Brainstorm: How can you provide Unreasonable Hospitality to your customers?

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers, 

We hope you’ve started to dive into reading Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara! Last week we kicked things off with a baseline discussion on your own experiences with exceptional hospitality. Today we’re covering what Unreasonable Hospitality is, and exploring how to provide it to your customers.

What is Unreasonable Hospitality?

The author explains that providing small acts of hospitality can absolutely thrill your customers, make it feel like you’re performing magic, and make their experience with your business a story that they’ll remember forever. Delivering incredible service for someone in a time of need can transform their day, relieve sorrow even for a minute, and create a deep emotional connection for them with your business. 

It’s thoughtfully putting your customers needs first in a way that is deep and meaningful to them to create a catered experience. It can be something as small as giving a genuine welcome and having a meaningful conversation, a personal touch of remembering a birthday or a family detail, an act of service like feeding their parking meter, or a Surprise & Delight gesture of providing a welcome gift or thank you goodbye gift. It should be something thoughtful and meaningful to your customers that fills a need that they have, and references a conversation you’ve had together. 

How can you provide Unreasonable Hospitality?

Now let’s brainstorm ideas for our own businesses, and give each other some suggestions too!

Again, this is a pure brainstorm here, no idea is too big or extravagant. This is Unreasonable Hospitality, after all. Only after you’ve found some big ideas that you like, then next time we'll figure out how to do it in an affordable, scalable, and realistic way. 

Share your answers in the comments:

1. Tell us about your business: What is your industry? How do you currently serve your customers? What common needs do your customers have? What are the deeper reasons they come to you? 
2. What are some new ideas of ways you could provide incredible tailored experiences for your customers? No idea is too big!
3. Reply to other members’ comments and share some ideas that could help them. Having an outside perspective is extremely valuable! 

Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about this book. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Don’t forget to:

• View and Subscribe to all threads about this book

Happy reading,

Pesso

[Pesso]

Every time you share about your business, I learn something new and get a deeper understanding -- thank you so much for all the details @CareyJo !

I think because of the expense (often being unexpected and sudden), having some type of free gift could be a nice touch to lessen the sting of the cost. It always seems to happen at the worst time, right? Around holidays, or before/after a vacation -- when else and what are the other typical circumstances? These are just regular people who are facing this challenge.

Maybe leaning into the "I understand and am sorry for the inconvenience" aspect of it. What could you give that could play into that? Maybe a box of gourmet cookies/candies around the holidays, if someone says "of course this would happen on my birthday/anniversary!" you have some greeting cards or other tiny gifts ready to go to just sign and leave with the invoice.

What else like that could work specifically for you based on your experiences of your customers' needs?

[GoalGetter]

I sell educational children's books, puzzles, games, & toys for newborns to young adults. I do local events and book fairs at schools & child care facilities.

My goal is to discover the individual needs of each customer. I ask questions to get to know them and the children they are shopping for, whether they are looking for a fun gift or seeking resources to improve specific skills like reading, math, social, or science.

I also offer a chance to come together as a community through fundraisers. These events are a great way to raise money for organizations like dance teams, schools, and churches, and allow me to give back to my community.

I'm truly passionate about what I do, and I do prefer to talk and share my products with people in person rather than on social media.
I started my business two years ago, and I've been working hard to share content on social media that I believe is helpful. I invite parents & caregivers to join my Facebook page, where I share tips, resources, and book reviews. Here are a few examples of my weekly posts:

Make It Monday Activities: I provide step-by-step instructions on fun crafts that go along with one of my products.
Tuesday Teasers: I show images or a video of books and give a review
Wednesday Wisdom: I provide family reading time tips

I also create posts around national holidays and share my products. For example, on National Popcorn Day, I shared a science book and gave an example of how, with popcorn, there are three different ways to learn about heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. 

I have many more ideas that I'm excited to share, and I'm always looking for ways to improve. However, it's a slow process, and I don't have much of a following yet, so I get discouraged and tend not to be as consistent sharing on social media as I know I should.

[CareyJo]

You will get there!  Just keep being consistent!  I was in the home party plan with five different companies over the course of 30 years.  Consistency is always key and you have a great opportunity to offer UH to each of your clients because you have the gift of working with them one on one.  Even if you're doing a home party or similar style event, you still get to make one on one connections that are priceless.  Best of luck in your growth!

[Pesso]

I love all of this, @GoalGetter -- thanks for sharing! 

Maybe make a list of all of the typical things & occasions that people come to you for, like what you started with gifts and learning -- then taking that and seeing what you could do that's repeatable for each of them. 

Maybe it's throwing in a free fun pencil/eraser, or learning flash card for each subject, for those who come in for learning resources. Or having a grab bag of tiny 5 cent toys, or small greeting cards (either signed by you, or blank for the buyer to sign so they don't need to make another stop to buy a card), to give one for those coming in to buy a book as a gift for a child. 

Those social media posts are great -- are they ways that you can incorporate that more directly into the experience of buying with you?

I love those craft instructions and reading time tips! Maybe you can have those printed up on cards to give out to your customers for free with certain purchases, too. 

I'd love to hear any other ideas you have!

[GoalGetter]

Thanks for the suggestions; it has reminded me of some additional things I do give away and gave me some ideas to try for future events. 

I forgot I give out free bookmarks with every purchase, and sometimes, when a child stops by and really wants one, I give them a bookmark. 

Also, we have special books that use flashlights to see the images on the next page. So, I do give out a free flashlight with each purchase of that type of book.

I love the idea of having some sample cards printed out of crafts or reading tips; I think I will put together some for different ages and interests.

Thanks!

[Pesso]

That's so wonderful that you do all of that, @GoalGetter ! It really is the small things like those that make an experience truly fantastic. 

I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with seeing some of those cards in action! 

[ryanwanner]

Being in the coffee biz, it's tough to get to the levels of UH that Will did with his restaurants. People don't have the same level of understanding of coffee as they do restaurants. There's a definite difference between a local fine dining place than a drive thru fast food joint, but in coffee there really isn't that kind of identifier--yet. At least, not to the average consumer. A venti Caramel Macchiato should be able to be purchased at any Starbucks or indie coffee shop, right? It's just coffee, right?

To me, that's where we can take it up one step towards Unreasonable Hospitality. Show the difference between the chains by focusing on quality, education (when requested), and not having the snobby barista attitude when someone comes in and tries to order their venti. After that, I firmly believe in knowing regular's names, finding and spoiling first timers, and embracing the community where the shop is located. Coffee shops are a dime a dozen anymore, so I feel it's my job to make people embrace what I'm doing. Going beyond into Unreasonable levels though? That's a toughie. At home pourover bars? Coffee workshops? Taking some of the uber-regulars on trips to coffee growing countries? All that can come at a significant price, which is harder to absorb with $7 drinks than it is with $100 plates.

[schaefferjosh]

Ah yes, the typical venti with a side of eye roll lol. I can absolutely see how it differs and UH is not a one size fits all. This is part of the reason I like our small local coffee joints. They generally know you and give back to the community they serve as well. We had a coffee shop donate black coffee for a warming house here in michigan a while back. Did they have to? No, but they did. And that kind of action sticks with people. 

[CareyJo]

We have a small, local coffee shop in our town who also happens to be a bakery.  She has a few of her grandma's vintage recipes that she baked and she makes all kinds of things.  She started out all by herself, no employees and has grown to two locations.  She still bakes fresh donuts every morning.

One of the things that she started when she opened was giving a small cookie for free with each coffee.  It's in a flat paper bag, one of those white ones, with her rubber stamp 'seal' on the outside.  She took the time to write a quote on each bag.  Some of them were out of this world, but all genuine and she put the author's name on them.  I saved quite a few of them and created a collage of them on a huge board that I decorated for her one year anniversary.  There were times that she would look at the stack of them and choose one based on the customer.  She has given me a few that she knew specifically represented me as a person.  She also took pics of a lot of them and used them as a daily post on FB for promotions.

It was huge and everyone loved it!  I don't think she's doing it anymore because she's too busy now but it really got her noticed and it felt like that UH that we're all looking for - it was a special and personal touch!

[ChickenRacer]

That's a great story!  That's the kind of thing people remember. My business has hit a point where this is more difficult to emulate small things, but not big enough to have the budget to do it easily haha

[Pesso]

I love that, @CareyJo -- thanks for sharing! It really hits on a few things from Unreasonable Hospitality:

• A free gift -- going above and beyond to give something that the customer isn't expecting, but goes really well with what they're coming to you for already -- what goes better with coffee than a cookie?
• A personal touch -- having quotes handwritten is incredible and shows the effort and care involved, and picking out a quote individually that fits the person is huge!
• Repeatable -- batching them to have a full stack ready to go is super efficient and a great way to cut down effort and cost in the moment.

Such a great example to share, thank you!

[Pesso]

That's so true, @ryanwanner -- it's a lot "easier" to do it in expensive fine dining than it is for quick-serve coffee. And I agree with you that there are definitely ways to do it!

Quality, education, and positive attitude are such a great foundation -- and I love that idea of spoiling first timers. What does that look like? Can you take that and use it to spoil non-first timers too, just any and everyone? 

I love that you're thinking about the big ideas!

Maybe there are other things you can offer that can be on-demand and lean into unreasonable:

• Could short roastery tours/peek-ins work? It could feel like an exclusive experience and peek into behind the scenes, and cheaper than a flight to Colombia.
• Maybe giving 1-3 free chocolate covered coffee beans with every cup? Or even just a non-chocolate one, that folks could see & feel & smell the work you put into each cup.
• Why not do workshops? You can absolutely charge $$ for them! You can also do specialty tastings, either for free or for a fee.
• If you don't want to get into tasting sessions, offering up a free tiny 2-sip taste of a new roast/varietal on certain days / every day. 

[ryanwanner]

Novel thinking my friend!

All four of your ideas are percolating in my idea book already, it mostly comes down to the best way to successfully implement them into the bar. I especially like the 2-sip taster day idea.

[Pesso]

So glad that they resonated a bit and lined up with ideas you've already had, @ryanwanner !

Well this thread is just for brainstorming, we'll do a scalability & practicality thread in a few weeks, haha. 

But I think they're totally doable in some shape or form! 

[Pesso]

Also I recently went to a coffee/tea house and thought of you -- they had a wall of "pay it forward" tickets, where folks could pay for anything they'd want to give to someone else, the staff would print out the ticket/receipt and put it on sculpture on the wall, and anyone who wanted on any given day could come in and grab one and redeem it. The wall was full and no one was using them, so it didn't look like folks were taking advantage of it, which was really cool. Obviously wouldn't work everywhere and would take a bit to get started, but it's a cool thing somewhat inline with UH.