In the restaurant business, customers’ satisfaction with their dining experience relies on the quality and presentation of the food, but is also intrinsically interwoven with the service. We feel the same way about what we do: we want clients to enjoy their homes for years, but it’s equally important to us that they have a positive experience throughout the often-challenging remodel process.
Danny Meyer, the successful restauranteur behind Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, and Shake Shack, distinguishes between service and hospitality by saying, “Service is what you do. Hospitality is how you make people feel.” While this can be applied to design build, as well, our industry has not had a lot of success making people feel good about the process of remodeling their homes.
We saw this as a missed opportunity, and so, in order to create a framework to ensure a great client experience, we created a set of beliefs, modeled on Danny Meyer’s, that outlines a relatable, shared way of dealing with the many different interactions our employees might have with clients on any given day. These are the Beliefs We Live By.
Our nine Beliefs spring from our core values of professionalism, insightfulness, accountability, and teamwork. The meaning of each of those four words is clear intuitively, but can also be interpreted differently by different individuals. The Beliefs provide an easy framework that anyone can interpret and enact in the moment, giving staff an accessible, clear way to approach client interactions. To quote Danny Meyer again, they are “part of the oxygen we breathe.”
- Be an Agent, Not a Gatekeeper
- The Road to Success is Paved with Mistakes Well-Handled
- Put Us Out of Business With Your Generosity
- Think Slow, Act Fast
- The Way we Work Together Determines the Way We Succeed
- Touch the Line
- Be Aware of Your Emotional Wake
- Make the Charitable Assumption
- Write a Great Final Chapter
In the next few months, we will dive deeper into each of the beliefs in a series of blogs, explaining why they’re important and how we apply them to client service. Stay tuned!
