In a recent company meeting my team and I discussed the means by which we can work together to provide exemplary service to our clients. One of the many ideas that emerged centered around the concept of anticipatory service, a phrase that I discovered while reviewing the Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards.
Anticipatory service cannot be scripted, neither can it be taught, in fact, it is a level of service that comes from within. It emerges through the heart of one who has empathy for his fellow man. Empathy, the ability to “feel into” the heart of another, does not imply a sharing of the feeling as sympathy does, rather, it is the ability to take an imprint of the concerns and needs of another gently and discretely.
I gave the example of a Ritz-Carlton pool attendant who helped me recently when I asked if they had a place to refrigerate some medicine while my family and I were on the beach. The attendant acknowledged my request, but took it a step further and said “Don’t worry, Mr. Hake, we will keep this safe and get it safely back in your hands before you leave.” The attendant met my request but anticipated my deeper concern, which was that I not leave without the medicine.
Even more impressive was the fact that several hours later the attendant walked out onto the beach with an associate who was there as a replacement due to a shift change and said “Mr. Hake, I am leaving for the day but I briefed my replacement on your concern. He will make sure that you leave with your medicine.” And several hours later I did.
It doesn’t cost any more to provide anticipatory service, though it does require a level of vigilance, selflessness and genuine care that aren’t typical in today’s “me”-centric world. One of my wishes for this year is that I might find the way to inspire my team to rise to this level of service. my present understanding is that this type of service cannot be legislated or demanded. It emerges organically, I believe, when the right conditions are established and maintained in the corporate culture.
Stay tuned to hear how it goes!
Gregory Hake 
These are high standards, yet 100% reasonable. The proper attitude of service is one that has been with us through many cultures spanning many eons of time. It’s just now we are more in a business setting, or as you put it, in a corporate culture and we are consumed with elbowing out the competition and have become enamored with status.
When expressed properly, the attitude of service is with joy and it never demeans the individual; in fact I would say it brings out an air of nobility in people. In the country where I was born, moreso in prior generations but even today in many cases, the waitstaff is considered a profession and in no way demeans the individual just because they are serving someone else. They carry themselves with a selfless pride, and no task asked of them is ever too great.
Today it seems like if you are not serving yourself then something must be wrong, that you are less than another who is demanding more service of others. How strange things have become indeed.
I’m with you in helping to shift back the tide in favor of honorable service. Let the opportunities come so that we can help restore this very valuable facet of nobility to the human race, for it is in service to one another that we demonstrate the reality of our higher nature.
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If one is looking to provide such service it almost automatically draws one into a position, of providing the unexpected.
I am Loving this consideration, and can certainly see it’s applicable relevance in every interaction, not just in business, but each and every person we have the privilege of sharing a moment with. From such a stance, everything would become quickly new and with vigilance the “ME’s” would quickly be banished for good, from such an ones experience of life, causing a much more generative and fulfilling existence!
Not just asking doggedly “how can I be of assistance” but realizing at depth that you are there to find a way to be of assistance, regardless.
Thanks for putting things into such a great perspective!
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Thanks for your words of Anticipatory Service. I very much appreciate considering “feeling the heart of another” without sharing sympathy. And to hear the concerns of another and to discern and address the deeper concerns at the same time. I can see how this can apply to my healthcare to service and look also forward to exploring and discovering more of what this means. It feels exciting and a fulfilling path to follow.
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It absolutely applies in the health care setting, in fact, I would venture to say that it is a key component to a truly effective health care system.
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Genuine service does require empathy, and I appreciate your distinction with respect to sympathy, where one person “buys” another’s feeling state. We don’t have to be buyers to be observant and alert. We can understand a person’s condition without necessarily agreeing with its basis. In any case, without being able to utilize empahy, we cannot perceive the concerns behind the concerns, as your story illustrated. And without such perception we can’t really anticipate the most important needs.
Behind all of this, it seems to me that there must be a passion to assist, a genuine care and concern for tothers that eclipses personal ups and downs, prejudices or moods. For anyone in any position, this quality will open the doors to a great career and an exemplary life!
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I’m not so sure that the passion to assist can be trained. If it could be, I image that we’d see many more organizations exhibiting exemplary customer service and delivering “wow” experiences each and every day. It seems to me to be a quality that must be drawn out through encouragement, inspiration and just the right amount of pressure. It takes more work but in my experience (in both giving and receiving such service) it’s well worth the extra effort!
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I agree you can’t train for this but you can reinforce this by acknowledging when it occurs. I believe that people who want to give this empathetic service seem naturally inclined but in noticing it others get to hear and see it modeled in fact. This adds value to your company, it’s true. But the largest benefactor is the individual that does it. It feels good. Updates please…thanks for the initiative.
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I think the main ingredients for this is hiring the right people and as the Ritz does making it a well known guiding principle. Interesting endeavor!
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How exciting! I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
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This kind of service is something that really can set a business apart in the eyes of the consumer. If more businesses treated their customers like a close friend instead of keeping them at a distrustful arm’s length, we would not hear so many of the customer service horror stories that have become so common.
I think anticipatory service is a great concept in general, and not only for business reasons. Like the example you gave in your story, when someone is able to articulate the deeper concerns of another person and confirm that they will be alleviated or fixed entirely, you have given a gift of great worth, but you also have the opportunity to receive one yourself. When you give selflessly like that (of which empathy is a necessary prerequisite), you enlarge your capacity for service, and you begin to see the world in a perspective that makes the challenges in life no longer insurmountable. Who could put a price on that?
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