Surprise and Delight

So, again, I'm blogging about what I'm learning at the tea room. There are just so many awesome things to learn there, I could probably write several books. But what I wanted to talk about today, is serving. I'm a server at the tea room. Now for me, most of the time I think of a server as someone who takes your order, brings your food, then maybe checks in on you every great once in a while. There's really not a whole lot of interaction and for the most part, they have this attitude of, "This is a job, this is a job, this a job." They don't seem to be there to really serve.

At the tea room, I'm really discovering that being a server means to be a servant to the customers. It's not just a matter of, "here's your food," and plunking it on the table and walking away. It's interacting with the guests, asking them how their day's going and really wanting to know the answer. It's working hard to make their table look beautiful, making sure the pillows are all plumped and placed where they should be, and making sure the areas vacuumed clean. All little things that can make a big difference. It's making sure the food trays look absolutely delicious and beautiful at the same time. It's tasting the tea multiple times and making sure it tastes perfect so the guests can enjoy every sip. It's making sure that no matter how rushed we are, everything is done excellently. It's making sure that our guests come first before anything else. There are a hundred little things we do just to make that time relaxing and refreshing for them.

And one of the things that is stressed is to surprise and delight our guests. I have had the opportunity to do this twice in the short time I have worked at the tea room and it is truly wonderful to see the looks of surprise and delight on the guests face. The first time was last month when I was just starting at the tea room. For April, we were putting jelly beans on each plate for the guests to eat or put in their tea if they were adventurous. One of the groups I was helping to serve was two ladies who just loved the jelly beans. To surprise and delight them, the server I was working with and I filled two small cups with jelly beans and presented them to the ladies. They were indeed surprised and absolutely delighted.

The second opportunity I had to surprise and delight was today. Two of the ladies I was serving were talking about how much they loved our Rose Flower and Almond Scones. To surprise and delight them, I put together two boxes for them and placed a scone in each with small container each of our clotted cream and pomegranate rose curd. The ladies were thrilled with them. Seeing those ladies so happy and excited about something that may seem so small or insignificant is so wonderful to me. However, in both cases, it also made me a bit sad. The fact that such small acts produce such big reactions just shows what our society has fallen to. Little things like that are not common anymore, and I think they should be. It also got me to thinking that surprising and delighting others is something I can most certainly do outside the tea room. It's so easy sometimes to think about even something like that as something I can only do at work or only in this one place when the majority of the time it's not.

I think it's just a wonderful reminder to strive to surprise and delight others, whether it be at work, home, or just when you're out and about. What an amazing way to show the love of Jesus! Imagine the lives we could touch if we worked to surprise and delight just one person each day. So the next time you have the opportunity to surprise and delight someone, don't hesitate, just do it!