Guest Sevices Simple

For well over a year now, I have considered blogging about guest services.  While my expertise is in the hospitality industry (Hotels & Restaurants) ranging from line positions to management, I started thinking about the expansiveness of being a "guest" (A.K.A "the customer") and I realized, one does not need to go to a restaurant or hotel to be a guest of a merchant. One goes to a grocery store, a gas station, a department store...etc...etc...you are paying for the service(s) of another, you are a guest in their place.

Guest services and being treated properly when we are out spending our money seems so simple, to me. 
I arrive somewhere and I expect:

• To be greeted in a welcoming manner, not a cheerleader, but with a smile and eye contact.
• To feel as though I am not interrupting or intruding their day.
• That my patronage is appreciated and my visit is valued.
• That I am not just another consumer walking through the door seen as a source of income or contribution to someone's pay.

I am not a notably demanding person but I do expect to be treated decently when spending my money.

Hospitality is nothing new and we all seem to expect it, we all have a vision of how it is we wish to be treated and accepted when we spend our money and more importantly, our time.  The "origins" of hospitality could be a blog and element of it's own, the symbols, the reasons but how much help would it be to dig and explain the past to move forward?

People in hospitality or service jobs often enter or encounter their positions out of need or necessity or inexperience. It's a last resort, a first resort, a necessary resort that is under appreciated, often and is not held as worthy.  It is a position seen as "in the trenches", that uneducated or non-motivated people hold. One either loves their job or hates it, feeling that their talents, passion or self investment is under appreciated and given it's due.

 People who invest in hospitality or guest services often see them as "sure money makers" that if they provide  a service that people will come and money will be made. The thing is, if we are not treated "right', we do not feel comfortable, we do not feel welcome or "at home" by giving our money to someone else for a service or experience, word will spread and there will be no sure anything.  Especially now with the power of the word and the expedited means a negative experience or positive can spread in the quick manner of jotting down our experience and pushing a button "share" for the whole world to see immediately.  Before, it was a letter to the editor, that may or may not be printed. A letter to the manager or offices where the experience could be controlled, either shared or "swept under the carpet."

Success and failure is gained and shared through experiences and words. Here I plan to give and receive some of those.  Not necessarily giving out business names but just sharing the encounters and what they mean to me, to the industry of giving and sharing to others.  Will be interested to see how it is seen and viewed.