Espresso: Will Guidara - How Any Business Can Apply World Class Hospitality for an INSANE Unfair Advantage

0:00This is one of my favorites. There's a UPS store owner. He has two UPS stores in Florida. No one would describe the UPS store experience as the pinnacle of hospitality. It's very transactional, oftentimes rude. But this guy, and it's a franchise model, so this guy owns two of these stores. He read my book, and he wanted to figure out how to transfer the energy of the book into an unlikely environment. okay that's intention he's like i want to create a culture of hospitality now i have like a business where i'm serving people something that there is no emotion in i have them in front of me for maybe two minutes i need to be creative this is what he came up with he started a thing and pret actually did something like this a while ago but i think it was He required that everyone in his store that worked the register had to comp one person a day.

1:08Just one person. Up to like$30 in value. That one simple change transformed the culture of those businesses. First, for the customer. If you walk in and you're like, I want to ship something, return and order princeling the guy's like hey bud today that's with my compliments you're gonna be like are you fucking kidding me right like it's gonna blow your mind talk about like going above and beyond giving people more than they expect that is definitively a place you're going in with low expectations it'll blow your mind you tell people about it second it changed the experience of the people that worked there because i don't think you can do anything truly great if you feel no appreciation or validation for the work and the investment.

2:01And a UPS store is not one where the people working there are used to being on the receiving end of genuine praise and appreciation. And yet your reaction, if they just gave you free printing at a place you never expected it to happen, you'd be like, oh my God, thank you so much. It's really cool of you. That's like, thank you. Which led to the third win, which is the most surprising and also most obvious of all. Every customer that walked into the store, their experience got markedly better because while the people that worked there in the beginning, they had to comp one person after they realized how good it felt when they did, they only got to do it once, which meant they had to more deeply get to know everyone that walked in the store to decide, who deserved it the most?

2:50Was it someone that was having a great day that needed a little cherry on top? Was it someone having a really hard day that just needed something to go right? All from one simple, relatively inexpensive system that was installed to elevate the culture of hospitality. I've seen stuff like this happen in so many creative ways across so many different industries. and it affirms for me two things. One, it's possible anywhere. It just looks a little different, but it's rooted in the same ideas. And two, those that do it consistently well, it's the greatest competitive advantage any business can have.

3:31I see this all the time. So many businesses, they're trying, anyone who's good. Any other examples on that sort of thread of... On like unlikely places? It's just unlikely because I think the other thing I love from your work is it's kind of when you say look for friction. Friction equals an opportunity to improve, which equals excitement. But I'd love to know any other examples of categories where there's been obvious but non-obvious friction that once you find it creates a spark of magic. I mean, this is a lovely one. This was not inspired by my book, I don't believe. I just was on the receiving end of it.

4:07I get on a plane. We pulled out from the gate. and then we're like, I don't know, 50 yards from the gate, and the captain comes over the intercom. He's like, ladies and gentlemen, I'm so sorry. There's an issue with the plane. We're going to be delayed here for a little bit while they figure it out. Those are the worst delays. Everyone's experienced them, and they're the worst for two reasons. One, because now you can't even get up to go get a coffee anymore. You're stuck in your seat. Two, because there's always that dude, like three rows back, that lets it, that groan of exasperation, the vibes on the plane start like spiraling downwards.

4:44This time though, something different happened. The pilot came out from the cockpit. There were three families on the plane, parents with children. He goes up to the first one, he goes, hey, do you guys want a tour of the cockpit? Suddenly, anyone sitting around that family looking at how excited these kids were, the vibe started going in the other direction. The morale of the plane started, gives the second family a tour, gives the third family a tour. We're still delayed. Now he just says really loudly on the aisle of the plane, do any adults want to tour the cockpit? Adults started going on a tour.

5:16Eventually we took off. I'm a student of this stuff. So I said to the flight attendant, hey, what was that? She goes, he's the best. Every time we're delayed on the tarmac, he just starts giving people tours of the cockpit. He took a moment that is objectively painful. It's not a fun part of the experience. In fact, it normally ruins the entire experience. and he turned it into something that honestly like it was so remarkable to see him change the channel on that plan that i would invite another 15 minute delay just to see it again yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i think chewy does this remarkably well do you know what chewy is chewy is the online pet supply company yep if you have a dog you go into chewy.com you set up a dog food subscription at the beginning of every month dog food arrives so you never forget to buy dog food.

6:11I'm a pretty OCD person. I like everything to be just so. I'm not a dog person. And then I got married and realized I was actually a dog person. Did it affect the OCD or if that's... Well, now we got a dog. Her name is Butter. She's like the 80-pound Swiss mountain dog. Yeah, yeah, amazing. And now I am genuinely a dog. Like I love this dog so much that it kind of breaks my heart. Right. when I realize or remember from time to time that I'm going to lose her far earlier than I'm ready. And when I do, I guarantee the first thing I will think to do is not to go on Chewy and cancel my dog food order.

6:51Which means a couple weeks later, a new bag of dog food is going to come, rip open the scab all over again. Then I'm going to call Chewy to cancel my order. This is something that happens at Chewy. This is how they respond every single time. when you do they obviously apologize for your loss they cancel your subscription they can't take that last bag back for health code reasons but they credit it to your account and then two days later a bouquet of flowers arrives at your house saying we're so sorry for your loss here's the thing about dog people after some season of mourning they're very likely to get another dog and if you ever buy dog food from anyone else ever again after they've done that from you, you're a freaking serial killer.

7:36Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's these examples everywhere of people who are, there's a magician duo in America. It's called Penn and Teller. Teller has a quote I love. He says, sometimes magic is just being willing to invest more energy into an idea than anyone else would deem reasonable.