I gave two biggish tips on my trip to people who had not done anything for me. During a coffee stop at a boonies café-2 room motel (see picture above) in New Zealand, I took a toilet break. The restroom was literally spotless to the point of gleaming—and featured a nice bowl of fresh flowers to boot. As you can doubtless tell from the pic, it wasn’t the Four Seasons. So on the way out (I’d purchased my coffee a few minutes earlier), I stopped at the register and dropped a $20 bill in the tip jar—and told the employee, “That’s for the sparkling loo!”
On a ferry ride to Doubtful Sound (see pic below), I went to get coffee. The ferry-service clerk was making a latte for the guy in front of me. She put heart and soul into the effort, was incredibly careful, and made it all look like a performance art piece. He didn’t tip her (tipping is uncommon in NZ), so when I got to the front of the line I gave her a $10 bill. “I only want a ‘long black’ [Long Black NZ = Black U.S./Short Black NZ = Espresso U.S.],” I said, “but here’s a tip for the wonderful job you did on that guy’s latte.”
I love the “little” touches that not only “stand out,” but also shout “I/We care.” They are the essence of “selling” “experiences”—today’s hot topic.
Consider: “We do no great things, only small things with great love.”—Mother Teresa
Consider: “What would happen if we looked at a customer and saw the face of God in them? To most people it sounds like a lofty idea. But if you see the face of God in a flower, why wouldn’t you see it in the face of a customer?”—Lance Secretan, founder of Manpower, Inc., and most recently author of One: The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership
