In The News

By Robert Desautels, Indianapolis CVA

It’s a word that gets a lot of use but may or may not be totally understood by all who subscribe to its meaning. I’m speaking of the word, “hospitality.” According to Webster’s New World Dictionary –Second Edition (2002), Hospitality means: “the act, practice, or quality of being hospitable.” The core word “hospitable” means “friendly and solicitous toward guests, new arrivals, etc.” So much for the textbook. Just what does it mean to those of us in what we like to call the Hospitality Business? This brief look inside this concept might not be a total definition, but if you’re encouraging people to visit your city, resort, hotel, convention facility, attraction, or restaurant, etc., it might be worth a few minutes to examine your hospitality quotient.

In deference to today’s cultural preference towards capsulizing our values, beliefs and likes, here are 10 good steps to treating customers in a way that will endear them to you and the entity with which you are affiliated:

1. Any act of being hospitable should be natural. Being yourself brings the best out in the real you. Your customer will figure it out if you’re not, and appreciate your genuineness if you are. It’s that simple.
2. Hospitality is fueled by the spirit. It’s that inward drive that meets your client before you even open your mouth. It’s the desire to be hospitable.
3. Hospitable people have an outward focus. They leave their own needs at the door.
4. Many sales training experts espouse the #1 commandment of hospitality that states: It’s all about them--not us. Their needs, their desires, their patterns of doing business, their personality, their habits, their goals and strategies to bring success to their endeavors should be understood by all of us who service our customers. We may or may not like the way our customers do business, but that’s not why we’re here. Get on board their train and you’ll get to their destination with them.
5. Language is more than words, phrases, questions, e-mails and letters. We need to understand what the client wants and must probe, even to the point of embarrassment, to make sure we understand what the client wants and needs. Contracts, work orders, verbal requests, e-mails written in e-mail language and script can be misinterpreted. Fully understanding what is meant is the goal; not achieving it can be disastrous.
6. At some time during the process of serving our customer, we would do well to step back and ask ourselves, “Am I really connecting with my client?” The pressure the client and the service manager experience during the process of managing a convention or tradeshow might disrupt our full understanding of what is and is not important to our client.
7. Eliminate the appearance of frustration when dealing with demanding or difficult customers. They really don’t care if you’re frustrated. They have a schedule, need to meet it and expect some help in doing so. Staying ahead of them may avoid your frustration during pressure-filled times, and improve the relationship you and your client have with one another.
8. Your customer’s goals are yours. Merge the needs you have with theirs.
9. Above all, you are there to provide solutions. Being kind and cheery are wonderful traits but useless if your skills don’t provide answers that help your customer to do his or her job.
10. No one is indispensable or irreplaceable. But putting yourself out and providing quality service is the best way to allow yourself a chance to be hospitable again – when your customer makes the decision to return.