Hey Square Readers,   We’re continuing our discussion of Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, and so far we’ve started with an opening discussion of your own experiences with exceptional hospitality, and brainstorming how to provide it to your customers. Today we’re talking about creating that culture internally first, and empowering those who work with you.   A big piece of this book is actually leadership development. The author explains that giving your customers a great experience really starts with first creating a positive culture within your business of kindness, caring, and trust. If you have a partner or employees, enabling and empowering them is key because you can’t provide great service if you’re having organizational or staff issues. He says that if you want to treat your customers well, then you first need to treat your team well, by having logistics down and a great employee culture.   The author says that this starts by hiring the right people for your business; not settling for anything less than someone who could become a top contributor on your team. Next, it’s training them to internalize your business’ mission; taking time to communicate with them in order to inform, inspire, connect, and provide positive reinforcing feedback & praise. Then getting to know their strengths, and assigning them roles accordingly. With that, you can demonstrate trust in them by giving them responsibility and ownership over elements of the business, which they can transform to provide an exceptional customer experience. You worked to hire the best people, now trust their judgment and expertise to help you run your business.    So let’s take these concepts and look inward at your own businesses. Share your reflection to these questions in the comments, and don’t forget to respond to other members’ messages with your thoughts too!    We’d love to hear your answer in the comments: How can you train your employees to: 1) internalize the impact your business can have on customers’ lives, and 2) give your customers a deeper level of hospitality? What work and responsibilities, areas of your business can you give ownership over to your team, in service of providing an exceptional customer experience? What is holding you back from giving your employees more control?  How can you systematize giving more positive feedback to your team on a regular basis?     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   ... View more

Hey Square Readers,   Welcome to another round of the Square Readers Book Club! Today we’re starting our next book for January & February 2025, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara!      This book is all about giving a truly incredible hospitality experience to your customers. It dives into key strategies and tactics that the author has used in the restaurant industry, with transferable lessons you can use in your business. Its focus is on creating a culture of excellence and care, empowering employees to enable it, and using small gestures to blow your customers’ minds.   As we start reading the book, we’ll kick off our conversations with a baseline of your experiences giving and receiving exceptional customer service. I’d love to hear about you and how you have received great hospitality, and given it in your business, so share your story in the comments!   So let’s talk: What’s a great customer service & hospitality experience you’ve ever received?  How do you currently deliver an outstanding customer experience, in big and small ways?  What questions are you hoping to have answered by reading this book?   For some extra fun, share a selfie of you with the book here in the comments!    Don’t forget to: View and Subscribe to all threads about this book   Happy reading! Pesso ... View more

Hey Square Readers,   You voted and chose Obviously Awesome by April Dunford as our Square Readers Book Club book for March & April 2025!     Here’s a quick summary: Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love it “You know your product is awesome—but does anybody else? Forget everything you thought you knew about positioning. Successfully connecting your product with consumers isn’t a matter of following trends, comparing yourself to the competition or trying to attract the widest customer base. Obviously Awesome, shows you how to find your product’s “secret sauce”—and then sell that sauce to those who crave it. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer or salesperson struggling to bring inventive products to market, Dunford’s insights will help you find your awesome, so that your customers can too.”   We’ll start reading on Monday, March 3rd, so get ready and pick up a copy at a local library, bookstore, Amazon, or anywhere else! We’ll have discussion threads and conversations all throughout the two months, so keep checking back to the Square Readers Book Club.    Here are the next books we’ll read together: May & June 2025: Atomic Habits by James Clear July & August 2025: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss September & October 2025: Company of One by Paul Jarvis    Are you interested in co-hosting this or a future Book Club Session? Check out our Hosting Guide for more details, and leave a comment below to let us know!   Don’t forget to: View and Subscribe to all threads about this book   We can’t wait to read with you! Pesso   ... View more

Hey Square Readers,   We’re almost at the end of Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, and so far we’ve talked about your experiences with hospitality, then how to provide it to your customers, and empowering your team to provide it. Today we’re pulling it all together in talking about how to scale it by finding realistic ways to be able to provide an exceptional experience to each and every customer.     “People often confuse hospitality with luxury… Luxury means just giving more; hospitality means being more thoughtful.”   Unreasonable Hospitality is not about providing a mind-blowing experience to some customers, it’s about elevating your service to provide an incredible experience to each and every customer. To do that, it needs to be scalable, repeatable, realistic, and affordable. Giving your customers an experience and a story that they’ll carry with them forever doesn’t have to be expensive, and can be done simply by attention to detail, like adjusting lighting and music, or your greetings and stationary choices. This shows customers you care, and when you pay attention to the little things, you end up paying even closer attention to the big things.    The author recommends being in the pursuit of making a genuine connection, and taking the experience from transactional to relational. He cautions to avoid burnout, making sure that adding a new element doesn’t lead to sacrificing in other places. The key is to systematize your experience by preparing for the recurring moments you know your customers come to you for, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. Make things repeatable like keeping a stock of birthday and anniversary cards, giving out dog treats or $0.25 kids toys; anything that shows that you’re listening, paying attention, and anticipating your customers’ needs.    So let’s dive into sharing ideas of how you can make your unreasonable hospitality just a little bit more reasonable and doable for your business.    Comment below to: Share your 1-3 ideas of how you can provide exceptional customer service (feel free to use ones from our brainstorming discussion).  How can you systematize these ideas to be able to give that to everyone, and make it repeatable, affordable, and realistic on a day to day basis?  What have you tried in the past, and what will you try moving forward?   If you’re not sure or stuck, ask for help in the comments! And feel free to respond to other members to share your perspective and ideas, too.     Don’t forget to: View and Subscribe to all threads about this book   Happy reading, Pesso   ... View more

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: 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?  What are some new ideas of ways you could provide incredible tailored experiences for your customers? No idea is too big! 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   ... View more