Noticing the Small Things There are always hundreds of tiny ways to improve a customer experience — if you're truly listening and looking. The Ritz-Carlton trains its teams to keep their “radar on and antenna up.” But how often do we miss the cue — the small moment that could turn an ordinary experience into an extraordinary one? Great hospitality isn’t about grand gestures. It’s a seamless sequence of micro moments — small, thoughtful interactions — that make customers feel connected, valued, and remembered. When delivered consistently, these moments build trust, loyalty, and a long-lasting emotional connection with your brand. Walk in Their Shoes Businesses that do this well are constantly thinking about their customers’ needs and wants. They take time to walk in their customers’ shoes — not just metaphorically, but literally. Ask yourself: How often do senior leaders sit in their own cafés or restaurants at peak times, just to observe and experience things through a customer’s lens? When I led catering and retail operations at Bettys, I made it a priority to spend time in the tearooms during busy trading periods. I’d work full days back on the floor with the team. Without fail, those moments gave me golden nuggets of insight — things we could tweak or improve right away to enhance the service. Be My Guest: Lessons from Disney Disney is a masterclass in hospitality. Their approach is simple but powerful: experience over task. They understand the transformational power of service that’s personal, emotional, and joy-filled. Their “Be My Guest” mindset is embedded in every aspect of the experience — and crucially, it starts at the top. Disney’s senior executives are encouraged to spend time in the parks, walking the guest journey with fresh eyes. The result? A 70% return rate from visitors. They’ve designed their customer journey down to the finest detail — even how closely bins are spaced is based on behavioural insight. But the real magic lies in empowering their frontline teams. How Disney creates magical micro moments: • A child drops their ice cream? Any cast member can replace it — no approval needed. • A birthday guest? They might receive a personalised cupcake or a shout-out during a show. • A ride queue ends in disappointment due to height restrictions? Guests are offered a Fast Pass for a different attraction. • A guest asks a question? Cast members never say “I don’t know” — they own the problem and find the solution. All this is intentional. Disney cast members go through six weeks of training before they ever interact with a guest. They learn the how, but more importantly, they learn the why — their role is to create magical, meaningful moments. Empowering Your Team to Create Magic You don’t need Disney’s scale to apply the same mindset. What you do need is a culture that: 1. Trusts team members to make good decisions 2. Equips them to act on what they see 3. Encourages them to take initiative Surprise-and-delight doesn’t need to be extravagant. It’s often the smallest gestures that make the biggest impact: • Remembering a customer’s name • Noticing someone is waiting and offering a small treat • Offering a personal recommendation or warm welcome back When teams feel empowered to take ownership, they don’t just meet expectations — they exceed them. Six Tips on How to Elevate Your Customer Experience 1. Experience your own service Let every team member walk in the customer's shoes — it builds empathy and fresh insight. 2. Eyes-on-Service Leadership Be visible. Walk the floor. Ask: “What would help you make the customer experience even better?” 3. Flip frustrations Identify your biggest customer pain points and create systems to eliminate or reverse them. 4. Encourage micro moments Personalised gestures make customers feel seen and valued — and they build an emotional connection. 5. Keep the customer in the room When making decisions, always ask: How will this make the experience better for our customers? 6. Systemise legendary service Build tools, processes, and training that make great service feel easy and inevitable. Ready to Create Your Own Magic? Adopting a focus on customer happiness — and empowering your teams to act with care and creativity — is what will truly set your business apart. If you’d like support to create magical micro moments and build a legendary customer experience, I’d love to hear from you. 🔗 Visit Boost Consultancy on LinkedIn

B y Paula Kaye, Founder of Boost Consultancy “The business of business is people.” This was the opening line of a leadership talk that has stayed with me, and it feels more relevant than ever. It’s a powerful reminder that relationship trumps everything. Behind every transaction, every product, every service — is a human being. And successful businesses are built on great people delivering extraordinary experiences to other people. At the heart of any business is its people. Developing a strong culture where the values, mission, and vision are not just words on the wall but are deeply felt and lived by everyone is what sets great businesses apart. When teams understand the purpose beyond the tactical, it creates connection, meaning, and high levels of engagement and performance. Take that famous NASA story — a woman asks a cleaner who is sweeping the floor what he's doing, and he replies: “I’m putting a man on the moon.” That’s the power of shared purpose. That’s what happens when everyone, regardless of role, feels a sense of belonging and contribution to something greater than themselves. Connection and Recognition: The Human Need Behind Service As Simon Sinek writes in Leaders Eat Last, “Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” When people feel safe, valued, and seen, they do their best work. And this is as true in hospitality as anywhere else. Service isn't just about delivering food or pouring drinks — it's about making people feel something. In The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath highlight how peak moments — like being recognised, feeling understood, or experiencing surprise and delight — have outsized emotional impact. These moments don’t happen by accident. Businesses that design for them create lasting memories that keep customers coming back. We are hardwired for connection and recognition. Every customer, every team member, is looking to feel seen and valued. The best businesses understand this — and build cultures and customer experiences that reflect it. Hospitality That Connects: Lessons from Dishoom & GAIL's Brands like Dishoom and GAIL’s Bakery exemplify this human-first approach. Dishoom’s team culture oozes warmth and theatre; they create immersive, storytelling-led experiences that emotionally engage both customers and staff. Their mantra is “serve others with love” — and it shows in every detail. Similarly, GAIL’s combines high-quality product with a deeply community-focused ethos. They’ve fostered a culture where teams feel ownership, pride, and joy in service — and customers feel like locals even on a first visit. Both businesses have realised that their product is only half the story — it’s the emotional connection that creates loyalty. Embedding a Customer-Focused Culture As the economic outlook remains increasingly bleak, businesses need to continue to adapt, and keeping this human lens is vital. Here’s my top tips on how you can build those meaningful connections at every stage of the guest journey: First Impressions Count The first few seconds set the tone. Greet customers warmly, with presence and intention. Don’t be on autopilot; ensure you are present — make them feel welcome. Storytelling about what makes you special Make sure you share the stories that make your product, menu, or services special — communicate with pride and enthusiasm. Use it as an opportunity to connect. Offer recommendations, share stories about provenance and suppliers, and guide guests through the experience with confidence and care. Empower Your People Equip your teams with the authority to solve problems and create surprise-and-delight moments. Train them in empathy, not just process. As Sinek says, “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” Let Personality Shine A well-trained team should also feel relaxed enough to be themselves. People don’t remember service that’s just efficient — they remember service that’s human. Attentiveness as a Superpower Use the quieter periods in the day as a chance to elevate attention to detail. Anticipating needs and responding with warmth can transform a standard visit into something truly memorable. Design That Reflects Care Even your toilets say something about your brand. Every touchpoint sends a message. Make it a message of care, reassurance, and attention. End with a Lasting Impression A warm, authentic goodbye can be just as powerful as the welcome. Invite feedback, thank customers sincerely, and leave them with a feeling that they’ve been seen and appreciated. Leadership in Service Leadership isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It's about creating the conditions for others to shine. Ask: “How can I remove the barriers that stop my team from delivering greatness?” Reflect, refine, and evolve constantly. The Power of Small Moments When your team notices the detail, anticipates a need, remembers a name — that’s where loyalty is built. The purpose of hospitality is not just food or drink. It’s about how you make people feel. And when you get that right, your customers don’t just come back — they become advocates. After all, you're only ever as good as the last memory you created. Want to embed more purpose into your customer experience strategy? Let’s talk about how Boost Consultancy can help you connect the dots between values, culture, and unforgettable service. www.boost-consultancy.co.uk

Written by Paula Kaye, Founder — Boost Consultancy Hospitality, at its core, is simple—but delivering it consistently, at a high level, is anything but. True mastery of this craft requires obsessive attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to excellence. To be great in hospitality, you need to be a bit like a dog with a bone—tenacious, focused, and unwilling to settle for “good enough.” It Starts with the Right People One of the fundamentals? Hiring the right people. People who have an inbuilt desire to serve others. People with a natural warmth and friendliness that can’t be taught. From there, it’s about giving them clear standards to ensure quality and prevent details from being missed—but also enough freedom and empowerment to make real-time decisions that elevate the guest experience. Hospitality as a Noble Craft I recently had a great conversation with someone who, like me, learned the craft of hospitality and leadership under truly inspiring mentors—leaders who believed in the nobility of hospitality and constantly strived for perfection. We agreed: few other industries offer such a profound opportunity to impact someone’s day. The ability to turn a bad day around or make a good day great—just through your care and attention—is a truly remarkable gift. Functional Training Meets Cultural Impact To deliver consistently excellent hospitality, training must do two things: • Set the functional standards high • Inspire the culture and mindset needed to deliver emotionally meaningful service The Culture of Outstanding Hospitality Here are 10 key behaviours and mindsets I believe are essential to cultivating this kind of culture: 1. Show passion and pride in what you do—it’s contagious. 2. Use great manners—a simple thing, often forgotten. 3. Smile sincerely—people can’t help but smile back. 4. Show interest in others—we all want to feel seen and valued. 5. Be original and authentic—a genuine connection beats a script every time. 6. Spread kindness—actively look for chances to brighten someone’s day. 7. Treat others with generosity and care—make people feel truly valued. 8. Recognise each person as an individual—cookie-cutter service won’t cut it. 9. Go the extra mile—seek out opportunities to delight. 10. Deliver unexpected excellence by doing the small things that show care: o Removing pips from lemon slices for tea or garnishes o Positioning teacup handles and spoons for effortless use o Using quieter moments to engage more deeply or provide added touches, like delivering drinks to a table instead of counter service o Staying laser-focused on how your actions make your customers feel Leave People Better Than You Found Them That’s the ultimate goal: to leave every person feeling better than you found them. That is the art—and the reward—of true hospitality. About Me I'm Paula Kaye, founder of Boost Consultancy. I help hospitality and service-driven businesses elevate their customer experience, strengthen their culture, and build teams that deliver consistently memorable service. If you’d like to explore how I can support you with your customer experience strategy, leadership development, or team training— 📩 Let’s talk. Let’s build something unforgettable together

A New Era for UK Hospitality The UK hospitality scene is undergoing a remarkable transformation. Gone are the days when restaurants dominated the spotlight solely during dinner hours. Instead, we're seeing the rise of vibrant, all-day café and bakery-led experiences that reflect our evolving lifestyle. The 2025 Branded Bakery Report confirms it: customer preferences are shifting towards more informal, daytime-led venues like cafés, bakeries, and coffee shops. As someone who has embraced this movement, I see it as an exciting evolution in hospitality—where premium lunch offerings, local produce, and welcoming service take centre stage. Why All-Day Dining Is Gaining Ground From demographic changes such as aging population to the rise in remote working, the appetite for high-quality, relaxed, and accessible dining options has never been greater. It’s no longer just about convenience—customers are looking for places that feel like a destination, offering exceptional food and a warm atmosphere throughout the day. Paradise Café, Harrogate One standout example is Paradise Café at Daleside Nurseries in Pannal, Harrogate. This venue showcases the very best of what daytime hospitality can offer and is setting the standard in this space through: • A focus on celebrating fresh, local ingredients • Packed-out lunch services • Sold-out dinner events • And most importantly, genuine hospitality It’s a testament to how brilliant execution and attention to detail can result in commercial and community success. What’s Holding Some Cafés Back? Despite the momentum, many cafés still fall short in delivering truly memorable experiences. Are they underestimating the power of daytime diners, particularly older guests who want enjoyable alternatives to evening meals? The best cafés get it right by investing in the customer experience, not just the product. It's not a revolution—it’s a return to the fundamentals of hospitality. The Brands Leading the Way More brands are creating spin offs and reimagining what daytime dining can look like: • Bill’s Café Bar: A relaxed blend of their classic offer and a more casual vibe, with 10+ new openings in the past year. • Bistrot Pierre: Launching their new café concept. • Dishoom’s Permit Room: A small-plate, drink-led experience, now in Brighton, Oxford, and Cambridge, with London next. • Loungers’ Brightside: A roadside concept with a strong focus on quality and comfort, all day long. Even supermarkets and garden centres (like M&S) have untapped potential. They already carry a premium reputation, but their café offerings often don’t reflect the same care or quality. From Bettys to Boost Consultancy: Lessons in Excellence Having experienced formative training at Betty's Café Tea Rooms, where every detail mattered, I know what it takes to deliver a remarkable customer experience. Hospitality done right is about care, consistency, and pride. Paula’s 5 Essentials for a Standout Café Experience 1. Brilliant Basics Cleanliness and high standards instill trust. It doesn’t have to be fancy—just consistently immaculate. 2. Deliver Great Hospitality Every interaction counts. A well-placed cup, a warm smile, an attentive gesture—all create an emotional connection. 3. Passion for Great Ingredients Customers can taste the difference. Use local, fresh produce and prepare it with love. 4. Right People, Right Mindset Invest in your staff. A motivated, well-trained team is your biggest asset. Don’t cut corners—follow Dishoom’s example and focus on experience. 5. Stay Close to Your Business Leadership shouldn’t be distant. Know your customers, stay involved, and preserve your brand’s soul. Final Thought on How to Make a Good Experience Great This isn’t just about food and drink. It’s about joy, comfort, and connection. All-day dining isn’t a passing trend—it’s a cultural shift. The cafés that embrace this with vision and integrity will not just survive—they’ll thrive. Want to find out more about how Boost Consultancy can elevate your customer experience? 👉 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-boost-consultancy/ 👉 Visit: www.boostconsultancy.co.uk

Some recent research published by Zonal reported that 65% of people agree that eating and dining out is just as important in their social life as it was before the cost-of-living crisis.

If you are saying YES to something, what is it your saying NO to…. A key part of my role as a consultant is to partner with business leaders and owners to help them work through challenges to highlight the opportunities as well as helping them get clear on what this means they may need to let go. I recently read that the courage to grow demands the courage to let go…. I am often asked to support business leaders and owners who are a bit stuck on seeing the way forward and need some expert advice and support to help them generate the options and choices open to them. If you are a hospitality or retail business with a current challenge that could use the sort of skills and expertise I bring, then click here to contact me . To understand more about me and how I approach my work with clients, take a look at my recently updated website and some of the work I have completed click here .

A sign of a really great hospitality business is when it feels like a home away from home, so as we wait for the announcement from Boris this Monday, I explore what things your business needs to pay attention to as you plan to welcome your customers home.

I approach 2021 with positivity and optimism that this will be a good year for Boost Consultancy, and I am looking forward to being able to make a difference to the businesses I work with and delivering some exciting new projects. 2021 is a time for building back stronger and resetting for what is ahead. As we move into 2021, there are the 7 key themes from 2020 that I hope we will continue to see in the year ahead.

We all have stories of truly memorable customer service that lifts your spirits and makes you want to share your experience with others. So, what is the magic dust that makes good service great and makes a satisfactory customer experience a memorable one? Knowing this answer will enable you to differentiate your business from the competition. We can all think of businesses that consistently get their customer service experience right and we reward them with our loyalty. These businesses do not have a silver bullet, so what do they have that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary? I spent over 35 years working with businesses that deliver award winning customer service. I have had the pleasure of leading and developing the customer service strategy within Bettys for many of those years, so I am well qualified to know what it takes to achieve this. COVID-19 has made the delivery of an exceptional customer experience more important than ever, as businesses need to ensure that customers want to return and that they can build loyalty. Below I share the key things you need to do if you want to create a customer experience that is anything but ordinary. 1. Listen – creating a culture of extraordinary service requires businesses to actively listen to their front-line people and their customers. Keep close to your customers and gather data and feedback on their experience so you can continuously develop and improve it. Everyone in the team needs to be aligned to a mission based around great service and Leaders need to make it their business to remove any barriers or obstacles that get in the way. Making sure your front-line staff have the right tools and equipment to deliver great service and prioritising all the things that make great service delivery easy and inevitable. 2. Consistency is key, great service never has a day off, you need to deliver on your brand promise every time. By mapping the step by step customer journey so every member of the team knows exactly what they need to deliver for the customer to feel special and engaged. This should start from the moment customers are planning their visit through to the welcome on arrival and right through to the thank you and goodbye. A way to envisage this is to imagine your customers are taking a magic carpet ride, for them to have the full experience you need to ensure nothing is missed out so your customers can enjoy the full brand experience delivered to them by ambassadors and promoters of your brand. 3. Systems behind the service : You need to have the right processes and practices to make the delivery of exceptional service easy. This includes a clear purpose beyond making money that all the team can get behind. Having defined service values around employees’ behaviours will provide clarity on expectations so they can hold themselves and one another to account. A great Induction and onboarding process centred around your Customer Experience. Service Manuals that provide a step by step guide to support training and embed best practice. Having the right people is critical so ensuring your recruitment policy reflects the need to recruit for personality, appointing people who have a natural flair/ desire to be of service. Consider putting in place daily briefings to reinforce the mission and to set your team up for success. 4. Reward the behaviours you want to see , develop a Reward and Recognition initiative, sharing stories of great customer engagement to highlight and encourage best practice. Measure customer satisfaction in a way that allows customers to highlight great staff members and ensure leaders take time to speak to and acknowledge those mentioned. Promote the idea of lateral customer service to develop a culture of peer-based recognition allowing employees to nominate colleagues who they see go out of their way to deliver great service either internally or directly to a customer. Leaders need to role model this, taking time to acknowledge those who go out of their way to deliver exceptional service. 5. Keep raising the bar as great service never stops you need to be relentless in your pursuit of customer service excellence. Develop a culture of continuous improvement encourage ideas from the team to evolve and improve the way you do things. Get everyone in the team to ask yourselves each week what they have done to make a difference to the customer experience and share the stories. 6. Recovery Quickly: Every business gets it wrong sometimes, but customer focused ones know they need to put things right quickly and professionally. They have an excellent recovery process for complaints, and they empower their teams to do what is needed to make sure that every customer goes away delighted. They respond to complaints in a timely matter, always within 24 hours of receiving it. They track complaints and collate information so they can use this data effectively to highlight any themes and they work tirelessly to address them. Businesses with a culture of great service know happy staff mean happy customers, so they put people at the heart of everything they do. They invest in their people, seeing value in training and developing their teams so they can be the best they can be. They know customers value the opportunity to build rapport and relationship, creating a loyal and engaged team provides stability and tenure means staff can get to know their customers, their likes and dislikes, allowing them to anticipate their needs and build strong relationships. They never adopt hard selling techniques as the quality of their products and service means they don’t need to as employees feel proud to share knowledge and assist customers in navigating the menu without feeling the pressure to directly sell. Great service is all about making the process as easy and enjoyable as you can for your customer. Great service is seamless every element creates a chain reaction that delights customers it builds trust and makes the customer feel special and looked after. Businesses with a great service culture create a loyal customer base by building strong and authentic relationships. Their customers and staff become their ambassadors and promoters by sharing the experience with other. A positive legacy of the pandemic is that customers will be seeking out businesses that provide an experience that engages with them on an emotional level, lifting spirits and creating happiness. If want to know how you take your customer experience to a new level contact me at enquires@boost-consultancy.co.uk or call me on 07595 278159 as I would love to help.