Why It’s Time to Rebuild from the Ground Up: Creating Service That Actually Sticks
May 09, 2025
In nearly every Club I step into, I meet well-meaning, good-hearted staff. They smile, they care, and they want to get it right. But somewhere between the pressures of day-to-day operations and the assumption that "good service" is common sense, the fundamentals have started to slip.
Not because people are lazy. Not because they don’t care. But because they haven’t been shown how to build truly exceptional service from the ground up.
For years, many Clubs have relied on the "top-up" method of training:
- One quick refresher session here
- A new SOP added there
- An assumption that a staff member who’s been here a while will "know what to do"
But let me ask you: Would you build a house this way?
Exceptional service is a structure. And if the foundation isn’t strong, if teams don’t share the same core skills, language, and expectations, you’ll forever be fixing cracks in the walls.
So, what’s changed in 2025?
Guests are more informed, more vocal, and less tolerant of inconsistency. Teams are juggling more, dealing with increased external pressures, and often working across multiple generations and cultural expectations. It’s not enough to say, "Just be polite".
Teams today need to be:
- Emotionally intelligent
- Skilled in recovery and de-escalation
- Adaptable under pressure
- Clear and confident communicators
- Proactive problem-solvers
These aren’t extra skills. They are the foundation of great service.
Now rebuilding from the ground up doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you care enough to stop patching and start strengthening. It means giving your team a shared language. It means showing them why service matters and how to deliver it.
It means being intentional about the words we use, the way we handle pressure and how we make every guest feel seen, not processed. Because when that foundation is strong, consistency follows. Which is why our Customer Service Excellence & Engagement Workshops cover all these skills - leaving your team both inspired AND equipped.
Great service is never an accident. It’s built with intention, clarity, and care. If your guest experience feels inconsistent... If your team is well-meaning but underprepared... If your standards feel more like suggestions than expectations... Then it might be time to rebuild.
And that’s not failure. That’s leadership.
