Monday, March 21, 2011

A simple act of caring for customers

I was having a late lunch at the cafe, in the main building of the Hospital. One half of the squarish large cafeteria hall closes at 4 pm everyday and a partition is put up to separate it from the area that stays open late into the night.There are doors to exit on three sides.  I was sitting in the area that is closed off but didn't know the exact time when it does that. As I was eating a big man, whose tone and dress implied that he was some sort of manager there came up and thanked me for coming into the place today. He said they close at 4 pm and that I could go over to the other half of the place which stayed open. The reason he was asking me personally to do so was because they were in the process of putting up the partition and had left a door open in one corner in the partition. He didn't want me to have to take a longer route from out of the cafeteria and then reach the open section.He suggested I take the door to reach the other side quickly. When I agreed, he thanked me again and went off to another table to talk to the people there.

Now, this was interesting to me because in many places, usually this kind of task is relegated to the cleaning staff or the counter person or the servers. And they more often than not make short task of it. Often they simply inform the customer that  it is closing time and the customer should move, with a little politeness thrown in. A few times, just a shout from the counter addressed to everyone sitting in the area is considered enough. But talking to each customer individually, being more polite than was required, caring for their convenience, taking that effort, this young man elevated his and the cafe's standing in my eyes. Something to be learned from for all businesses....