Disney imagineer John Hench was quoted in a book on guest service as saying, “What’s
our success formula? It’s attention to infinite detail, the little things, the little, minor, picky
points that others just don’t want to take the time, money, or effort to do.”

Attention to infinite detail, the little things that others don’t want to do. Hmmm

If you think those things don’t add up to much, consider these “minor” points:

Add a space to the word extraordinary and it becomes extra ordinary. I think most of us
would rather eliminate the space and provide extraordinary servicewhich would lead to
extraordinary amounts of money.

Vijay Singh, professional golfer, was .9 shots per round (yes, less than 1 shot a day)
better than #10 golfer Stewart Cink. Vijay took home over $10 million while Cink took
home only $4.4 million.
And finally,

In 2003, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France by 61 secondsa “comfortable”
margin. However, over the span of the 2,082 mile race, he averaged only .03 seconds per
mile better than the second-place finisher. Only three one-hundredths of a second per mile
was the difference between fame and the “first-loser”.

So, the next time you feel happy about suggestive selling to 50 percent of the guests or
your order times in the kitchen or drive-thru start creeping up, think about the exponential
impact it has on your productivity, sales, and profits.

Back when I had a “real” job as VP of Field Support for Chuck E Cheese’s Pizza, one of
the people I worked with called me a “bottomless pit of wants and needs” as it seemed
there was always something more we tried to get out of folks.

Since most of us would rather be remembered as Lance Armstrong versus somebody we
can’t remember (e.g. the second-place finisher), take the time to make the extra effort to
get that extra few seconds. Make that additional investment or step to excellence that your
competitor is too lazy or too cheap to take. After all, Lance Armstrong told his young son
when asked what his job was, “My job is to make the competition suffer.” Focus on the
minor points, the infinite detail, the little things, and make the competition suffer!

T.J. Schier is service professional, consultant and speaker with over 20 years experience in operations and training. Founder and president of Incentivize Solutions and podTraining, T.J. has helped numerous clients enhance their service and training programs and spoken to tens of thousands of managers, franchisees and operators in various fields. Visit http://IncentivizeSolutions.com/ for more info motivating today’s employees, training today’s generation and delivering outstanding guest service; or http://podTraining.us/, a unique new system and the foundation of ‘i-learning’ - using the device of today’s generation, the iPod - to train your workforce.

Share This