Where You Have Broken Down Barriers between a Group of People - Assignment Example

 As a cocktail waitress I am required to serve at several corporate events and seminars as well. The particular incident took place at a recent seminar that was being held at one of the top notch hotels in the city. The seminar was being hosted for young leaders and entrepreneurs who gathered from all over the country to listen to the top organizational heads of leading firms. Such events usually involve a significant amount of time for registration and claim at the beginning of the seminar, usually outside the seminar halls and this is where I was told to serve the attendees drinks and cocktails of their choice. Since most of these people were here on independent invites, there was an awkward courteous in the air. My experience in corporate events has given me insight regarding how this time is a good ice breaker and a golden chance for such young people to interact with each other and share their experiences. I observed many such youngsters either busy in texting or surfing the internet on their phones or looking around awkwardly. I took it upon myself and the fellow waiters and waitresses to make sure that everyone is at ease with each other before the seminar. Thus, we started interacting with each attendee we served and introduced them to each other. A little detail about one helped us to mention them to another with the same interest. By doing the ice breaking ourselves and smartly introducing them to each other, soon the lobby became a mini-seminar with excited young leaders enthusiastically talking to each other about their shared interests. I believe this set the mood for the seminar that was followed up and we were told how the excellent level of participation of the attendees was highly attributed to the initial ice breaking that put them at ease. Q2 Give an example of when you have provided excellent level of customer service? A certain group of college youngsters held a birthday surprise for one of their favorite teachers at a posh jazz club I was serving at. They were very excited as that particular teacher’s favorite band was performing that day and the students wanted to surprise him and show their gratitude for the teacher’s support for each one of their academic needs. Once the teacher arrived, the mood of the club became festive and the joy on each face was a treat to watch. However, the teacher asked for a particular blend of cocktail that was not available at our club. As the main guest of the people who had booked the whole club for him, we went out of our way to send our representative to quickly buy that particular blend for our guest and within half an hour he was served with it. Needless to say, we gained significant loyalty form the college students from that day who approach the club quite often now. Q3 Give me an example of when you have addressed someone else's needs or expectations? As an airline manager I encountered a number of incidents that tested my ability to flex the airline and airport rules to meet a special need of a customer. One of such incidents took place when a soldier was leaving for Afghanistan and was having a teary goodbye with his wife and two little children. With much reluctance he detached himself from his family and headed to the waiting area for boarding. His family stood at the point he had left off in hopes that he might return for some time if he could. Much against the rules, we made a special arrangement to escort the three family members to the waiting area so that they could spend some more time with the soldier till he boarded the plane. The grateful family thanked us deeply before leaving, feeling comforted and slightly happier that fulfilled our aim. The other passengers also saw this as a caring gesture and approached our counters to specially convey how thoughtful they thought the gesture was. Q4 Provide an example of when you have demonstrated a belief in a particular project or task The jazz club I worked at had a fairly regular set of customers which increased during the weekends and was slow during the week. One of the key concerns of our management was the lack of new customers that the club managed to attract. Along with a couple of my team members I suggested that a ladies day in would be a feasible project to not only provide the ladies with a time they could relax and pamper themselves but also generate the needed footfall during the weekends for the club. The management was unsure whether the move would be a feasible one as it required advertising and with many women working nowadays, their reluctance to head to clubs on weekdays. We believed that the campaign would work if done right and tried our best to reassure the management. They gave us a month to experiment with the idea but did not agree to invest in advertising. We acted proactively and made use of social media to announce that Tuesday was now going to be an all-ladies-day and they are encouraged to pitch in their ideas about what they would like, preferred drinks, ambiance, timings etc. By gaining an insight about the needs and expectation of our target, we consciously adjusted our services accordingly. Since all the service staff was in favor of this campaign, their dedication paid off ultimately and our club even managed to achieve three reviews in leading newspapers. The management became more open to the idea and since then, the ladies Tuesday has been a regular and popular feature at our club. Q5 Provide an example of when you gained someone's confidence by speaking to them A bar or club is a place for two kinds of people. Either the happy excited ones, who look for a place to vent their happiness, drink and be merry. The other kind is the sad mellow people who are alone and approach bars to drink to drown their sorrows and be surrounded by happy people with a hope that their feelings rub off them as well. I had been seeing a particular girl approach the bar every day, who sat in a corner and cried. She seemed sweet yet very timid and pounced at the slightest noise. She ordered the same drink, smiled sadly while ordering and took her drink to her regular corner. Her discomfort at anyone trying to approach her was evident by her behavior of ignoring people addressing her. Closely observing her made me notice bruises all over her neck and arms even though she kept most of her body covered. I anticipated her running away of her approached her too obviously and thus, made slow moves every day to make her comfortable. For example I would greet her by her first name and ready her drink before she asked for it. Slowly is started commenting on her clothes and books she carried and soon enough she became open to the idea of talking to me. I requested my supervisor to let me stay off duty for half an hour so that I could help her out and he did. Talking to her made me realize that she was in an abusive relationship where her boyfriend threatened to kill her if she said a word about his beatings in public. Lending her a sympathetic ear made her come out of her fear slowly and she started confiding in me for help. I got her a contact in the police department for domestic abuse and showed her ways she could overcome from such an abuse. It has been 2 years now and she is happily engaged to a stronger, established and caring man and we are still good friends. Q6 Give an example of when you have taken into account someone else's views or opinions Initially, my work was strictly professional and I did not take an initiative to own my service. I took up the job because I needed the money and it was a good part time activity after school. No interest in the job did not motivate me to make it to work often and hence, I was absent from work a number of times. This was frowned upon by my supervisor who warned me that it will force him to fire me if this kept up. Being the open and caring person, he sat me down one day and asked if I was deliberately looking to be fired. I answered in negative and slowly opened up to how this job was not what I had intended to be doing. I told him the lack of motivation and enjoyment at work that kept me away from the club often. This is when he opened up a whole new concept of service practice. He talked about how our jobs are important and open to creativity as we get the opportunity to interact with a good set of clients who have a number of experiences to share. He explained how I could be paid more if I manage to bag a certain number of new customers for the week. He explained how I could make use of my creativity to pitch in ideas that could make the club service better as I was the one who had first-hand knowledge of experience with the customers. This attitude of the managers and his openness to having my ideas heard allowed me to evaluate my behavior, develop personal skills of communication and own my job. This has led to me being appointed as the employee of the week several times now and I often bag compliments from customers and management alike. Q7 Give an example of when you have worked with others to achieve a common goal or task The jazz club sees a downfall in customer footfall during sports seasons like FIFA or super bowl. By collaborating with different sponsors, we are able to accommodate and service these sport fanatics by holding live sport screening on quality projectors. The theme of the whole club is changed to reflect the sports event and it becomes a fairly upbeat and happening place. We are able to get our sponsors the needed publicity and hold contests to give the customers something more to be excited about. The previous season’s popularity can be gauged through the fact that this year our club was approached by several big sponsors and not the other way around. By making use of our sponsor’s investment and providing quality service, our club has become one of the major names when it comes to sports screening. Read More