hos·pi·tal·i·ty –noun, plural -ties.
1. the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.
2. the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.
When I was sitting in a strategy session with one of my clients last week, a strange word came up on their list of beliefs: Showing hospitality to their customers. The word “hospitality” seemed misplaced in a paragraph of company goals and mission statements. However, the more I thought about it, the more I knew this client got it right.
Liz Strauss, one of the most influential bloggers on the web, says that “You are only a stranger once” and talks about all the things that she learned from her father, the bootlegger and saloon owner. She also got it right too.
Serving the customer and making them feel satisfied is so much like receiving “guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.” However, we often overlook the role that hospitality plays when a customer visits our office, factory or when we travel with a them on the road. It’s not about taking customers out to expensive dinners or buying them fancy gifts. It’s about focusing on them and making them feel welcome.
Hospitality also means slowing down to connect. We are all in such a rush (including me) to accomplish so much today, this morning, this hour, and this minute, that when we do finally interact with our customers, we do not slow down to truly connect with them to form a trustful and long lasting relationship that can only be good for our business.
How do you show hospitality to your customers?
Want to take the next challenge? How do you show hospitality to your employees everyday?
