A great restaurant doesn't distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes but by how well they handle those mistakes.
The most important thing you can do is make the distinction between customer service and guest hospitality. You need both things to thrive, but they are completely different.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Customer service is focused on fulfilling needs, while guest hospitality emphasizes creating a welcoming experience.
In this quote, Danny Meyer highlights the crucial difference between customer service and guest hospitality. While customer service involves meeting the basic needs of clients, guest hospitality goes beyond this to create an inviting and memorable experience. Both elements are essential for success in any service-oriented business, but they require different approaches and mindsets to implement effectively.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation on improving business practices, you might say, 'As Danny Meyer wisely points out, understanding the difference between customer service and guest hospitality is pivotal for our growth.'
More from Danny Meyer
All quotes βMy history has been to grow the roots as deeply as you can before going on to the next thing. That's why it took 10 years to go from Union Square Cafe to Gramercy Tavern, and another 10 years to go from Blue Smoke's first location to its second, and five to go from Shake Shack 1 to Shake Shack 2.
In an age when so many groups are rolling out restaurants faster than your local baker makes donuts, my goal is that each restaurant feels hand-crafted. That they have their own soul.
Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.
Similar quotes
The buyer is entitled to a bargain. The seller is entitled to a profit. So there is a fine margin in between where the price is right. I have found this to be true to this day whether dealing in paper hats, winter underwear or hotels.
It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.
In business, you're trying to make a buck. God was good to me and blessed me. I made some money and started this foundation years ago, and it has grown in size. With the foundation it's a lot different, because the bottom line isn't how you can make more money or get a better return, it's helping the projects that you feel strongly about move forward.
Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values - and sticking to them - requires real guts.
Roughly speaking, when you are dealing with business firms operating in a competitive system, you can assume that they're going to act rationally. Why? Because someone in a firm who buys things at $10 and sells them for $8.00 isn't going to last very long in that firm.
To escape the curse of commoditization, a company has to be a game-changer, and that requires employees who are proactive, inventive and zealous.