Red Lobster or Bloom's Taxonomy?

At 5:00 p.m. crowd at the Red Lobster was steady. We were led to a table right away, but those who came in even five minutes later were held at the chairs that lined both sides of the entry hall. Our waitress, Wendy, was polite through the usual introductory routine: short welcome, drink order, deliver drinks, and then the main order. She was assigned three or four tables around us with two to six people at each. The restaurant was already busy, but Wendy buzzed with grace and easy humor from tables to serving area to bar to kitchen and back to the tables.

It reminded me of the dance of successful teaching. I had not thought of it before, but there's a lot of similarity between teaching and food service. I am finishing up a two-year new teacher training program at the college, graduating from newbie instructor to not-so newbie instructor -- we still have a lot to learn. During these two years there has been a lot of discussion about student-centered learning, but surprisingly little about customer service, which is really the same thing. I wonder if a regular stint on Friday nights at the Red Lobster might have been more productive than Friday mornings reviewing Bloom's Taxonomy for the fourth time. What, I wondered, could my classmates and I have learned from Wendy and Red Lobster?

We would learn how to work as team members to provide a service and product to a diverse and rapidly changing clientele.

We would learn how to keep smiling when the customer wants the dish of butter replaced -- again and again. The customer is always right, and when they are not, they still are. Keep the melted butter hot.

We would learn how to deftly pick up crayons tossed down by younger guests while still balancing three water glasses on a serving tray. Safety, service, and a smile at the same time.

We would learn how to keep orders separate, how to tally a bill, and how to try to up-sell products. Sales is as much a part of teaching as are assessments.

And, we would learn how to send guests on their way, how to quickly reset the table and how to greet the new incoming customers as if they were our first of the night, while at the same time, performing a physically demanding job that requires balance, strength, coordination, knowledge, and stamina.

By the time my wife and I left the Red Lobster, we had a doggy bag (or is it a lobsty bag?) of goodies for the next day, and admiration for our server who, at the end of the meal, seemed more like a long-time friend than a minimum wage worker surviving on tips. Wendy enhanced our experience, which, after all, was nothing more special than a quick Friday night meal at a franchise restaurant. We were one table among dozens she would work during the night, but she turned the ordinary experience into the extra-ordinary. That is the mark of a true service professional, food service or post-secondary education. I think Wendy should be giving lessons in customer service to new trainees at corporate, not bussing tables at a local eatery. I'm sure if she was given the chance she would do it with a smile and gracefully refill the water glasses at the same time.