CREATING WOW! Part 1

Jaspers Restaurant, Plano, Texas, lunching with a client.

My client had a challenge – he had dined there the previous evening with another person, paid cash and had forgotten to get the receipt. In doing so he had broken Cardinal Rule #1 of business travel – don’t ever forget the documentation! No receipt, no reimbursement!

So, he resolved to get a replacement receipt while we had lunch. Uh, sure. Let’s recount the key fact… he paid cash! So there was no credit card number to research. I figured the odds of getting the new receipt while we were still there for lunch were roughly the odds of me a) winning the lotto, b) finally convincing Angelina to dump Brad for me and c) actually riding the Kentucky Derby winner this year. In short, zero.

So, here’s what actually transpired…

1) When we entered the restaurant, he asked the hostess if there was a way to get a duplicate receipt… she said she would get a manager to help him.

2) Within two minutes, the manager approached us at our table to understand the situation.

3) About four minutes later, a very courteous person who I assume to be the restaurant controller approached the table and collected all of the details of the previous night’s dinner. What time were you here? How many people in the party? Do you have a rough idea of the cost? Do you recall what you ordered? Our client gave reasonably accurate, but somewhat fuzzy responses to all the questions – halftime of the football game, 2 people, about $90, salmon and a pasta dish.

4) Less than 10 minutes later, she was back, receipt in hand.

5) Then, just to make sure we were totally blown away, the hostess approached us to make sure everything got sorted out.

The three of us at lunch all vowed to return to Jasper’s again… soon. (I went back two days later with another group of people.)

And, how was the food you might ask… good, but not memorable by itself. You can get great food at a lot of places. But the WOW! effect – what created the memorable experience – was driven by the responsiveness, attentiveness and ability to completely customize the experience for our colleague.

What are your opportunities to create WOW!? And, are your employees in a position to take advantage of them?