Wow, what an amazing Easter Brunch!
This morning we had brunch at the Gaylord Texan and I was blown away. Oh, and the food was great too …
What do I mean, you may be wondering? Simple: the food was every bit of what I would expect from a relatively pricey brunch ($65 per person) at a posh place like this (posh to me anyway). In fact, it was better — the food was GREAT! But I hardly even noticed it. Why?
Because the customer service completely blew me away!
Seriously, I was so mesmerized by the courteous, friendly, caring staff that I spent as much time watching the way they catered to the needs of the customers as I did eating. They literally had a team of people dedicated to small groups of tables with a team leader who would watch to see when someone needed something and then dispatch one of his team immediately fill their glasses (with excellent mimosas), take their plates, bring fresh plates, etc.
But it wasn’t just the things they did that set them apart as many restaurants do a great job of taking care of these things. It was the way they did it. They smiled. They thanked you for being there. They asked how your day was. They asked if there was anything else they could do for you. They simply had wonderful attitudes and you could tell that their goal was to make you, the customer, have the best experience possible. And, they actively thought about how they could do it — they didn’t just sit back and wait to be told.
Of all the wonderful things the staff did right, there was one thing that really got my attention. You see, they had the most amazing crab claws that you could imagine and I was eating them, along with peel and eat shrimp, by the plate full. What I did not realize, however, was that I was being watched. When I finished peeling my last shrimp a staff member was standing at my side to take my plate and, of all things, handed me 2 packets of “handi wipes” to clean the seafood smell from my hands (before moving on to the wonderful desert tables). Now ask yourself, had you been there at a brunch like that, would you have thought to even ask for those kinds of wipes? I wouldn’t have and I would have never expected them to have something like that. But they did.
To plan for this, someone thought ahead about what I needed before I ever even realized that I needed it; someone else was attentive enough to my needs to deliver it to me at exactly the right time. Planning and the timing of delivery came together at just the right moment for maximum impact. It worked. Their great customer service certainly makes me want to go back for the next event they have — not just for the food, but to be treated like a king — like a customer!
I also realized something else from this experience. Everyone on their staff went overboard to be helpful. This place trains its people right. If I were making a hiring decision today, for my staff, and I had the ability to seek out and find someone trained by the Gaylord Texan, they would be at the tip-top of my list because they know how to take care of customers and that is what I want for my business.
You must log in to post a comment.