Notetaking

Has anyone ever had a waiter or waitress who is not writing down your order?  Are you impressed?  More importantly, do you care that they are memorizing your order and are so smart they don’t need to write it down?  I can tell you I don’t care.  When I order food, I want the waiter or waitress to come back with the best version of what I asked them to bring me.  It’s a pretty simple relationship.  

  

How is this relevant to you?  Much like the fact that I am taking the time out of my day to sit at a restaurant, your current and future customers are taking the time out of their day to meet with you.  Why would they do that?  Their goal, consciously or not, is that you are going to come up with the best solution to help them reach and exceed their goals based on the information they give you.  The most effective way to remember the information they give you is to…TAKE NOTES.  

  

I prefer to take notes with pen and paper but understand some people like to use phones, tablets or computers to take notes.  If that is your preferred method, please make sure you announce to the people the meeting that you are using the device to take notes.  In addition, I would suggest turning the device to airplane mode, so you are not getting distracted by emails, texts, calls and other notifications. 

In the same way that we don’t expect waiters or waitresses to memorize your order, your customers do not expect you to memorize their goals they just want to have their time valued.