The Exceptional Service Award
Earlier this year I told my team I wanted to begin recognizing team members on the spot who demonstrate exceptional service and truly deliver fun in the lives of our customers. Because such service is uncommon, I thought the recognition needed to be uncommon as well. As such, I decided we would award $2 bills for demonstrations of exceptional service. Just like exceptional service, you don’t see $2 bills everyday. Make sense? Since then, I have visited dozens of restaurants and I have carried with me to each of these restaurants a stack of $2 bills – now in a tattered bank envelope I have now begun to use for scratch paper – just waiting to be given away. Well, that all changed yesterday in a truly remarkable and unforgettable way!
Yesterday Jourdan and I wondered into store 1394 West Markham to grab some buffet action and visit with RGM Isaiah Dumas. Imagine our surprise as we were enthusiastically met just inside the door by one Marico Rainey. Marico welcomed us, asked about our day, complimented Jourdan’s shirt, asked us if the table he chose for us was okay, asked if the restaurant temperature was okay – all before asking what we wanted to drink! The hospitality extended by Marico was over-the-top but 100% sincere and heart-felt. The minute he walked away to get our drink order I told Jourdan that we had found our very first Exceptional Service Award winner. We watched as Marico attended to each of his guests the same way he did with us – with contagious enthusiasm, a high sense of urgency, attentiveness, friendliness, and sincerity.
After we finished our lunch we went about talking with AGM Jeryle Johnson, Isaiah and setting POP. During this time a women came in to personally thank Marico for the assistance he had provided the previous day. You see, this women’s mother experienced a fit with vertigo and became quite nauseated and disoriented while in the restaurant. Marico called 911 and then sat at her side comforting her, holding her arm, and asking her questions to help keep her conscious until the ambulance arrived. Wow, just wow. This could not have been scripted any better! We were all blown away by this personal story.
Marico – we salute you for the joy you bring to your customers and the fun you deliver in their lives. I am so glad you were the first recipient of a $2 bill from the marketing team. Jeryle summed up Marico’s impact on the restaurant this way – “Marico is forcing everyone to step up their game. The entire restaurant is following his example and focused on hospitality more than ever before.”
Well done, Marico, well done!
Tony McDaniel | Marketing Director, South Territory
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