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Danny Meyer, restaurateur, on hospitality
Danny Meyer has built a career around creating good experience.
He is arguably New York City's most successful restaurateur, having created some of the top-rated restaurants in the city: Gramercy Tavern (my favorite in NYC), 11 Madison Park, Union Square Cafe (his first), Tabla, Blue Smoke, all the dining at MoMA, and even a burger stand - Shake Shack - in Madison Square Park.
Danny's new book - Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business - describes his philosophy of good experience, which he says centers on a spirit of hospitality.
In his book, he also describes the difference between "service" and "hospitality". In particular one way not to create a good customer experience is to require employees to speak happytalk to customers:
The Ritz-Carlton hotels are deservedly famous for their focus on service; they don't call it hospitality. But as a guest there, I have occasionally sensed a rote quality in the process, when every employee responds with exactly the same phrase, "My pleasure," to anything guests ask or say. Hearing "My pleasure" over and over again can get rather creepy after a while. It's like hearing a flight attendant chirp, "Bye now!" and "Bye-bye!" 200 times as passengers disembark from an airplane. Hospitality can not flow from a monologue.
He goes on to describe that the key is for employees to genuinely want to serve the customer, to show that they are "in their corner", and to creatively find ways to perform that way. It's a spirit of hospitality, not a set of tactical instructions.
Perhaps most importantly, Danny Meyer describes his hiring process, which (to oversimplify a bit) focuses more on finding people with the right spirit, or attitude, about creating good experience; and less on finding people with prior knowledge of restaurants or food. Knowledge of wine can be taught; having the right attitude is the truly valuable quality.
(Update: Danny spoke at Gel 2007 in April 2007.)
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P.S. Our Associate Councils (including members from TiVo, Nordstrom, and the Motley Fool) recently read and discussed Danny's book.
See more info on the Councils.
Makes a lot of good sense to me.
Excellent distinction between "hospitality" and "service"! I was one of those chirping "My pleasure..." in response to every request as a front desk clerk for The Ritz-Carlton. It felt fake coming out of my mouth.
I often deviated from that canned response because I noticed that people physically cringed when I said it.
I'm so glad to hear someone pointing out the difference. I wonder, however, if by giving someone who has the heart to serve a "starter phrase" like this one will enable them to grow into their own words, as they learn to express their genuine desire to provide true hospitality?
Evidently Danny, like Southwest Airlines, practices "Hire for attitude; train for skills."
I agree with that (except of course for pilots:-)
Regards,
Glenn