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.
