I didn’t come up with this term myself… darn it. I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy… Anyway, I love it and I am going to use it: “Don’t just out perform, out-polite”. Even without a whole bunch of explanation, you know what it means. And recently I had a fantastic experience at a high end restaurant that totally makes the point.
Check it out. I was in a big city and we went to a famous steak house, Morton’s. You may have been there; if not, imagine Disney in a tux. From the time that we entered the building, politeness was poured on us.
The first thing that stood out to me was when we were seated, and the table was beautiful and had wonderful china, crystal, silver and white napkins, the server instantly pulled up the napkins and told us since we were wearing dark colors she wanted to replace the napkins with black so we wouldn’t have a lap covered with white lint when we left. That was way cool! I have never, ever had anyone do that before. I don’t think I’ve ever had lint on my clothes from a napkin, but the fact that she made big deal of noticing us and making that change was so impressive and made me feel special. Was there a cost to this? I can’t see how it would cost the restaurant more to have half white and half black napkins, so my answer is no. It was free and it made a huge positive impact.
The next things were rather typical, “have you been here before”, “here is what we are famous for”, where are you from”, “may I take your drink order”. These were all done and done well. Here was the best part though, he directed us to where the ladies room is! Now you guys probably think that is nothing, but us women really appreciated this. I mean, there is never a time when you don’t visit the ladies room. You know the main reason that women go to the ladies room in a group? So we won’t feel stupid searching around a strange place for the ladies room… there is safety in numbers. The point is that the server anticipated our need and provided the information to us before we ever needed it. This is my favorite thing he did all evening. Was there a cost to this? Of course not. Totally free, totally unexpected, totally exceeded expectations.
The food was the best ever. I mean it, it was THE best steak I have ever eaten. It was also the most expensive meal I have ever bought for just me… it cost as much as usually 3 or 4 people eat for. The server presented live examples of the steaks, showed us the vegetables, the desserts (which the soufflé has to be ordered at the beginning of the meal if you want). Then after this mouth-watering display, gave us menus to read. Brought the food on beautiful dishes, warmed plates, special steak knives etc. took orders for more drinks, for dessert (if you want a non-souffle dessert)… oooh, here was a great twist: offered two forks to take the guilt out of dessert and offered a take home box to make it even more guilt-free.
Finally, now this really was the coup de gras. They escorted us to the door which they opened when we finished. Didn’t just wait in the back for us to leave so they could come out and scoop up their tips, actually came and pulled out the table (it was a booth), escorted us to the door and opened it and bid us farewell until next time.
Fantastic experience. The product was outstanding, but I would not have happily paid for it if the service had not been outstanding. The three people I encountered personally there out-polited every service person I have ever encountered. I speak constantly and enthusiastically about them to everyone I know. Their out-politeness is the best and cheapest advertising they could ever do and it is the longest lasting.
Why is it that we don’t do this? Why in the world will managers who are so intent on cutting expenses, not rely on this tactic to grow business? Help me to understand why this is not the smartest investment we can make in our day to day operation. Because you cannot. Maybe you did not think of it before. So try doing it. Try out-politing. You do not need special skills, steal these ideas and apply to your operation, you can do them. Then look for the differences, the money, the productivity, the efficiency, the reciprocation, the return customers, the referrals. The rave reviews are just waiting to be written for you.
