WOW Word-Of-the-Week #323: Yes

November 15, 2010 by  

Yes – the answer to the question.

I decided to rerun this WOW to balance out my NO WOW from 2 weeks ago. I believe there are times you should come from YES and times you should come from NO. It’s up to you to decide the appropriate response that works for you, your business, and your life.

How often do you say YES in the course of your day? Would you say you tend to say the word NO more often? When it comes to dealing with a guest, customer, member, or client is it easy for you to say YES to a request? When you are dealing with family members do you say YES or NO more often?

Pablo Zelaya has been a professional server for the last twenty-five years and was one of four veteran career waiters featured in the LA Times article titled, “The Art of Waiting.” Betty Hallock writes, “When Catherine Zeta-Jones comes in for lunch at the Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills and tells Pablo, ‘You know what I want? It’s a tuna sandwich,’ that’s what she gets (even though it isn’t on the menu). Not because she’s a celebrity, Zelaya insists, but because ‘I don’t like to say no. It’s like they say: ‘The answer is yes. What is the question?’

I have been working with managers of Country Clubs, City Clubs, Yacht Clubs, etc. for over twenty years. Members think that their club is “THEIR CLUB.”  That means that they should get whatever they want whenever they want it. Special orders are either a problem or an opportunity. If you come from “Yes is the answer,” you have the opportunity to give your members what they want. If you come from NO, you do nothing but create problems.

One Club had so many special requests that they decided to print “We will make you anything you want” in big, bold letters on their menus. I was told that special orders dropped in half.  Why is that?  I think human nature is to push the envelope.

This week think about the question. Is the answer YES? How does it make you feel to give your guests, customers, members, or clients what they want? Is it a problem or an opportunity?

Reader Responses

“Here is my feed on your WOW word yes. When I say No that is exactly what I get, but when Yes and Yes Please the possibilities are endless.Thanks for this good reminder.Hope your are both well and swinging from the trees.” Deborah

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