Providing great service is not simply something you can turn on.  It’s an attitude.  Our opinion is that finding the employees that have the right attitude should be your first priority when hiring.

On a recent trip to Hawaii, I was struck by the concept that a service attitude can be a community attitude.  More often than not, everywhere you go, people acknowledge you.  Where we live, in the San Francisco Bay Area, most of the time people pass you by on the street without looking at you.  When you are a driver coming to a corner where a pedestrian wants to cross the street, nine time out of ten they will simply step out into the street and make you wait – even if they don’t legally have the right away.

But in Hawaii, people let you go first.  Pedestrians recognize that even though they have the right away, they will hold up traffic if they exercise that right, and they will motion for the driver to go first.   It’s not that big of a deal to let the car go first – it goes past faster than they can walk across the street!   When you pull up to an intersection at the same time as another car, and motion for that car to go first, most of the time you will get a thank you wave.  That’s not the way it is where I live.  Everyone seems to think they have the right away and simply take it.  No thanks.  No acknowledgment.  No courtesy.

In the stores I find that the service staff are more friendly.  You’ve probably heard of the “Aloha” spirit of Hawaii, and I for one believe it is real.  It is a community way of life.

Not everyone has that spirit, but it is far more prominent that most places I have traveled and I’ve gotten around, thank you very much!

Hotel service staff are more likely to acknowledge you, as are all hotel staff.  Restaurant staff are more commonly geared to providing service that takes it up a notch.

It’s the community.  And the attitude is built into the character of the people who live and work there.

The bottom line, and my take away, is that it is that the service character of your staff is predominantly built into the character of the individual that you hire.

So, hire right.  Take your time and be sure you get the staff onto your team that will help distinguish your business from your competition.