“I noticed you delivering great customer service”

Commercial Casinos

Dennis Conrad

Great casino employees are mostly underappreciated and most casinos have trouble finding good, much less great, help. Somehow, I think those two things are related. So today, I’ll share the simplest and perhaps most effective tool that for the last 30 years I’ve used to address this situation.

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It’s a business card.

Now, it’s not just any business card. It has your business information on the front of the card and folds open to reveal the inscribed message, “I Noticed You Delivering Great Customer Service.”

I’ve handed out hundreds of these “special” business cards over the decades and I can tell you that the impact of such a simple and inexpensive tool has been nothing less than dramatic. So I want to make the case that you should start handing out your own “Great Service” business cards tomorrow (or at least as soon as you can get the cards produced). I promise it will make an immediate difference for yourself and the employees you give them to.

Here are the details.

The card

The card design is simple. It’s your normal business card with an add-on feature. The card opens to reveal the message (and the only message) inside that states succinctly “I Noticed You Delivering Great Customer Service.” I prefer the card to fold to reveal the message’s “surprise praise,” rather than have the message be printed on the back of a standard single business card, as many employees don’t routinely look at the reverse side of the card unless prompted. The “Great Service” message should be simple black lettering on a white background, in a large enough font size so it can be quickly read at a glance from these busy, great, employee, card recipients. Get at least 500 of them, then start using them immediately in the way I’m about to describe.

Who gets the card?

Simply put, hand out your “I Noticed You Delivering Great Service” special business card to any employee that gives you truly great service. I don’t have to define that for you; everyone knows what that is for them, personally, when they see it. Your card isn’t just for casino employees. It’s for any employee in any business with whom you interact. And it’s not just for front-line employees or mid-level supervisors, but also for senior business executives. Hey, they need a little love and praise too!

When do you hand out the card?

I suggest you do this at the conclusion of the employee Great Service interaction. Sometimes it can be after only a couple of minutes (a great cashier who chatted you up, was quick and efficient, and wished you to have a great day and meant it). Or it can be after a couple of hours with a great employee (food server, dealer, slot floorperson, etc.) who blew you away with their attentiveness, friendliness, efficiency, and human caring over a longer time period.

Just be sure not to hand out your “I Noticed You Delivering Great Customer Service” card before the end of the full-service encounter. Sometimes employees start out strong, then fade. One time, my associate handed out his Great Service card immediately after our hostess/waitress gave us the greatest welcome, introduction, seating, menu details, and order taking we’d ever seen. While his card truly touched her and she was near speechless after receiving it, she felt awful after the food came out slow, one order was cold, and one was forgotten entirely. Not her fault, but you can see the point about the timing of the praise-mechanism delivery.

How to hand out the cards

You don’t have to make a big deal out of handing your Great Service card at the end of a stellar service encounter. But I do suggest you be sincere, tell why you were impressed with the service, and let the great service giver know you don’t hand out your special card often, only when the service is truly great. And if you find yourself handing out A LOT of your special business cards (I realize a case could be made for that), you probably have too low of a service bar. Conversely, if you rarely hand out any, your standards are probably way too high or you’re just not motivated enough to do it in a meaningful way.

What you’ll notice when you hand out your card

After handing out somewhere between 500 and 1,000 of my own Great Service cards over the last 30 years, here’s what I have noticed and what you can reasonably expect. The vast majority of employee recipients will be touched and appreciative of your recognition of their great service. I’ve had a few moved to tears by the gesture. One food server told me it was better than any tip he’d ever received. A few won’t fully grasp the gesture as they’re busy serving other customers; you hope they’ll take a peek at the card on their break and get it. You’ll also get some candid organizational comments sometimes, like “I wish my boss would do something like this. He only tells me when I screw up!”

The opportunities for this simple gesture in your organization

I’ve thought a lot about this and I would see using it if I still worked for a casino company (or any business, for that matter). I would try to get all the managers in the company to start using this business-card recognition within our own company. That won’t be easy, because, well, you know. And if you start the business-card crusade on your own (which I definitely would), you’ll get some sideways glances from reluctant managers and perhaps a few comments on your brown nosing the big boss. I would also definitely look for ways to use these business cards as an employee-recruitment tool as I navigate my normal business day and receive Kick Ass service at Starbucks or Costco or McDonald’s. It’s not a far stretch to go from saying “I Noticed You Delivering Great Customer Service” to “Come Work for a Company That Values Great Customer Service.” Just be sure, first, that your company does.

Whether you like my business-card notion or not, please consider doing something for your company superstars, who right now are delighting your customers every day and have been under-recognized (or in some cases, unrecognized) for too long. They’re the ones who make you what you are — hopefully, a company that delivers great customer service.