By Eddie Pipkin
Image by Cheryl Holt from Pixabay
I went with my wife on a cruise a few weeks ago. It was one of those small ships, no more than 240 people on board for our sailing, which meant that the crew was also small. A core group of crew members rotated through a variety of different positions every day. So the server you had at breakfast might show up again with your afternoon refreshments on the upper deck and even your dinner entrée later in the evening. After a couple of days, you recognized people, and they recognized you. They did more than recognize you. They had a way of making you feel . . . special. That’s a talent, a gift: it’s a practiced approach to connecting with people that can be an excellent way to kickstart new relationships.
Within a couple of days on this vacation, servers and recreation attendants were familiar with my name and preferences – I even knew the members of the band that played popular music covers at night. Of course, there was some economic incentive for people who were doing their customer service jobs to be this friendly (although not the same as at a regular restaurant, since tip totals onboard a cruise ship tend to be more of fixed, one-time charge). But I’ve been on big ship cruises before, and while servers are most always nice, accommodating, friendly, and solicitous, their attitudes ca