“Mom, I’ve got friends coming over for my birthday. What can we do to look after them?” says excitedly the young, 6-year-old girl. “Let us create something sensational for them, something that they will remember for life.” Says enthusiastically the starry-eyed girl.
This 6-year old child, in professional hospitality terms, is performing a business function. She is trying to: a) pre-empt customer behavior, b) is thinking of ways to make her guests happy and c) is making sure that they get an unforgettable experience. This clearly shows that irrespective of age, the basic spirit of hospitality is deeply inherent in all human beings. This therefore turns out to be an instinct that is caught and not taught. A wise man says “There’s no such thing as Turning on the sentiment of hospitality; you either possess this art, or you just don’t. Even if you do, there’s no need for it to be turned ‘on’ as it tends to come up alive by itself.”
It is this deeply embedded and strongly founded trait of a genuine concern for people that separates good from the great. “In this ever-changing society the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. Their foundations are stronger because they are fabricated with the strength of the human spirit and not by virtue of the advertising campaigns.
Let’s talk about a small and yet the most powerful ingredient in hospitality, called SMILE…
People get hired in the hospitality trade not only on the strength of what they are capable of doing but by virtue of the way they do it. This is, of course, seconded by their positive attitude and finally their capability (and the willingness) to do the job. A smile can not only help you get a job; it can make you succeed in whatever else you may wish to do in life outside your work domain. Smile is a light in the window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside…
Smiling is contagious;
You’ll catch it like a flu
Someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too
To put it concisely: Smiles follow when our brain feels happy. The brain instantly sends messages to our facial muscles inciting us to smile, and we smile and tell our brain that we are feeling good, and so it carries on. Moreover, the boost of inherent chemicals lead us to be healthier, and therefore smiling proves to be as good as an exercise, or, should I say, a rather essential one.
People who are born blind (they have never seen a smile) are yet able to smile in just the same way as people gifted with the faculty of sight. This proves that smiling is a natural response to pleasant feelings. Smile cannot be taught; neither can anyone learn how to smile; smiling is a pre-programmed natural and a regular behavior.
Research also shows that when you get to smile, even if you are in a bad mood, your disposition will improve immediately, because the simple action of smiling is enough to trigger the happy chemicals. Don’t believe me? Try this – pick up your baby who has made you get up several times at night…his bright and cheerful toothless smile in the morning will make you forget the fatigue the entire exhaustion of sleeplessness…
People talk about LOVE being the universal language which is claimed to be understood by everybody; however, as per me, the act of smiling takes place even before love can be shown or expressed. It is a worldwide passport by which one is allowed to cross all boundaries and you get to win the heart of peoples of this world.
Coming back to our starry-eyed, 6-year old girl, it is by virtue of her spellbinding, absorbing, fascinating and welcoming smile that made her have so many friends, made her parents to put up a grand show for her at home and created for her friends an atmosphere of gaiety, joviality, festivity and endless merriment. All these friends met several times again and lived happily ever after…
Why go around the countless miles?
Looking for those pretty smiles…
It’s sheer happiness – everyone knows
And it’s always there… under your nose.
