Customer Service vs. Hospitality

First I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the people of Jaguar that were responsible for moving Jaguar 20 spots from 21st in JD Power’s Initial Quality to number 2 tied with Porsche (which is not bad company) and probably also a historic move-up for JD Power.

Jaguars are beautiful fast cars, always in style and more reliable than a Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and so very close to Lexus. How many of the competition do you see on the highway vs. Jaguars?

Recently I was watching a business news program on PBS and a segment came up from a professor (from Harvard I think) who was commenting on the difference between customer service and hospitality. It started me thinking about efficient service vs. personal service. I’ve been very lucky in my life and over the past 30 years I’ve been able to spend my summers in the Hamptons, mostly East Hampton, and for 25 years I was going to a very famous steak restaurant, maybe a couple of times a month for over 25 years.

I’m not famous but I’ve been known to be a generous kind of guy and you would think I would at least get acknowledged when I arrived. Now I’m not saying I ever had a bad steak, or in the middle of a snow storm in December didn’t get served the best beef steak tomatoes either.

The waiters were always efficient and sometimes even engaging. In fact, one now works at The American Hotel in Sag Harbor (best onion soup I ever had). But, I always felt like a customer; in, out, on to the next (I think they call it table turn).

Now look, for a good steak it was okay. One evening the place was crowded and they weren’t take reservations (it was early but not too early for the single working moms with the kids). The restaurant’s host, we’ll call him Mr. T, actually saw me, but then turned his back on me, making believe he hadn’t noticed me. I really didn’t expect him to stop the operation and get me a table at that exact moment, but I thought I deserved some kind of acknowledgement. Long story a little shorter, I never went back. Believe it or not, by me not eating there they are still in business.

So fast-forward a few years and friends from Florida are out and although they were in NYC for a couple of days (they eat mostly Italian) they get in the mood for a steak. Where you gonna’ go in the Hamptons for steak? So in spite of hearing “we only have reservations for 5pm or 10 pm and “my history” there I make a reservation for four of us at 5pm.

I don’t want to say that I opened the restaurant but most of the folks there were from “Bella Vista Phase II” (retired older folks). Who do I see at the desk, but none other than Mr. T. who says, “Mr. Squitieri we haven’t seen you in such a long time… we missed you… blah blah blah…”

After we’re seated he comes by the table, my wife comments how he hasn’t changed a bit, he asks, “where have you been?” So I tell him how last time I was here he offended me… he apologizes, talks about his retired partner, Spain and his place in Florida.

We had a wonderful dinner, a great bottle of wine and will go back and give it another try…so I’m thinking, “is this the difference between efficient customer service and hospitality?

So maybe we should revise Madison Jaguar’s mission statement to “We will seek to anticipate your needs, earn your trust and treat you like a guest, not just a customer.”