I love a sense of place. Whenever I can experience a city that has a distinct personality, I go out of my way to visit it because it is what I love most about traveling. With all the strip malls and chain restaurants taking over many parts of the USA, it is hard to tell if you are in Florida or North Dakota.
I recently had the hands down quintessential Texas sense of place experience. It filled me with awe and provided an opportunity to experience some of the Lone Star state’s artistry and panache. It taught me so many service lessons it was practically like a visit to Mecca for an established customer service teacher like myself.
Once again, I was supposed to be the teacher and I ended up being the one that was inspired and literally blown away by the participants. How did I end up in Luckenbach, Texas? One of the audience members at a keynote speech I gave for PAII, International Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers Association, was inspired and thought it would be great to bring me to the historic and special town of Fredericksburg. Invited by the Fredericksberg Chamber of Commerce and The Hospitality Association of Fredericksburg, Texas, I taught classes on The Spirit In Service and How to Manage the Spirit In Service and Make It Stick.
The Chamber opened up the classes to merchants, restaurants and business owners. It attracted people from Fredericksburg as well as surrounding areas. The whole experience was fabulous, starting with my stay at the All Seasons Downtown Retreat B and B and dinner at August E’s restaurant, with it’s sophisticated décor and cuisine, which could have been right at home in Manhattan. We also visited an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and the InSight Art Gallery that felt more like a museum than a gallery. I really enjoyed being in Fredericksburg and was delighted by the people, the place and the way the classes were received.
But the best part for me was a totally unexpected and absolutely stellar Texas experience. It all started when a few folks attending the class sat in the first row. Their willingness to sit up front, along with the waist-length ponytail and handle-bar mustache immediately caught my attention. Right off the bat they felt different. It’s always a good sign when people choose to sit up front because it means that they are there to learn instead of being skeptical and choosing to sit in the back thinking they can hedge their bets just in case it isn’t good.
I always go around to meet people before a class and introduced myself to the group up front, who were from Luckenbach. They were engaging and upbeat and made me laugh right from the start. I was intrigued and hung out with them at lunch. I learned all about where they worked and the expression they share on all tourist souvenirs, “Everybody’s Somebody In Luckenbach.” They told me that they hadn’t realized their tagline defined their customer service experience until they took my class. They invited me to stop by for a visit before I went to the airport and am I ever glad I did.
The time I spent in Luckenbach was an opportunity to see everything I teach put into action. It was like seeing my Neon Signs of Service book come to life. Not in a five star hotel, mind you, but in an bar, music venue and dance hall in the Texas hill country. If I wasn’t laughing so hard and having so much fun, I could have cried seeing every concept I have ever taught come to life right before my eyes:
The ME Sign
Service As A Performing Art
Bring Your Sense Of Humor To Work
Dance Through The Day
The Psychic Salary
Lights Camera Action
The stars of the show are Virgil and Hayden. They play off each other like the old comedic team of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Hayden says they are just like Dean and Jerry except that he is both the funny and the good-looking one. Virgil says Hayden has a great voice but too bad he has a radio face. When they are not playing Jerry and Dean, they are playing the Lee brothers, Ug and Hom. You just know they have said those lines ten thousand times, but it doesn’t sound like it. The two of them are playing it as if they have never said it before. Nothing is missing except the sound effects.
The tired old jokes are hysterical—all tongue in cheek with good old boy fun. There is so much love and passion and delight that you just want to spend money to buy a t-shirt, a drink, or a show ticket. Watching Virgil, who calls himself “The Store Guy,” sell a t-shirt is like watching a maestro conduct a symphony. He is in charge. It is his art form and he is on stage. He has a huge Planters Peanut Department sign above his head and he points to it saying he is the head of his department. When he displays the rhinestone-studded shirt he says, “This one is like braille, you just have to touch it.” Then he rubs his hands over it as if he is “copping a feel” and everyone cracks up.
I particularly liked Virgil’s story about spending 1967 to 1972 in the sixth grade. He never graduated because he had to leave to go to jury duty. He also made sure to point out the stuffed possum in a glass case, saying it was a very special “Himalayan possum” they had found him a laying in the road. His humor is so bad its good.
Hayden, a musician and former engineer, has his own shtick. When a customer was looking at the CD’s, he screamed across the room, “Sir, I promise if you buy one of those it will be a sound investment.“ He also explains that he put all of his money into CD’s, but they never matured. He says they all sound good but unfortunately they were the wrong kind of CD’s. Oh, and speaking of music, Hayden serenaded me with the famous Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson tunes about Luckenbach entitled “Back to the Basics.” I was smitten!
The one joke Hayden sometimes has to explain is when he says he puts 60% of his brainpower into writing music lyrics and the other 12% into everything else. In case you don’t get that it doesn’t add up to a hundred percent he’ll happily add it up for you. After all, on his business card his title is “Minister of DUH Fence.” I guess he is DUH fending his jokes too. He let me know when he bought my book after class that he reads real slow, so he hopes I wrote it real slow. AND he hoped it had pictures.
These guys are brilliant at playing dumb. Watching these guys work is like being at a living history museum, except it is a huge business. Seriously, these guys are operating a multi-million dollar business, all the while being playful, having fun, dancing through the day and sharing a unique and memorable experience for their customers. The punch line is they are doing all this and don’t actually own the business. The business is still owned by the family of the original owner, Hondo Crouch (real name, even the history is funny.) Hondo bought Luckenbach because he said Dallas wasn’t for sale.
When I walked in, Virgil, the west Texas saloon and general store keeper (also head of what he calls “Social security”) tipped his hat and provided the perfect greeting, “Good Golly Miss Holly.” When I left, I think he gave me the best compliment I ever had in my career. He said, “Even when you know you are really good at what you do, you can still learn something. And you, little lady, have something to teach that everyone can learn from. Thank you for yesterday.” He tipped his hat and walked away. With spurs clicking in the distance, I got in the rental car and drove to the Austin airport. I was overwhelmed with good vibes and living proof that the expression, “Everybody’s Somebody In Luckenbach,” is not simply a marketing ploy, it is the truth.
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