Teachable Moments
October 8, 2010
Teachable moments hold great value to our efforts to move customer service forward.
I checked in with Sarah, the administrator I am working with in New Hampshire. I wanted to know how things were going since my training sessions there.
She sounded alarmed at first.
“I’m afraid we’re backsliding,” she said.
It turns out there had been an incident in the dining room.
A young server took one look at the soup of the day, a cream-based soup, recoiled, and blurted out loud something along the lines of: “Yuck! I wouldn’t eat that!”
Of course, when residents hear words like these it instantly lowers their confidence in the food that they are about to be served. And we cover that in Kind Dining training.
Fortunately, Dave, their administrator in training happened to be close by, heard the unchecked outburst, and swiftly moved to rectify it.
The problem was minor. The cream in the soup had gotten a little too hot and begun to separate. Simply stirring the soup and garnishing it effectively solved the server’s problem with its appearance.
Sarah was upset that the Kind Dining lesson had not sunk in with the server.
I told Sarah I wasn’t surprised. Teenagers are unlikely to get it the first time. They need to be reinforced constantly.
For me, the story illustrates the importance of having an experienced problem-solver onsite at every meal. If the administrator hadn’t been nearby, this situation could have been a lot more damaging.
Secondly, it tells me that coaching Kind Dining behavior doesn’t end when the training sessions are complete and the workbook is finished. There must be consistent follow-up coaching to make sure that the lessons sink in.
Kind Dining training is so much more than the memorization of items at a proper place setting. It goes much deeper, to changing attitudes, perspectives and habits in order to become a customer service professional.
And unfortunately, there will be times when the process takes one step back before moving two steps forward. These changes aren’t easy!
A True Leader
October 8, 2010
Julie is my kind of administrator.
She’s energetic. And on Friday’s, she’s in the dining room serving dinner to residents in the senior living community she oversees.
I love that she does that. It shows the depth of her caring.
When I arrived at her community I spent some time in her office, learning the issues that were preventing higher customer satisfaction ratings. Basically, it was a conversation about why she had brought me in to present my Kind Dining training.
She was discouraged that her staff wasn’t performing better.
When I asked whether she would be attending my training, she gave me a funny look.
“If I am sitting there, I’m not sure anyone’s going to speak up and be honest,” she said.
I understood where she was coming from, but I disagreed.
“The reason you should be there is so that you can hear what’s going on when they do speak up. And they will,” I assured her.
My mission is to help servers be smarter about their jobs and to find solutions to their communication problems. It takes cooperative teamwork to deliver top-notch service.
I know Julie was glad she came to each training session and saw what it was all about. She heard from employees, found out where the lines of communication were broken, and discovered things about serving food that she didn’t know.
Kind Dining training isn’t simply a talk. It’s full of hands-on practice, interactive group discussion and thinking about how to apply it.
Afterward, Julie told me she was ready to make changes.
“There’s things we can do right away,” she said. “We’re going to have a (staff) meeting next Wednesday to talk about what steps to take next.”
Julie is committed to providing her customers improved service through training. The goal; to create a better work environment for her staff and dining experience for residents
I know Julie is going to see improvement. She leads by example every Friday night.
