The barista remembered me

The barista remembered me

Shanghai this week. First time here.

Tiny coffee shop off Huangpu Road. The owner speaks a little English. I speak even less Mandarin.

On day one I ordered a flat white. Same on day two. On day three she just started making it as I walked in.

Small gesture. Big effect. I felt seen.

It reminded me of the Ritz Carlton idea where any employee can spend up to 2,000 dollars to fix a guest problem. Most of us do not have that budget. We do have something else.

We have attention.

Attention looks like:

• five minutes to explain something properly
• a coffee for the colleague who looks overwhelmed
• a handwritten note instead of an email
• saying let me handle that

I once worked with a CEO who set one rule for the whole company: find one person to delight today. Not serve. Not satisfy. Delight. Retention went up. Turnover dropped. Because delight is memorable. And memorable is valuable.

I keep asking myself a simple question: what is my version of the 2,000 dollar rule today?

Maybe it is learning a name. Maybe it is noticing the pattern and acting on it. Maybe it is fixing a little thing before it becomes a big one.

The world does not need more transactions. It needs more people who pay attention.

Be one of them.