What is the No.1 Way to Make Someone Feel Important?

Often when I work with hospitality groups, I ask the question, “What is the No.1  way to make somebody feel important?”  I get many answers from, “Smile at the guest,” “Make eye contact,” “Say hello,” “Simple greetings,” and while all those are great ways to make somebody feel good, they don’t make somebody feel important.

The No. 1 way to make somebody feel important is to find out their name and use it.  As humans, we all have an innate desire to want to be recognized by our name.  I then ask the group, “If the No.1  way to make somebody feel important is by finding out their name and using it, what’s the best way to find out their name?”  Almost always, the resounding answer is, “Ask them.”

Certainly this would work, however my recommendation is that the best way to find out somebody’s name is to introduce yourself to them first.  Once you’re introduced yourself to somebody, odds are they’re going to tell you their name.  Once you’ve found out their name, use it as often as you can in your conversations and transactions with them.

In my business, 98% of  people pay for their meals and services by credit card, another great way in which to learn somebody’s name.  How great is it if you were to dine in a restaurant, and when you paid the server came up to you and said, “Thank you Mr. Smith, it was a pleasure to serve you.  I hope you come back and see us again.” Something so easy that I train all of my teams to do, and yet 10% of the time, the response from the guest is, “How did you know my name?”  I find this rather humorous considering that staff members do this simple yet impactful step so few times that the guest would actually be shocked that one of my staff members would know their name.