“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou
I was thrilled that we were able to bring CEO Think Tank® alum Eileen Wainwright back this year for our Annual Retreat at Grace Winery.
Eileen and I have known each other since we met almost two decades ago at a Philly 100 Event when she was working as the #2 at a rapidly growing company in the telecom space. Since then she’s grown and exited two companies, started her own consulting business, Wright Impact Group, and been a wing woman for me as I’ve grown CEO Think Tank®
The focus for our retreat? Digging into our strategies for creating a robust and unforgettable customer experience using the principles of “UnReasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara. Will is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality, which chronicles the lessons in service and leadership he learned over the course of his career in restaurants, culminating as the co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which, under his leadership, was named the Best Restaurant in the World. And luck for us, Eileen is a Certified Unreasonable Hospitality Coach!
Our enlightened leader community took a deep dive into their Customer Journey Advantage Maps as part of the day, generated ideas to elevate their Customers’ experiences and learned how to create memorable experiences for their employees and their clients. More importantly, they also learned how to systematize and sustain those changes.
“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” – Teller
So many takeaways! Here’s just a few of mine:
- Hospitality is your #1 competitive advantage. Eventually someone will come around and build a better product or a stronger brand than you. The only competitive advantage that exists over the long term comes through hospitality.
- Be strategic in your Customer Touchpoints. No one can be the best at everything so choose the areas where you want to be the best in class and focus on those.
- As you think about ways to ELEVATE your touchpoints, consider these questions:
– How could you tweak or transform your negative interactions?
– What’s something you could add in the moment that would change the experiences of your customer?
– In what ways could you take simple, positive interactions and transform them into incredible experiences?
– How could you go above and beyond to treat your customer like a VIP?
– How can you make the overlooked moments noticeable?
- Make sure to identify the touchpoints that don’t happen for everyone but do happen for some regularly. These are recurring moments, and you should be paying attention to them. Anticipate them, have a plan for how to react and create a magical moment.
- Use rules and ownership to systematize the touchpoints you want to elevate and manage implementation through your Execution process.
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“Hospitality isn’t just about making people comfortable. It’s about making them feel honored and marking a moment as meaningful.”
– Will Guidara
Tags: Business advice for the mid-market, Executive Education for Small Business, Leadership Development for Small Business, Leadership Development in New Jersey, Leadership Development in Philadelphia, Strategic planning for small business