I’m staying at a holiday in Express in Delmont PA. Not the first place I would expect to get a lesson in service but sometimes we find the most amazing things in the most peculiar places.
After a long day at work I made my way back to our hotel to clean up and start preparing a message for Sunday’s chapel service. I’m exceedingly grateful for the opportunities I’m having to travel and see new places so typically when I check into a hotel I’m in a really good mood. I joked with the gal behind the counter about them not having a pool and she suggested the pond in the trees out back. We laughed and I disappeared to my room.
I came down a while later to sit in the lobby and work on the message and asked if by chance they had a business center with a printer. She smiled and handed me a key card. I asked if the printing charges just get charged to the room and she said “nope, they’re complimentary.”
“WOW!” I thought, “what a service!” Not all hotels offer that. I disappeared to the business center to print some pages. After a little while I came back out to the lobby to keep studying and she came to inform me there was coffee available and if it wasn’t warm enough, she would be happy to brew me a fresh pot. I thanked her and walked over to get a cup of coffee.
As I poured my coffee she eyed me tearing open a packet of creamer then said she’d get me “the real stuff.” I was perfectly content as is but she went to the breakfast closet, pulled out a jug of half and half and delivered me a small cup with fresh half and half in it.
You might think I’m insane for getting excited about something so seemingly minute, especially when technically her job is service, but what I’m impressed with is that she asked. Most people assume there is coffee available in a hotel lobby, she brought it to my attention and offered to make me a fresh pot. She saw me pour in creamer, with which I was content and I didn’t say anything about wanting “the real stuff” and yet she went and dug it out.
THAT is service. Service is not merely doing what’s expected of you. Service is going out of your way to ensure another’s needs are met. We have opportunities to serve others every day. Take an opportunity today to go out of your way or go above and beyond for someone…just because.
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