Greeting Customers Like Family- Biz2Credit.com

Walking into a local restaurant the other night, the hostess welcomed us with a friendly hello.

Greeting customers is standard business etiquette. But what happened next really surprised us. The wait person remembered our beverage and appetizer order, and he engaged us in friendly, familiar banter. He seemed to know us. Or did he?

This type of welcome may not sound unusual in the service business; however, we hadn’t visited the eatery in about a month. Yes, we are somewhat regulars, but why should they treat us as if our personal details mattered?
Perhaps more important, this restaurant was a chain, not a small business.

Greeters serve an important part in consumer-related businesses. They acknowledge customers with a smile and kind words as well as make them feel at ease, creating a feeling of home away from home. In big box chains, greeters often assist in deterring theft by checking receipts as customers exit. One entrepreneur, Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder, was known for hiring greeters at the front of his stores in the early 1980s.

Obviously, restaurant chains are now doing the same across the country.

As a small business owner, you should take note of the emphasis on friendly greetings. If you’re not training your staff to greet, assist, and make your customers feel welcome, you can be sure competing businesses around the corner with one or more locations is probably doing just that.

In addition to teaching your customers the basics of Welcome 101, the emphasis should include personalized service, getting to know what the regulars and not-so-regulars need, and enhancing the consumer experience.

After a long, busy day, it was a treat to be acknowledged by the staff at our nearby restaurant. We are sure to go back. You want your customers to feel the same way.

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