Before I put down roots and stopped living out of a suitcase, I spent four years working on four different cruise ships around the world. It was an amazing time and allowed me to see more than 80 different countries while being paid to wake up in a new city every morning.

For the first two years I worked as a waiter in an 800 seater restaurant that provided 5 Star service to every guest. This included tableside fish filleting, flambe desserts and meat carving. It was service done the classic way and I learned methods of service that were completely alien to a young know-it-all from Cork.

One thing that was drilled into us again and again until we got it right was that the art of service is all about the guest not knowing it’s even taking place.

In other words, a guest never asks for their water glass to be refilled, never has to request a condiment with their meal, never has to ask for assistance and never is left under any impression other than that they are being taken care of royally.

And how does this happen? It happens when the waiter observes and doesn’t question, approaches when he is needed and always anticipates what the guest might need next. [...]

I love this new twist on giving things away and the old tired promotions that we have become blinkered to:

The Barbeque Joint in North Charleston is serving up more than just pork platters. In an effort to fatten up business, the restaurant’s owner decided to run a coupon for free hugs.”We were sitting around thinking of something to do. We’ve done buy one get ones and that type of stuff, and didn’t get a whole lot of response from it – or at least not new people. So, I thought well we’re placing the ad anyways – it would be funny,” said Cloud.

Customers say they are hog wild over the idea. ”I would totally use this coupon just because it shows the atmosphere here…that it’s fun,” said Christine Stewart, a first-time customer.

Cloud said he has been getting similar responses a lot lately. In the last two weeks we’ve had a lot of new faces come through.”

Are there any similar promotions you could run in your restaurant or bar? Look for promotions that can get media attention as well as customers. A little bit of creativity can go a long way.