As long as I've been in the hospitality business when it comes to great customer care you will always hear someone saying the Americans do it best. This I have always found an amazing statement that a whole nation in some way has the ability to breed people naturally tuned to great service, or is the service so bad in the UK that any nation must be better?

I don't believe either statement. On a recent trip to New York we visited Liberty Island. With our 'golden tickets' in hand allowing us to climb inside the Statue of Liberty up to the crown we crossed on the ferry from Battery Park. While we were on holiday, I never switch off to what’s going on around me and I felt in this site of national pilgrimage I was having two very different customer experiences.

The National Park Service employees in their pressed uniforms guided, assisted, and enlightened. They oozed passion and pride in equal measure of the site and their role. At lunch time we when into the cafe near the jetty, what a change. This was a concession operated since 1931 by Evelyn Hill Inc a sign proudly told us. Did these employees want to be there, nor did they oozed the legendary New Yorker welcome, and to top it all for the first time in a long time I was told that I could not have fries and onion rings with my burger because the 'computer says no!'

Great service is always down to each individual not just a brand or concept. It is up to each team member to 'choose their attitude' every day and leave the right lasting impression on every guest.

My Liberty Island experience goes to show very clearly that within one tourism site the two groups of employees did not have the same managers or the same values and felt very differently about their role and the impression they left with visitors. It is our job to inspire and lead with passion every day else why will our employees leave the right impression with each and every guest.

Thursday is the National HR Conference in Ireland and for the second year   I will be the sticky tape between each of the great contributors. As conference MC I have the privilege to see in advance the presentations from each speaker and get familiar with the conference content.

This year the focus is all about HR and our USP in business and what we can add to a business. Great theme and a lot less doom and gloom than has been going around in the last year. yes time are hard, very hard for HR and especially trainers, but in difficult times the HR function has a great opportunity to add value to the business. Of course we can help reduce costs, but HR can also add to the bottom line and should be there at the management table when ideas are needed to generate more revenue not just cost cut.

How are you adding to business revenue? What about considering some of the themes of this years conference in your business plan for 2009/10 - Driving Business Excellence, Alternatives to redundancy Return on Investment, Leadership Development, Managing a team in recessionary times.

See you at the conference or visit www.ihi.ie post conference to see the best bits!!

I was in Manchester today and needed a quick lunch on the go. I headed into 'Philpotts' a sandwich / deli shop. Those in the northwest will have seen them springing up everywhere and the seem to be spreading south as on a recent visit to Croydon saw one there as well!!

With growth often comes a drop in standards as it becomes hard to convey to each new opening team the spirit and values of the business. On my visit to the brand on New York Street how wrong can you be. It's just before 12 noon and the place shines like a new pin, the counters are filled with fresh ingredients for today's sandwiches and the team is dressed in their traditional black and white uniforms. But its early and I am ready for a feeling of being unwanted again who wrong I was, the team here really delivers, welcomed with a bright smile on the sandwich counter and a little engaging conversation about my lunch with a change to upgrade my sandwich to a 'seeded roll' in the conversation. My sandwich (and yes I did up grade!!) is wrapped and passed to me with thanks. I approach the till and the employee drops what he is doing to serve me, no waiting around or feeling I am interrupting a staff meeting here. A warm smile is given and great eye contact, somehow it makes me feel he knows what he is doing and he'll charge me the correct prices. All is packed in my paper bag with napkin and cutlery for my order without me having to ask. He wishes me a good afternoon and I'm on my way, lunch in hand and my spirits lifted - good customer care in the city centre is not dead!!