Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

“Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple, and it's that hard.” —Danny Meyer, Setting the Table

Danny Meyer is a famous restauranteur responsible for founding some of my favorite spots, including Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and the popular Shake Shack chain. He pioneered the philosophy of “enlightened hospitality.”

That’s the thing about engineering surprise and delight moments in your business. Like the example I share in this episode, while they may seem small or spontaneous, the best ones have intention and strong systems behind them.

It’s not hard to design a system to do this repeatedly and consistently for the people you love working with, encouraging more word of mouth referrals in the process, and reducing your reliance on marketing strategies that don’t align. Today I’m sharing some examples of small gifts that make a big impact and leave a lasting impression on the people and clients you care most about.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:

• Surprise and delight moments don’t happen by accident; you can design them intentionally, and create systems to support them happening consistently in your business.
• Consider meaningful (and even functional) ways you can support clients at the beginning, middle, and end of an engagement to build the relationship, and spark joy and word-of-mouth referrals.
• Create a Gift Tracker if you don’t already have one: Track the life of a gift from idea of giving one, to collecting any missing info, selecting the gift and writing a message to go with it, to placing the order, tracking and confirming it was received, all the way to archiving it for later reference.

📝 Permission: To spice up the level of surprise and delight in your business. You can spend a little more than you think is reasonable, and trust that it will go towards building strong relationships, creating great experiences and a better, more joyful business.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Pick one person that you want to make smile: a team member, a client, a friend, and send them unexpected.

📘Books Mentioned

• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin
• The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• NYC Restaurants: Gramercy Tavern, Locande Verde, Eleven Madison Park (and their delicious Eleven Madison Park Granola that also makes a great gift!)
• Gift Services: Goody, BoxFox, Giftology, Greetabl, SugarWish,
• Gift Mic: Yeti Nano (travel mic)
• Swag Services: Wizard Pins, Pens.com, Sticker Mule
• Community: BFF (apply promo code PODCAST)

🎧Related Episodes

• To Dine For — Will Guidara
• 179: Video-Free Business and Intuitive Writing with Jacqueline Fisch
• 068: Are You Running a Grumpy Business?
• 083: Breaking through Buyer’s Remorse—Never Lose a Customer Again with Joey Coleman

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