27 Seconds.
/27 seconds.
Today I had the opportunity to have b-day date meal with my wife at our top favorite restaurant in New Jersey, Ninety Acres!
Farm to table, super yummy, and one of my top favorite reasons I love this place is their top notch customer service.
From the moment you enter, they treat you like you are the most important person in the room, someone to be honored - not in a strange way that makes you feel like you don't belong - but they do a fantastic job and making EVERYONE feel like they deserve a seat at the table.
They do what a friend of mine, and men's pastor at Saddleback Church, Tom Kang refers to as 1%'ers - those little things that aren't huge alone, but when added up, really leave a long lasting effect on how someone feels engaged and cared for: Wiping the crumbs off of the table in between courses, repeating your order back to you how you pronounced the fancy dishes (not correcting the pronunciation to make you feel stupid), picking up your napkin to re-fold it when you get up to use the restroom, and making sure your glass is always filled.
On my first visit there two years ago, I asked the waiter we had serving us what the number one thing he was trained to do as a server at Ninety Acres was - I loved his response!
"Our job is to figure out what you needs are before you have them.
27 seconds.
Today while enjoying our meal and being served so well, I decided to do a little test. I finished my water, put it on the table, and began counting in my head.
27 seconds. It took our wait staff team 27 seconds to see I was out of water, come over, fill it up, and ask if there was anything else that would be helpful at that moment.
That's amazing, and I know that you may be thinking to yourself, "Yes Brett, but you are paying good money for that kind of service, I looked up Ninety Acres on yelp and there are four dollar signs ($$$$) next to their name - so they HAVE to do that".
My response to you is yes, maybe they have to because of the $$$$, but what if this is just the way we served people – even (or especially) people that can't afford one $ sign?
What if we - both you and me - were to flip the hierarchy of expectation making it normal service to give the best to those who have the least!?!?
*Hint* If you are a Christian, this is actually part of the deal…
That is EXACTLY what my goal is for every single person that comes to a New York City Relief outreach!
Give nothing, receive everything!
Deserve (by the world’s standard) to be shown to the basement, but given the penthouse!
27 seconds.
What if our goal was to see people’s needs before they even had them – for people to show up as strangers and be treated as the best of friends – for their glasses (of acceptance and love) to not just be filled when empty, but to be overflowing!?!?
If you came out to serve with us at NYC Relief, this is the goal.
Will you join us?
And even if you can’t join us, will you look for ways to do this right where you are – with the people around you who don’t deserve the love or patience or forgiveness – but receive it anyways?
There is hope.
You have the ability to change how someone sees themselves and sees this world we all live in together.
How else can we serve each other well, leave a comment below, or feel free to share this post!
Much love my friends!