You can Teach Behavioral Standards. But you can only Inspire Genuine Care!

Some even say "Either you care or you don’t", and as far as “genuine” goes, it is only for luxury businesses.

However, in the hospitality and customer service world, CARE should not be a “nice to have”, but a mandatory tool!

First things first! Let’s debunk these terms:

🙆‍♀️ Behavioral Standards, The Essentials of Guest Interaction

the smil

the nodding

the eye contact

using the guest’s name

the open and alert posture

offering the objects with two hands

making engaging and clever conversations

reading cues & matching guest’s level of urgency

taking action & resolving issues above expectations

showing direction with the open palm & extended arm

vocabulary: “Allow me! Thank you! My pleasure! Welcome!

You put them on the list as standards, you train, practice and rehearse (daily) with the team, audit the execution and reward exemplary behaviors. And that is way more than enough for some businesses! It’s a fair and great level of service provided if these standards alone are consistently displayed.

🤍 Care, The Heart of Every Task

Care starts to happen when each employee understands and embodies their mission: serving the guest at the highest of their abilities – regardless of their daily tasks of cooking, issuing invoices, interviewing candidates, waiting tables or cleaning the room. 

So, the standards above are only tools for success! They turn ordinary into extraordinary only when adding heart and care to them.

And this requires strong leaders to exemplify CARE, to turn it into actionable steps, to serve as role models, to recognize it in their team members and celebrate it!

💕 Genuine Care, Luxury or Universal? 

Yes, it may belong only in luxury, because only at this level, the team is serious enough and has the necessary resources to think of this as a business strategy and not a nice expression on the company Mission Vision Values page. 

They take it so seriously that they use it as unique feature and a selling point, convert it into clear, measurable actions, prove its impact, keep it alive consistently through the smallest gestures, each day, every day.

I do believe that genuine care is teachable! 

📢 And I can help you do that!

But this comes with some rigorous prerequisites: 

↗️ It starts with making genuine care a business objective!

↗️ It continues with hiring – looking for this quality or the potential for it in each candidate.

↗️ It cascades to the executive leaders to lead with it and commit to cultivating genuine care in each individual in their teams.

↗️ It ends with celebrating it with every small and big occasion!

❓ What do you think, can care truly be taught, or does it need to come from within?