Recently I attended the National Speakers Association held at the Marriott World Center in Orlando. This is a bunch of people who travel for a living and are picky about their customer service – myself certainly included. This Marriott is not perfect however the servers in the restaurants stood out. Let me tell you about Manny who worked in the casual Solaris restaurant. Manny approached us smiling and with enthusiasm. We had a few questions about the food. I can not do his descriptions justice in this blog. When asked if the iced tea was fresh brewed, he told us about the black tea leaves and the hot water going through the leaves. The shrimp salad was described with words and animation that created pictures. We learned about the fresh squeezed lime juice, the finely chopped cilantro and the lightly spiced shrimp over the beautiful greens. Manny believed in his food and enjoyed his role of ambassador. He was professional yet appropriately playful.
My husband was dining at the same time but at another table. His dining companions were speakers who are humorists on the stage. Martha was the server who took care of them with the same spirit of service. She had to hold her own with the humorists as they bantered back and forth. She provided another memorable lunch.
These servers took lunch and turned it into an experience enhanced with a bit of theater along with their contagious attitude. What a pleasure to see a large convention hotel get a number of things right. The executive chef wandered around the ballroom after lunch had been served to 1100 people to check on their satisfaction. Another server recalled a guest’s wine and cocktail choice from the previous night.
Think about it – one person making a difference in their job. That is how it is done. Everyday people making great choices about how to serve. Now how do we clone Manny and Martha so I can encounter this at every hotel?
Exceptional service is always mandated by management, but rarely executed by the team. Why because the team knows the manager doesn’t really want or care about the service he just doesn’t want complaints and wants turn the product (insert food, clothes, cars or TV’s) as quickly and as cheaply as he can. Sad but true. Kudos to the team and the management at the Marriott.