Hospitality: An Attitude, Not an Industry

As a professional in what we call the "hospitality industry," I'm often conflicted when I experience the service industry from the other side of the counter.

On one hand, I find that I am an exceptionally good customer, sometimes too much so. At restaurants, I practically bus my own table after finishing my meal, wiping the table down and stacking the dishes at the end of the table. At hotels, I find myself picking up stray litter off of the floor without thinking twice. I am extraordinarily forgiving of the little mistakes that can make the average customer cringe (Got my room type wrong? It happens. Brought the wrong appetizer? That can be fixed.).

But on the other hand, I am utterly intolerant when I see service employees goof on the basics: listening, being respectful, paying attention, working to meet and exceed the customer's needs, and immediately apologizing  and offering a solution(s) when things go wrong (as they inevitably will at some point). Notice how all of those "basics" involve the customer. It is the service person's job to focus on the customers, and to get that wrong is a bad sign.

Even then, for the most part, I am exceptionally tolerant of the little mistakes. I am, for example, forever asking for extra ranch (or ketchup, or honey mustard, or .... does anyone understand how a shot glass of a condiment meets the needs of the average diner?), and 75% of the time the "extra" portion fails to arrive when the food does. Either the server wasn't listening or didn't bother to check when the food came out. But it's not going to bother me...unless the food is cold, the drinks aren't refilled, other parts of the order were missed, and so on.

We toss around the phrase "the hospitality industry" too much now. Literally, it means hotel, restaurant, and attractions businesses. Yet I know a number of retail outlets, real estate agents, and various other service providers who are in the hospitality business--and quite a few restaurants, hotels, and attractions that are decidedly not.

Hospitality is a frame of mind, an attitude, and a way of life--not an industry. Hospitality is making "please," "thank you," "sir," and "ma'am" a part of your daily vocabulary; yielding the right-of-way to another vehicle; allowing someone with six items to go ahead of you at the grocery store; stopping to listen to people and genuinely responding to them. We're never going to be perfect at it, but true hospitality professionals work at it all day, every day. Hospitality doesn't stop at a workplace doorway. Hospitality doesn't clock out.

That's why those who are truly in the hospitality business know that they have to hire hospitable people, train hospitable movements and actions, and behave hospitably themselves. It's also why when I went to a local restaurant on the intercoastal waterway this weekend and stood waiting for 30 minutes while the hostess talked about her personal life with her coworkers and the managers ignored her behavior, I knew we were in for a forgettable experience. They are in the industry, but they didn't have the attitude.

And wouldn't you know, they forgot the extra ranch.

Scott

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