Little Things Count

We were out the other evening for a dinner celebrating a special occasion. So we went to an expensive white tablecloth linen napkins kind of place. (Although every time we do, we end up wondering why as you can generally count on half the food at twice the price with service that's often mediocre and sometimes the food isn't all that special or even tasty - but that's a story for another time).

After the entree, the waiter's assistant (they don't have bus persons in upscale restaurants) cleaned the crumbs off the table with a crumb sweeper. And he cleaned and he cleaned until every grain was removed. He cleaned so much I actually took note of it and thought "He's doing a very thorough job."

Finally done, he picked up a plate not previously cleared away and underneath were two huge dark bread crumbs. Well surprise, he walked away without sweeping them away. And there they sat in stark contrast to the white tablecloth. "How very odd," I thought.

There's a concept in business called Total Quality Management (TQM), with the emphasis on total. In effect it says "if a job is worth doing it's worth doing right." There's also a concept in customer service that says "trivia matters." When you pay attention to the big elements of customer service and do them well, people view you as being excellent. But when you pay attention to the little points of service and do them just as well, then people will view you as being superb (beyond excellent).

The little crumbs did not ruin our experience. But they did confirm our impression of this facade of what a fine dining experience should be. Mediocre food and relatively slow service (TQM lacking) resulting in a less than excellent experience. Inattention to the small points of service including the crumb removal (did I mention our original bread plates were taken from the next table as our table lacked them?) resulting in a less than excellent experience confirmed.

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