“I’ll See You Tomorrow!”

It definitely wasn’t what I expected.

I stopped by the Wendy’s drive through on my way home from church on Sunday. I went through the traditional song and dance with the order taker: place order. Wait for total. Pull up. Hand over cash. Get food. Mumbled thank you. Saturated Fatfest begins.

Except the mumbled thank you didn’t happen. Instead of canned gratitude, the Wendy’s lady said, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

It caught me off guard.

I don’t think anyone in the history of drive throughs has ever told me that.

But it made me think: what kind of a job do we do inviting our first time guests to come back for a second round? Instead of “Thanks for coming” or “Have a great week,” would we ever consider “See you next Sunday”?

In his book How to Wow, Mark Waltz likens it to getting a first date, but being left to wonder if there’s a second opportunity. Without a follow up phone call, text, email, flowers…how do we know if they want us back?

Many times, our “scripts” look backward. We talk about what a great service it’s been. We thank people for showing up. And while those things are entirely appropriate, what if we looked forward instead? What if we set expectations and lodged a few preliminary plans along the way?

Truth be told, Wendy’s didn’t see me on Monday (that’s Chick-fil-A day). But I appreciated them asking. It was out of the ordinary. And scripted or not, it made me believe just for a second that they actually would’ve like to had me back.

Are you inviting ’em back?

Related post: Liam Neeson and Bad Goodbyes

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