30 April 2010
Things either work or they don’t
...are successful or they are not. Sometimes it’s easy to sneer at approaches that are different. The legendary cheerfulness of the American West-Coast service professional is a case in point. While failing businesses in the UK complain that it’s unreasonable to expect their staff to be upbeat and cheerful all the time, their Californian counterparts are busy staying successful and taking their smiles to the bank.
The thing about the West Coast of the USA is that they do ‘cheerfulness’ better than just about any other nation! Anywhere else in the world, a car park attendant working an early shift on Saturday morning would be unremarkable. Not so in L.A. having been charged a full $20 to park within reasonable walking distance of a theme park (that was about to empty my wallet by a further $300 for a days entertainment), this attendant must be remarked on. Not content with the (now usual) ‘have a nice day’, she upgraded her greeting to ‘Have a Universal day!’ What’s truly amazing is that not only was it clear that ‘Universal’ was meant to represent ‘really good’, it was also delivered with complete sincerity and congruency; she meant it!
Universal studios lived up to her expectation. It was great: Where in a single day could you take a trip down ‘Wisteria Lane’, part the ‘Red Sea’ get splashed by ‘Jaws’, witness a subway train crash, earthquake and car ‘shoot-out’; and all that in the first hour! Add to that a hair raising trip to the tomb of the ‘Mummy’, a river cruise through ‘Jurassic Park’, a behind-the-scenes view of movie special effects, a scary walk through a horror show, an impromptu ‘Zorro’ sword fight, a ‘Blues-Brothers’ review and the most amazing 3-D ‘Terminator’ presentation, and you have a day packed with adrenaline pumping entertainment.
The food was pretty good too
Of course, there were lots of people, and you do have to queue. But unlike queues elsewhere, the people at Universal even make queuing part of having a ‘Universal’ day. They either manage the queue with cleverly organised twists and turns so that you never feel ‘stuck’, or they toss out a beach ball for the waiting crowd to play with, so that the wait doesn’t even get noticed! Then when you do get to the head of the line you are met with both a real smile and freshly cooked quality food. OK, the Americans do favour rather large portions and they do enjoy their carbs, but it was hot, fresh and tasty; more than can be said for their European theme park counterparts.
Corny it may be
...stereotyped for sure; but be that as it may, it’s still great. If only businesses at home could get over themselves, set aside their snobbery and instead, take a leaf out of that car park attendant’s book. Maybe then, they could create in their own staff a motivation for them to find their equivalent of ‘Have a Universal Day’… and mean it!
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