The other day while waiting for breakfast to be served I witnessed something that somewhat blew my mind. The couple one table over actually asked the wait staff to adjust the lighting above their table. The remedy wasn’t found in the form of a light switch but in the staff actually getting up on the table with a towel and loosening the light bulb in the ceiling above their table. Most wouldn’t bother asking for a lighting change but it happened. Here’s the lesson.

Customer service is something you must practice in everyday life. It doesn’t matter if you’re in food service, retail, or just dealing with other people on a personal level. Customer service should always be a top priority in any aspect of life. The crappy part of customer service is the fact that customers are far more likely to remember a single instance of bad service than every other instance of good service before it. No matter how good you are in the past, it can all come crashing down that one time you refuse to loosen a lightbulb.

The really crappy part is that you can cross the line from good service to bad in an instant without even knowing it. Try as you might it’s bound to happen. And yet, we must continue to provide the best customer service. Somehow it just seems like an unobtainable goal.

John