The Million Dollar Greeting ― Today Best Practices for Profit, Customer Retention, and a Happy Workplace

Veteran hospitality expert Dan Sachs interviews top business leaders to reveal how extraordinary customer service brings high profit, brand loyalty, and a vibrant workplace, and to share how you can implement their techniques in your own business.

For more than twenty years, Dan Sachs has helped established and emerging businesses use hospitality practices to strengthen employee moral, customer retention, and profits. In The Million Dollar Greeting, readers accompany Sachs as he travels across the United States and Canada, interviewing leaders from both large and small companies, including:

• Ari Weinzweig (Zingerman’s Delicatessen)
• Rob Siefker (Zappos)
• Mike McDerment (FreshBooks)
• Steve Hindy (Brooklyn Brewery)
• Richard Coraine (Union Square Hospitality Group)
• Mark Hoplamazian (Hyatt Hotels)
• Paul Speigelman (BerylHealth)
• Jerrod Melman (Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises)
• Nick Sarillo (Nick’s Pizza & Pub)

Each of the companies featured is consistently profitable with its success directly tied to its exceptional customer service and its employees who rank their organization in the top tier of places to work in North America.

The original words of the business owners, including their practices, are shared and analyzed by Sachs. Instructional takeaways are written for the business world as it exists in 2018 and with consideration for expected changes over the coming years. Topics covered include answering the question of what modern-day hospitality is and why it matters in the digital age; what interpersonal practices, such as the use of empathy, lead to brand loyalty, high financial rewards, and the retention of top employees; how to create a dynamic work culture and the best ways to support employees of different age groups, from baby boomers to millennials; and what practices will grow increasingly critical for businesses to implement over the coming years.

Dan Sachs is the president of Meerkat Restaurant Advisory, an A-list restaurant advisory group, and a professor of entrepreneurship, hospitality management, and service leadership at DePaul University. From 1999–2015, he owned a restaurant group, Bin36, where he developed and operated several wine-focused restaurants. He has worked with a variety of famous restaurateurs including Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, and Paul Bartolotta. He has an AB from Harvard College and a master’s degree from the Parisian culinary school École de Cuisine La Varenne. He lives in Chicago, IL.

Janet Scott is a writer and the owner of The Write Place, a corporate communication and academic support company. She worked for many years in journalism and marketing, and taught for twelve years at Wayne State University. She has an AB from Harvard College and a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University. She lives in Detroit, MI.