Life is Service: Positive Interactions Abound in Bristol

From Tom at the to Alicia and Bridgette at the , to Ashley and Allie at , I generally am on the receiving end of some very positive service interactions wherever I go in Bristol. (Not to mention the spa goddesses at and the friendliness of or .)

I could go on and on as all of these places (and more) are friendly, service-oriented places that are kind to me and my family; together they make Bristol the community that I love to be a part of. 

As the director of , I work hard to be in service to those who teach and practice yoga at the studio. Behind the scenes work of general maintenance, sound and thoughtful business practices are all in service toward the studio’s mission of bringing more yoga to more people. One of my other jobs is as an instructor for eCornell.com, Cornell’s online learning program. I see my role here, too, as one of service, providing support and guidance to online learners in self-study on the various topics offered in these courses. 

I got my undergraduate degree from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell, where service was the school’s informal motto: “Life is service. The one who progresses is the one who gives his fellow man a little more, a little better service.” EM Statler

So, I am quite often taken aback when I am on the receiving end of, or witness, generally bad service. I’m not talking about occasional mishaps or errors that people make as they provide service – because we’re all people serving people, we’ll forever be subject to mistakes, forgetfulness, and general error. We can apologize and forgive and move on.

What I’m talking about is service providers who have been condescending and accusatory or some being downright cruel and sarcastic, yelling at customers at restaurants, for example. This is the antithesis of service, in my opinion. 

I think to some degree, a lack of good service can be a result of the provider not really understanding the importance of good service, or perhaps it’s simply that they don’t know that providing a service is what they are doing. 

For example, the medical industry as a whole comes to mind. The reality that doctors are providing a service to patients (and being paid for it!) seems to be lost on the industry as a whole. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but I have found, in general, service is pretty lacking in the medical industry. 

(I will note here that there are great medical providers out there who don’t fall into this category. Personally, I love and Barrington Family Medicine. I’m sure there are many more out there.)

But, service opportunities aren’t limited to transactions where a sale occurs; they abound in our lives. We can be in service to one another. Even though I have an interest in the success of Bristol Yoga Studio, I personally have recommended other yoga studios for practitioners looking for styles of practice we don’t offer – like Tenth Gate for Kundalini or Synergy for Baptiste Power Yoga. 

I’ve shared my babysitter phone numbers (and been the grateful recipient of other families’ babysitters’ numbers) and I’ve been a reference to babysitters who were ready to move on to full time jobs. I know people who housesit for one another and take care of each other’s pets when they travel. There are tons of ways we can be of service to one another. A few ideas we can implement right now: 

• Make it a practice to always hold the doors for someone when coming in and out of a building
• Always let pedestrians cross when they are waiting
• Let someone go ahead of you in the grocery store line
• Help spread the word about a fundraiser or event in the community
• Pay for someone’s morning cup of coffee
• Pick up trash on the sidewalk and throw it away

Lots of other ideas here: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/Kindness-Ideas/Browse/index.php

Without a doubt, businesses should be serious about providing good service, especially in our current economy. There’s an old lesson from the Hotel School that a guest will tell more people about a negative service encounter than a positive one, so doing our best as businesses to provide positive service experiences is key to business sustainability.

But we should also be serious about being in service to one another in our lives.  Maybe we can be a little nicer to each other in this way. What do you think?