Why Every Business Needs a Hospitality Mentality

When people hear “hospitality,” the most common word associations include hotels, restaurants, or tourism. As we charge full speed ahead towards an ever-evolving society, hospitality is now bleeding into every industry and market. It is the perfect hybrid that bridges forward-thinking innovations and technologies while still preserving human connections to create improved business operations and workplace culture.

This innovative take on “hospitality in business” is the cornerstone of all brands and companies nowadays – not just in tourism, or in restaurants and bars. Companies that prioritize their clients’ or customers’ comfort, value, and needs develop longer-lasting relationships, thus increasing their brand reputation, recognition, and respect. 

It starts from the ground-up (literally)

Incorporating hospitality culture into a business model starts from the architecture and design of your store, facility, or workplace. People’s experiences – especially their first impressions, begin the moment they step foot into your space. The construction, layout, and design of your business should yield to your clients’ or customers’ exact needs. 

For example, retail spaces that look and feel “homey” offer more than just lounge seating by the fitting rooms. The space can transform into a customer’s own personal living space by incorporating warm-toned wood flooring, soft mood lighting, and various seating arrangements throughout. Doing so creates an environment for your customers to feel welcomed and cared for in your store. 

Other considerations to implement into company workplaces or stores include integrating sustainable construction, such as choosing wood over concrete. Spaces with more natural light and biophilic design are significantly proven to improve mental health and productivity. Adding digital elements can also create efficiency and self-reliance. However you choose to construct and design your store or workplace, maintaining a customer-first mentality will guarantee your business success.

Looking inward to serve outward

All businesses serve a purpose – whether it is to manage another business, provide entertainment to an audience, or sell a product to customers. However, before a company can captivate their audience’s attention, they must establish a strong comradery internally. Employees who are not treated with care are less likely to be productive in their work.

The key to building a strong company team begins with effective communication that serves all employees. Often, senior managers will neglect junior staff; therein lies the breakage in communication and respect. It is pivotal to create an environment with open dialogue across all levels of management, particularly for entry-level employees to feel comfortable enough and encouraged to voice their thoughts, insights, and concerns to senior management. Implementing team bonding activities, coffee chats, and other fun curriculars are also great ways to stimulate a positive workflow in the company.

Hospitality culture can be especially effective in HR. This department in many companies – especially larger ones, is typically stereotyped as cold and careless towards their employees. However, subtle changes in the HR department can have a massive impact on the rest of the company’s culture. For instance, in big companies where junior staff frequently get lost among the crowd, HR can include informal monthly or quarterly check-ins and offer support wherever needed. When lower-tiered employees are verbally recognized, they are more likely to increase their work productivity, as well as feel confident to voice their creative ideas to the team. As a result, brainstorming and strategizing client goals, campaigns, and objectives becomes much more efficient and productive. When employees are happy, clients will be, too. 

Hospitality is a personality

When you think of what it means to “receive hospitality,” attributes such as inviting, kind, warm, and considerate might come to mind. Likewise, it is beneficial for businesses to adopt these values in their daily communications and practices. Making hospitality the core of your business highlights your business’ care for its clients, consumers, and employees.

Hospitality-led companies have employees who not only treat their clients and consumers with kindness, but they are collaborative and communicate openly with each other. This starts with recruiting people whose personalities and characteristics reflect kindness, resourcefulness, empathy, compassion, and positivity. Simply put, when you have a team of negative thinkers, discouragement and demoralization can spread like wildfire. Contrarily, when you have a team of positive thinkers, engagement and excitement fill the atmosphere – people notice!

Having hospitality-spirited employees directly impacts the way clients and consumers are treated. A brand’s audience can easily tell if the business values them based on how they are treated. Moreover, companies that truly listen to their clients or consumers develop more trusting relationships. If customers voice complaints about a particular service or product, the company should take notice and implement attentive changes to better their service or product. This is what having a hospitality personality is all about – providing a caring, forward-thinking, and positive environment for employees and consumers alike.

Hospitality is more than just luxury services and tourism. It is a mentality and a practice that every industry should adopt. From retail and small services to large corporations, businesses worldwide are advancing at a rapid pace. Hospitality is the new “in” in every industry, and it is only going uphill from there.