‘Thank you, Mr. Fiore’

Last weekend, I treated my Valentine to a wonderful dinner at Bella Bella, a quaint Italian restaurant tucked away in midtown Tallahassee. While the ambiance, service and food were thoroughly delightful, what impressed me most was a three-second exchange we had as we were leaving.

Still glowing from a slice of almond cake that we quickly regretted deciding to share, we were walking out the door when the greeter thanked us by name for coming. Granted, we had reservations (avoiding the walk of shame we witnessed more than once by couples who thought a table might be available), but that was almost 90 minutes earlier.

Even my wife commented that the young lady was treating us like we were someone important. “Does she think you are a food critic or something,” she asked me as we laughed on our way out to the minivan to call and check on the kids before proceeding to our chick flick.

Whether she did mistake me for someone important or just treated everyone like that, it reminded me of two things. One is that every single person we have the privilege to serve is important, because within seconds I could have twittered, blogged or facebooked about my experience. Gone are the days when I would have to run into someone at Publix to swap stories. So better that I be impressed than disappointed.

Secondly, I was again reminded that it takes such a small amount of effort to impact someone. A kind word, timely follow-up call or simply keeping a promise can elicit confidence and motivate an enthusiasm for your business that can quickly become viral.

Oh yeah, and it’s the right thing to do.

So think about how you might surprise your customers with unexpected attention and see what happens. I bet they will be telling people about it, and then they’ll come back for more almond cake.