Good Service or Just Good Leadership?

Sitting in my local cafe on a Sunday morning for brunch, I got talking to one of the cafe staff about how his day was going. “Great!” He answered, “How is your day?” to which I replied that it was great too, even better now that I had a table at my favourite cafe. After some more banter, he took my order. With much ‘Ummmm-ing’ and ‘Ahhhhh-ing’ he promptly picked up on my indecisive vibe (being hungry can do that to you) and suggested a few things to eat and drink. I agreed and without looking at what I had agreed on ordering, trusted his judgement due to the great rapport we had built.


When my order came out it was a different story. The young lady who slammed down my chai latte and plate of food, grunted and then sighed a “Do you want anything else?” without even making eye contact. Hmmm. All of a sudden the amazing order the first person had placed for me seemed not as scrumptious as it first sounded. She brought me over my cutlery and without a word, left to go and serve someone else with an equal amount of pain.

I ate up my brunch (it was still yummy!) and she came to collect my plate as I was chewing my last mouthful. Usually, I would have been tempted to order another chai and sip it while reading the paper but to be honest, I couldn’t wait to get out of there.... her vibe was a dark shadow over my sunny mood!

As I went into pay – I could tell why he was so chirpy and she was so gloomy. In the space of 30 seconds while I waited to pay, I saw the Manager of the business give the chirpy guy a pat on the back, share a laugh and show respect for his hard work. I saw the polar opposite with the girl and my initial perception of her turned to empathy. The Manager yelled at her in front of customers, told her what she was doing wrong and then promptly told her in no uncertain terms that she was useless. Why the blatant difference in treatment and obvious favouritism? Couldn’t the Manager see what he was doing? Maybe not.

Some observations from me:

- As a customer witnessing this, are you likely to spend more money in this business or come back?

- As a business owner, how do you manage performance? How do you motivate your staff to then pay it forward and motivate your customers to stay longer, spend more and rate you highly?

Pays to think about this next time you are frustrated with your team. Think twice before acting. How would you want to be treated? How would you want your customers to view you and your business? If you treated your team with respect, would they not pay it forward to your customers?