Are you looking to hire Marty?
In his book titled “the Richest Man in Town” Author V.J. Smith (VJS), wanted to write about leaders who changed the course of history. He wished to understand what made their lives great and what might be missing in his. But during that literary route he met Marty, a simple man who ran a cash register at a store in his hometown - in South Dakota.
The author’s encounter with Marty altered his life forever. Reading about what he experienced, convinces me more that we desperately need more Martys - especially in the world of hospitality; where people are expected to take ‘care’ of people.
For VJS, it all unfolded on a day he went into that store, and, after buying some items, when he stood at the checkout line - which wasn’t moving as fast as he wanted. Peering towards the cashier’s counter, he observed a slightly stooped man in his seventies, amiably greeting every customer before he began scanning the items they were buying. Smith watched him intently for the next few minutes and noticed that the elderly cashier would ask every customer the usual “How’s it going?” Agreed - Nothing mind-blowing about that. But what made the difference was that Marty, which was the cashier’s name – was genuinely interested in how customers were feeling by actually listening to the replies people made.
VJS initially found it strange because, as he explains “I guess I had grown accustomed to people asking me how I was doing simply out of a robotic conversational habit. After a while, you don’t give any thought to the question and just mumble something back. I could say, “I just found out I have six months to live,” and someone would reply, “Have a great day!”
After Marty rang up each customers purchases, told them what they had to pay, collected the money handed over, punched in the relevant keys to pop out the cash drawer, put in and/or took out their change…he did something even more poignantly wonderful. To each and every customer he served, he would walk around the counter and extend his right hand, shake the customer’s hand and whilst looking in the eyes, say, “I sure want to thank you for shopping here today, you have a great day. Bye-bye.”
To sum up his experience, VJS goes on to say, “The looks on the faces of the customers were priceless. There were smiles and some sheepish grins. All had been touched by his simple gesture – and in a place they never expected”.
What Marty demonstrated was a lesson in personality traits that were driven by a predisposition to be grateful, helpful, thoughtful and thankful; aka ‘Service orientation’ that ‘wows’ customers.
During my coaching sessions, I would reinforce the importance of customer service to employees by asking them to "Take a moment, right now, and do something that most people rarely (if ever) do: think about the purpose of your job. Here's the question to ponder: Why did your organization create your position ... why does your job exist? Is it because you’ll have a workplace to report to several days each week? Or is to enable you to buy stuff with your salary? Sure they include these as well - but as a side benefit and they are not why your job is created.
Fact is, your job - everyone's job - exists for one primary purpose: to either make or do things for other people. Those "other people" who are patrons of your business - have a tag: they're called CUSTOMERS. It is they who are the real source of your income. It is because of them that your organisation employs you.
Those who truly understand this are the Marty’s in this world. As I said earlier, the Hospitality industry needs to hire more Marty’s. They are the ones who really care, and the ones who, when I dine at a restaurant or stay at a hotel:-
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-hotelier
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