Does Hospitality and Customer Service Still Exist In Business?

In a world that's becoming increasingly digitized, one might wonder: Does genuine hospitality and customer service still hold a place in business? This intriguing question stirs conversations and debates among consumers and industry leaders alike. 

In this blog post, we dive into the evolving landscape of service-oriented businesses to explore the existence and importance of hospitality and customer service. Curious?

 Read on to learn more about how these traditional business elements shape the modern world.

Understanding the State of Modern Customer Care

In the dynamic landscape of today's business world, one may wonder, "Does hospitality and customer service still hold their ground?" As a social media manager who interacts regularly with customers from diverse backgrounds, I can confidently tell you it does- and that many business owners are slacking at this art of business. 

Customer care has evolved significantly over the years. Previously confined to phone calls or face-to-face interactions at a storefront counter, it now extends across multiple digital platforms – email chains that resemble personal letters, tweets responded to within minutes, and direct messages on Instagram filled with product recommendations based on user behavior. 

This modern expression of hospitality is subtler but no less impactful on the customer journey. 

Changes in consumer expectations and technological advancements drive this evolution. Today's digitally-savvy consumers demand instant responses and personalized experiences—a tall order for businesses but one they must fulfill to remain competitive. 

Despite this shift towards digitization, at its core, customer service remains an exercise in empathy—a careful balance between addressing consumer needs effectively while maintaining warmth and approachability.

However progressive or seamless this digital migration may seem, we should remind ourselves that technology can never truly replace the human touch in traditional customer service models – genuineness cannot be programmed into algorithms.

 So, while chatbots might have quick answers ready at your disposal 24/7 - remember there's nothing quite like having your concerns addressed by another person who genuinely wants to help out because 'hospitality' isn't just about efficiency—it merges respectfulness with responsiveness, which is the foundation of trust. 

Hospitality Challenges Facing the Contemporary Business

As a Social Media Manager, I see firsthand the interactions between businesses and their customers. I am currently re-reading "The Nordstrom Way" because, in my humble opinion, I believe that Nordstrom is the GOAT of customer service. But in this digital age, do hospitality and customer service still hold any weight in business today? Because these two very important pieces of the overall business puzzle are going missing.

In this fast-paced world where transactions are often reduced to clicks and swipes on screens, genuine warmth and humanness could easily fall by the wayside. Even though technology has streamlined many aspects of business, creating more convenience for consumers, it has added layers of impersonality that can erode traditional notions of hospitality. Layers are not only present online but have also transitioned to the real-life aspects of life.

I am an avid boutique shopper, and I have been noticing more and more over the past few months how I am not greeted when I walk into the small business. I will look toward where the employee is sitting, usually near the POS, and actively engage in whatever is happening on their phone. Because of this, I am not as apt to make a sale. Let me clarify: I usually do my boutique and errand shopping on a weekday when many other people are not out and about. This observation isn't based solely on a weekend encounter or busy time of day. 

This is not to say that all businesses have fallen into this trap; some still prioritize excellent customer service above all else. Yet, they need help maintaining these standards while keeping up with technological advancements. On social media platforms - my area of expertise - we observe how brands try hard to establish authentic connections with their audience despite being behind screens most of the time.

However daunting these seem, remember that every challenge presents unique opportunities, too. Modern businesses now need creative strategies marrying technology with timeless principles such as empathy or listening —thus redefining what great hospitality means today— which I believe is possible if given enough attention and resources.

Reviving Strong Customer Relationship Values

The key to reviving strong customer relationship values is understanding that every interaction with your customers is an opportunity to showcase your commitment to them. This could be as simple as responding promptly and politely on social media platforms or going above and beyond to rectify a problem faced by a customer.

In this fast-paced digital era, where consumers have many choices at their disposal, businesses can no longer afford to treat customers as mere numbers or transactions. Instead, it should be about building relationships based on trust and respect, which often begins by extending genuine warmth—much like what we associate with the term' hospitality.'

When strategizing or posting on behalf of businesses, one of the big things I keep top of mind is, what is the ambiance like if this was a real place people could walk into? Is this a warm and inviting post? Does this make the scroller feel welcomed, or does it make them feel as if they are unwelcomed amid a mindless scroll and are too disassociated to look up and acknowledge them? 

This approach does more than increase sales; it fosters loyalty among customers who feel valued and appreciated—a feeling that's hard for competitors to replicate. 

Hospitality and Customer Service will set you apart from the 50 other businesses that do what you do.  

So, let's take time off our busy schedules once in a while for self-reflection: Are we talking AT our customers or TO them? 

Are we listening? 

Do they feel understood?

By consistently incorporating these principles into our daily operations — irrespective of whether you're an e-commerce store dealing with hundreds of orders daily or brick-and-mortar shops catering to locals —we can revive those strong relationship values that may seem forgotten but are quintessential for long-term success.

Remember: behind every tweet, email exchange, or phone call is another human being who deserves kindness and understanding – much like how you'd want yourself treated. And this is where genuine hospitality meets excellent customer service.

Contact Maven and Muse Media to get your social media, and customer service dialed in for you.

Content creation for social media marketing is an essential part of any successful campaign. It engages and entertains your audience, builds relationships, and ultimately grows your reach. Crafting the right type of content for your social media accounts requires some strategic planning and effort. 

So, what are you waiting for? Contact Maven and Muse Media to get your social handled for you and start seeing success today.

Recession Means Getting Back To Business Basics

Our current COVID-19 world is not business as usual. Many of our local businesses are closed or running on a limited or new business model; the word recession has come across our radar. If you were paying attention to the economy in late 2019, you also heard the word recession being thrown around as an omen for mid to late 2020. I asked Courtney of Homeroom, a Financial Strategist for Businesses, what are some things we can do now to prepare our businesses for a Recession. The following is contributed by her.

Jade asked me last fall (in 2019) to write a post about the general strategy for businesses during a recession. When I originally wrote this post, I obviously had no idea that we would be in the middle of a pandemic when the post was scheduled to be published. Given that we’re currently in the thick of it all -- and many business owners are wading through some real uncertainty (at best), it feels like perfect timing for this post, but also there is a caveat that needs to be given.

This is not like any other time we have EVER experienced. Yes, we’ve seen recessions before, and yes, we’ve had a worldwide pandemic before (~100 years ago), but we have never had either while we also have so much accessibility (for most businesses/people) to technology. These are quite literally unprecedented times! So while the bulk of the post that I wrote back in November is still relevant, it needs to be said that NOBODY knows what is going to happen in the coming weeks/months/years. It’s just as possible that our economy will bounce back as quickly as it halted, as it is possible that we will enter another worldwide depression. Obviously, the more likely reality is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

The point being is that there is no one cure for businesses. If anyone tells you they know what will happen next week or next month, and they have your business solution, be like Usain Bolt and RUN, far and fast. News changes not just by the day, but by the hour. As things develop, all of our businesses will be impacted, and nobody knows for certain the ripple effects (either good or bad) that will emerge in future months, years, or decades. Most importantly, there needs to be flexibility. We’ve seen things change at a moment’s notice, and those that are the most flexible and nimble will always find a way to float to the top.

What I had hoped to convey in my original writing (below), and what is still relevant today, are some tips that will be useful in any dramatic change to the economy.

Recession! It’s a scary word! And for good reason. 

I graduated from college in 2008. Many of my classmates couldn’t find a job, and some of their parents lost their jobs. Businesses were forced to cut expenses and downsize in order to survive -- and even worse, many small businesses didn’t survive. It took years for our economy to recover and for small businesses to finally bounce back to pre-recession numbers.

And now you’re thinking “Jade brought this clown into her blog, and she saw fit to scare me with nightmares of business’ past?! What gives?” And yes, it’s a grim picture, but fret not. I’m not here to fill you with fear. I’m here to give you hope.

Yes, of course when times are tough, it’s important to hit the books and re-strategize from a financial perspective -- but that’s likely to only get you so far. How do you stay sustainable? How do you keep the door revolving? Hint - it’s about really diving deep knowing the customers that are unique to your business (your target market).

The most pivotal element in creating a great business strategy is understanding the value of what you have to offer AND how it’s perceived/valued/used by your target market. In a recession, the latter is likely to change. Which means something in your business needs to change as well. And there are a few ways to start thinking about how your business will need to pivot.

1. Understand how your target market has changed (or is likely to change if your working on potential future scenarios)You’ll need to alter your marketing strategy to meet your target market in their current situation. In a recession, most consumer groups will tighten their belt. They are less likely to spend frivolously and even in large corporate situations, budgets will be scrutinized. You need to understand how tighter financial constraints are going to change the buying habits of your particular target market. Maybe it means simply altering your pitch -- you’ll speak about your value in different terms, or maybe it means altering what you offer -- perhaps bundling/packaging.
   

2. Change your target market and start to understand the new mindsetIf your pre-recession target market is no longer able to afford your services, you can’t keep begging them to come back. You’ll need to change who you’re talking to. Who is likely to value what you offer in a recession? How are they different? Does your marketing need to be altered to appeal to a new group?

As always, gaining a DEEP understanding of your target market is essential. People evolve. Customers evolve. Consumer behavior evolves. A recession is a jolt in buying habits. Instead of taking years to evolve, your current customers are likely to alter how they spend money in a matter of months. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed that the economy keeps steadily growing, but it’s always a good idea to hone your inner boy scout, and “be prepared”.

While all of this was a hypothetical scenario last fall, it’s real and relevant today. A few industries are thriving, but most businesses are reeling. It’s okay to take a moment and take stock.

It’s important to keep perspective, to know that things will continue to change.  Stay flexible, and keep your ear to the ground. Listen to your target market and respond authentically. If you have value to offer during these months, it’s okay to keep offering it. Be mindful of how your message is conveyed, but it’s important as a business to keep moving. Stagnation will likely result in a larger gap once the economy is moving all together again. If nothing else, it’s a great time to organize and create systems that you’ve never had time for in the past.

Also, know that we’re all in this together. Take care of yourself and your friends. Reach out to others to offer a (virtual) hand, and ask for help as you need it. Be safe, stay home (if you can), and keep moving. :)

Why Customer Service Is The Best Business Strategy You Could Ever Have

There is a Maya Angelou quote that says, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

Customer Service is at the heart of any business, be it a product or a service provider your customer service needs to be on point because if it is you will be rewarded a hundred times over with new customers and continue to retain current customers.

I recently had one of the most incredible customer service experiences that I’ve had in a while, and it involved a record store and the holy grail for my vinyl collection.

If you follow along with me on social media that I am a huge Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks fan, you might also know that I am building out a 70’s rock vinyl collection and refurbishing a 70’s system to listen to said vinyl. A record that has been on my list for years and one that will finish out my Fleetwood Mac collection is a copy of “Buckingham Nicks,” the only album released by Stevie and Lindsay which helped Mick Fleetwood find them when he was looking for a replacement when Bob Welch left the band.  

I have searched every flea market, garage sale, estate sale, and record store to find this elusive personal holy grail of music. Still, every record store, estate sale, or flea market that I went into, I would look and every time come up short until I walked into a record store in Victoria BC.

Turntable Records is in the tourist hub known as Fan Tan Alley; I had zero expectations for this place. I figured that I would walk in dig a little bit and then walk out, my experience with record stores in tourist parts of cities is not all that great. I walked straight to the Fleetwood Mac section and started digging; there was a lot, so much early stuff that I thought well maybe. A gentleman with a sizeable dark mustache came over to me and said, “Rumours is way in the back.” I said, “Thanks, but I already have that. I’m looking for something else.” The next record that I flipped was the cover of “Buckingham/Nicks,” I held it up and said, “This is what I’m looking for.” His entire demeanor toward me changed, in his body language, I went from some American Fleetwood Mac fangirl that only knows Rumours to a woman who is invested in all the music and history of this band. The next thing he said .”You know that those are getting incredibly difficult to come across.” He opened it up and said, “let’s take a listen.”

It was amazing. I had never heard any of these songs before that moment because it is not something that you listen to on Spotify when Stevie’s voice started singing my eyes filled with tears because I had found it, in fantastic condition. This man was teaching me more about this record that I didn’t even know.  

Gary is the owner and the gentleman that was along with me for my Buckingham/Nicks journey. While he held the door open for me to walk out, I felt as if we should hug or something because we had just shared that experience.  

The Turntable offers plenty of excellent condition vinyl products, their tiny shop in Fan Tan Alley is stocked to the brim with it. The customer service that Turntable sells is the experience. Selling the type of experience they do replaces any marketing budget; a satisfied customer is the best business strategy you could ever have because they will forever tell people about you. 

In Your Business: Money Is A Renewable Resource; Time Is Not

Money is a renewable resource; time is not.

Read that again.

The chances are that your business is not styling and taking 100 product photos to get just the right one. Your actual business is not researching and writing blog posts. Your business is not writing captivating scroll stopping Instagram and SEO rich Pinterest captions. Your business IS something else.

Your business is a physical product, or it’s a service that you offer and provide to other businesses. Your business and passion is most likely NOT creating the marketing content to bring awareness to your target market about YOUR business.

In the monthly 20-minute speed marketing sessions, the top three frustrations that I hear from other business owners are:

1. I loathe social media. I don’t know what photo to post, what to write or have the time to do it.

2. I don’t know what platform I should be concentrating the limited amount of marketing time I block out to reach my target.

3. I feel like no one is even engaging or paying attention when I post, so I just don’t post.

After we discuss these issues and we chat about the services that Maven & Muse provides it always comes down to money and not time. The phrase, “I wish I could afford to hire you.” gets thrown out a lot.

We are all good at something, that’s why we have a business. The skills that we lack we need to learn to hire out. We are a society of multi-taskers, because multi-tasking gives us a sense of purpose. We feel empowered because we are capable of doing ALL of the things, except we are not doing all of the things well. If we flip our focus to investing our time on the one thing that we do well and hire out the rest the money will renew itself and our business will grow.

I personally suck at keeping up my books, and I hate doing it every month. So I have hired out these services. It’s totally a pain in the ass to pay for something that I am fully capable of inputing into my Quickbooks but I know that I would rather do anything else then keep them up. The couple hours that I would spend doing this each month has freed up the time for me to personally write content and market my own services which has in turn brought in the money to pay for the bookkeeper.

I encourage you to actually sit down and think about how much time you are actually putting into feeling frustrated by creating your own businesses digital marketing content. I will put money on the fact that it is the same amount of hours that a content creator would charge you for.

Money is a renewable resource; time is not.

The Social Media Apocalypse What's Your Digital Marketing Back Up Plan

The social media apocalypse of Facebook and Instagram being down is happening. It’s March 13, 2019, Mercury in retrograde and we’ve been experiencing the biggest meltdown in social media history.

Since 8am PST people around the globe have been unable to get into both Facebook and Instagram. At the coffee shop today the world seemed a bit quieter, people are having these things called conversations with each other instead of being preoccupied with snapping a quick picture of their latte to put on their Instagram story. (Ahem I am guilty of this as well, sometimes.) I don’t know if this is because we are all secretly freaking out just a little bit.

I will say that I have enjoyed the silence of only having to focus on other digital marketing platforms for my clients that do not include a member of the “Facebook Family” for one day.

The real question we should be asking is, “ Will Facebook and Instagram be back tomorrow?” Honestly, that could happen. We could wake up tomorrow with the same messages on our pages, or they could be erased forever. As of this posting Facebook, reps are saying, “Facebook is down for required maintenance. We will be back soon.” Historically when huge expansive platforms such as Facebook and Youtube have done an update it’s only been 1-3 hours, as of this writing we are going into hour number 12.

If this outage has taught us anything it should be to not put all of your eggs in one basket. I’ve been saying it in talks and to clients since the first Zuckerberg Senate hearings, start thinking about your digital marketing backup plan.

If these platforms do not exist tomorrow, do you have access to your customers? Do you know your customer's email addresses and how to get in touch with them? The only real channels that are guaranteed for you to directly communicate with your customers or clients are your blogs and your email campaigns. I know these are such a pain in the ass to do. These digital marketing campaigns actually take a bit of time, I get that. You can’t post a pretty picture and write an emotionally touching caption to get your message out there. But you should start considering a plan B.

There are other great platforms to build a presence on as well Youtube and Pinterest are two that if you are not already tinkering around on you should at least begin investigating.

Lately, I’ve been pushing current clients toward my Pinterest management package because it is a powerful search engine that as of right now I don’t see going anywhere but up. The power of brand awareness that Pinterest offers is incredible if you know how to use it. Start here, you already have amazing photo content of your products which is half the battle, because you have been posting those awesome images to Instagram. Just start posting them with a good description to Pinterest as well.

Consider blogging as well, if you are a service based business or a product based business you have things to say, things that your target market IS searching for.

I am really thinking positive that the “Facebook Family” figures it out and that we are back in action soon but then again if they don’t we’ll figure it out. We are in this together.

Analyzing Your Online Efforts

If you are a business there is one intimate relationship that you need to be having. That is the relationship with your analytics. You should have an ongoing relationship with your Google, website and all active social media platform analytics. 

I know that you are out there reading articles about what is the ideal time to post to my account. While these posts aren't wrong in the posting times, they suggest just not work entirely toward when YOUR audience is active. The key to figuring out your ideal posting time is research, reading your analytic reports from Google and whichever other platforms you are focusing on. For example, you might be throwing all of your efforts into posting onto Instagram but you have 25% more traffic coming to your website from your Facebook page that you hardly ever update. This statistic should trigger in your brain to refocus your efforts and test for 5-7 days upping your Facebook posting habits to see if they remain the same, increase or decline. 

Every single one of the accounts I manage is different, some have a crossover on the niche, but each of their ideal clients is different and unique to them as a business. Therefore making the "sweet spot" of posting times different for each of them. I know this because I am in an intimate relationship with their analytics. I'm checking daily the report of the previous day, how many profile visits, how many website clicks, what time of day was this all happening. 

Social media isn't black and white it's a whole lot of gray. Things are continually changing, and you've got to regularly read your analytics and actively test to find what is working. If you're not you are wasting your time by putting in any effort at all.  I encourage you to peek your social media analytics, Facebook and Instagram will display for you your top three posts of all time. Take a look at them and study what is the same or different about them.  Study your location sources, I recently did an assessment for a client and the second and third most popular sources were coming from Canada which is a place we weren't even targeting, and the places we were targeting came in sixth and seventh. We had to refocus and study what we were throwing down and why we weren't getting the attention from the locations we were hoping too. 

It's tricky I wish there was an easier way but this online relationship is the most dramatic, active and complicated one your business is going to have, so you need to take the reins and make your efforts work with you not against you.  If not you're just wasting your precious time. 

Must Love Media Kits

Media Kit. Two words that create a big punch.

What is a media kit you might ask? Well it's a multi-page document that businesses use to promote themselves and sell their services to potential clients. 

Who uses a media kit? Traditionally media kits have been used for magazine publication, but they've evolved into something that is beneficial for everyone to bloggers, photographers, writers, designers and other small businesses in between. Basically this document is a resume for your business, a way of describing who you are when you are unable to meet in person. 

Do you offer services or advertising in your business model? Then you for sure are in need of a media kit. The media kit is a great tool because it essentially gives potential clients all of the information they could possibly need in one easy to navigate document while often cutting  correspondence time in half because it’s already answered most of their questions.

Media kits can be formatted to market nearly any business. Whether you’re a blogger, writer, photographer or designer, a media kit is simply a way to explain what you offer in a streamlined, informative document. The easier you can make it for your clients to understand what you’re offering and how to book you, the more successful your business has the potential to be.

Below are the Six Things that MUST be included in your media kit.

I'm not going to lie this is a very time consuming document to create but I promise you that it will be the most important document in your arsenal.  

Together: A Bosslady Conference

Finalizing everything for my presentation this week at the Together: A Boss Lady Experience that is happening this week in Portland! Because helping you to keep your social media actually social is my new jam. Can't wait to network with a bunch of other ladypreneurs. Until then I'll share my promo video, but you've got to wait for the outtake at the end. 

Boosting Productivity

Ultra productive people don't work from a to-do list, but they do live and work from their calendar.  Do you really think that the billionaires like Bill Gates and Marisa Mayer write a long to-do list and prioritize items? Nope, if it's not on their calendar it just doesn't exist because a to-do list doesn't account for time.

I read this crazy Forbes article about time productivity and started to put everything on my calendar in timed increments, like the billionaires.  When I sit down to start the task I ask Siri to set the timer.  15 minutes of Instagram interaction, 20 minutes of Facebook group trolling, 30 minutes of email management, 60 minutes of content creation then a break.  

Bottom line if it doesn't get scheduled and Siri doesn't time it, it shouldn't get done.  It's a learning process for me but so far it's working out pretty well. 

Instagram Live: What You Need To Know

My prediction that one day Instagram will single handedly kill Snapchat and Periscope is slowly coming to fruition.  Welcome to the social media game Instagram Live.  While Instagram Live is not Periscope for so many reasons, one being that people have to be following you to know that you are live, where as on Periscope people searching a location see the live videos that are streaming, it's at least a start. 

When you are live on Instagram a bubble with the word live will pop up on your screen name. Some of your friends who follow you will get a notification that you are Live and will be prompted to tune in before your video is finished.  Similar to the new Instagram algorithm, Instagram will choose which of your followers or users to notify based off their interest in Live videos.  The reason being Instagram is looking out for it's users that it doesn't want to annoy then with an alert every time someone they follow goes live. Like Periscope when watching, your viewers can tap to heart/like your video, comment and type questions. 

I'm sure that you're now wondering, "Why should I be live on Instagram?" Well the real reason is that it is putting you directly in front of your audience. Live viewers choose what they want to watch and if they are choosing to watch you then they know that you have something powerful to say. 

Since this is such a newer update, here are a few ideas to get started and become comfortable on Instagram Live.

* Host a Q & A  like the every popular #fridayintroductions posts let your community ask you questions and get to know you and your business.

* Give a behind the scenes. These are always super popular because your community wants to be the first to know what you are up to or what you think is cool. That is why they are following you after all. 

* Show off something awesome that you are doing. At a historic place, at a place that means alot to you, show your community talk about it.