"Help the guest in front of you."

I bet you're busy. I have heard nothing but good reports on this season, so far, and it is so good to hear after 2009! We, too, have been very busy and it has been fun, but exhausting. And, I but you're tired, too.

Service degradation. When you get tired, service level declines. I don't care who you are, if it happens to me (I'm an interaction addict, if you've met me, you know.), it happens even to you.

You simply cannot keep it up indefinitely. You also cannot expect your staff to do as well as you do. They don't have it in them.

If you know it's coming, train for it. To combat this service degradation, our policy is to "help the guest in front of you." We had a girl get flustered and quit because she couldn't handle the line of guests hassling her to "hurry up", "go faster", "why is taking so long."

My only advice to her was to "help the guest in front of you." I didn't realize that that's what we've been doing for years. I'd never thought of explaining it to anyone else.

Help the guest in front of you. When you boil down guest interactions and expectations, the guests just want you to deal with them until they are cared for and the personal transaction is complete. Give them your full attention. You can't multitask guest services or both parties will be upset.

You also can't help the next person in line until the person in front of you is done! So, stay focused, help the guest in front of you quickly and efficiently, and move on the the next guest. No matter how big the line behind them.

Train, model, and encourage. Your employees are people, too. They behave just like people do. They want to do well, but they don't know what to do. They watch to see what you do when you're stressed and busy, then they do it. They want encouragement.

Chances are that they have a lot of people in their lives who are mean to them and do not encourage them. What they are lacking in their lives is encouragement. Employees + Encouragement = Effective.

I hope you are crushed with guests this weekend. I hope you have to work your tail off. When you are in the heat of the rush and you start feeling the stress mounting as the lines get longer remember that all you have to do is...
Help the guest in front of you.

Have a great week.

Hugh

Reach us at: www.mazecatalog.com