A post I wrote for the Get Satisfaction blog on the parallels between restaurant life and community management.
There’s a great article from the New York Times that describes the “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do“. Reading it, I wholeheartedly agreed, and a lot of these things apply to anyone who deals with customers on a regular basis. I worked for a long time in the service industry, and I went through a few of the highlights of the article to draw some correlaries.
Take a walk with me through the restaurant, will you?
Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.
Never let the first interaction you have with a customer in your community be silence. We recommend in all of our webcasts to get some content pre-populated into your community to get things going. No one likes an empty restaurant, and we even start you out with a welcome post to help you get started. Need some ideas? Check out some real-life examples, like Mint.com or Nike.
