'll show you what that's like. Absolutely. Absolutely. We appreciate you guys for tuning in on behalf of my pals, Mike the Mutt Guy Farrell, Randy Harrington, and myself, Steve Azar. Blessings, guys, later on. Thanks, guys. Find us at resonance leader dot com.