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.
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To make a pleasant and friendly impression is not alone good manners, but equally good business.
I think that business practices would improve immeasurably if they were guided by "feminine" pinciples, qualities like love, care, and intuition.
You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.
In a world where companies increasingly know about their business in real time, it makes no sense that public reporting mostly follows the old quarterly schedule. Companies sit on vital information until reporting day, at which point the market goes crazy.