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As many of you know I recently went on a Christmas cruise with my family to Mexico. While the cruise was an absolutely awesome experience, what really blew my mind was the level of customer service. I don’t know if all cruise ships are like this, but Royal Caribbean was absolutely impeccable when it came to customer service. Every night of the cruise we had a formal 3 course dinner. Each course had almost 7 different options. When we couldn’t decide between options, we just ordered two things. If you still are eating like this, read my guide over at Lifescapeartists on dumping your holiday weight gain. Let’s move on to what I learned about charisma from my cruise ship waiter.
Remember Names: In the guide I wrote here on How to get Free Drinks and get Treated like A VIP everywhere you go, I shared one of my greatest tips which was to remember names. By the second night at dinner our waiter knew all of our names and called each of us by our first name. Considering he sees thousands of people every year, that’s incredible. I expanded more on this concept in a guest post I wrote at Lifestyle Design 4 U.
Remember Details: When you remember the seemingly pointless details of another person’s life it demonstrates yet another charismatic quality. It shows that you care about other people. Our waiter seemed to remember every detail of our lives we told him. When I got back on the ship after the day in Cabo, he asked me how the surfing was. I think I might have made brief mention of my plan to surf in Cabo. Ironically despite effective listening, not being my greatest strength I do have a tendency to remember minute details of people’s lives.
Engage Your Audience: Even as a waiter you have the ability to engage your audience. Every night after our dinner was wrapped up, our waiter would have some sort of magic trick or dinner table party trick. While it was cheesy, it definitely kept him embedded in our minds. I will never forget this waiter. In fact he’s the inspiration for this blog post. While you don’t have to be a magician, finding a way to engage the audience is really key to coming across charismatic.
Be Warm: It’s been said before that 93% of communication is non-verbal. You can’t fake warmth, you just have to be it. When you are warm people can feel it. I’m sure you can recall experiences of interacting with a complete stranger where they gave off a certain warmth and energy. I’m sure you also have experienced the complete opposite. Our waiter was always all smiles and you could tell he was truly a kind person.
Be Personal/Vulnerable: I’ve said before that you really need to embrace your imperfections. They are what make you human. When you share personal stories people feel connected and comfortable. They feel like they can share a part of themselves with you. Our waiter told us about his two young kids back in India and in that moment he transformed from the guy who was our waiter to the father of two children. It really makes you see somebody in a different light.
Over the next year, I plan on working very hard on developing charisma and may even start a series here called the charismatic communicator series. One of my personal goals to achieve an extremely high level of charisma by the end of the year. I’ll share experiences from my own life, and others here.
It takes a number of years to become a head waiter aboard a cruise ship. The hours are long, the work is stressful and the pay is not great (tips are a LARGE part of their income). Only the very best make it and customer satisfaction is the thing that makes or breaks a cruise ship waiter's career. I wish more industries paid as much attention as the cruise lines, and RCCL isn't even one of the premier cruise lines. Wait until you see the service aboard MSC or Seabourn.
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