As Hospitality professionals, most of us are excited to help people by making a difference to an occasion, experience or foot note.

Doing the same thing day in and out can sometimes make us forget what’s important serving others.

To many, the new face standing, sitting or queuing in front of us is just another customer. Sure they’ll be treated nicely, but how many of us really care whether that person or people receive the experience they deserve and in a sense are entitled to.

Recently a friend who owns a local community deli, took his wife on a five star holiday.

My friends are warm and friendly, their customers LOVE them; in fact these guys are the very essence of hospitality.

Working 7 days a week, 51 weeks a year, they look forward to their 1 week holiday where being spoilt and pampered is what it’s all about.

The build up to that one week holiday takes 6 months of longing, expectation and desire, plus 51 weeks of scrimping and saving. .

Guess what, the 5 star resort vacation was underwhelming, not because they had unrealistic expectations, it was the attitude of the staff and resort GM who did not care at all.

Without getting into the rights and wrongs of the situation, I think there’s a far bigger lesson here.

When a fresh face comes to our bar or restaurant, who knows what type of day they’ve had or are still having; how often do they go out and spoil themselves; can they afford to go out regularly or need to save up to go out.

Ultimately, as servers or facilitators, it’s too easy to get caught up in the moment and forget we’re trying to help other people, and its most unlikely we’ll ever know the circumstances and situations our guests face or are in.

The only thing that counts: guests are in our care, they deserve our “Relentless Pursuit of Being Our Very Best."

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