As entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals as a whole, we inherently know that true hospitality is a successful formula every time in business and in life.
So, why is it that a fraction of 1 percent of companies do hospitality right? What makes it so incredibly difficult for companies to consistently deliver on the promise of hospitality to its customers and employees?
Hospitality takes different forms in different companies, but core concepts remain the same: Generosity, kindness, empathy, staff empowerment, creating human-level experiences, helping people feel at home. True hospitality is neither cheap nor easy to cultivate. But it’s one of the best ways your brand can connect with people.
The crucial question is, how can we create genuine hospitality in the digital world?
These are just a few of the questions I’m going to explore with a panel of top Oregon entrepreneurs—and leaders in hospitality—on July 28th at 5:30pm at eROI on the topic of “Digital Hospitality.”
Register Now →
I’m thrilled to dig into this discussion with our panel:
Jill Nelson
FOUNDER/CEO
RUBY RECEPTIONISTS
Kim Malek
FOUNDER/CEO
SALT & STRAW
Sadie Lincoln
FOUNDER/CEO
BARRE3
These three experts will share personal insight on building brands known for hospitality, imbuing generosity into business procedures, handling negativity, and choosing forethought over quick fixes—even when board members disagree.
I have had the pleasure to get to know each of these brilliant business owners over the years, and their stories are truly unique.
Jill Nelson
Founder/CEO
Ruby Receptionists
In 2013, Jill and I were both serving on the Board of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) Portland and attending a Global Leadership Conference in Panama City with 800 other dynamic entrepreneurs from around the world. What struck me immediately about Jill was more than her fun, positive energy, and approachability—She’s got it all figured out on the business side too.
WOWISM
She managed to create a system of what she refers to as “Wowism,” aimed at truly empowering her employees and delighting customers. The “Wowsim” system is painstakingly detailed and documented in dozens and dozens of processes in her company. She had a top-notch Executive team and delegated everything to key players throughout her organization. She was working 5 hours per week, taking tons of vacation, and her company was thriving beyond imagination—growing 40% or more per year for 10 consecutive years, ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the top companies to work for in the country, with employees and customers passionately pouring out their souls in excessive gratitude towards Ruby.
Needless to say, I started taking notes. Later, I saw her speak on Ruby’s dedication to Hospitality. At eROI, we’re working on incorporating some of these principles into our daily routine:
Inspiration wall – A place for employees to put ideas, drawings, photos, and anything else that brings inspiration to the team.
Delighting new employees on their first day – Ruby has documented exactly how the employee’s desk is set up with a flower on it and agenda of their first day. A good, healthy breakfast and lunch are provided. A tour of Ruby is given. It’s impressive.
Gift-giving to customers – Ruby empowers its employees to spend up to $100 on a custom gift for a customer, along with a handwritten note. It’s a powerful gesture that communicates the individual importance of the customer.
Kim Malek
Founder/CEO
Salt & Straw
Kim has been a good friend of mine since I met her through my wife 14 years ago. She has a bubbly laugh and is completely unassuming and approachable. She’s sneaky smart and one of the most naturally gifted and savviest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met.
Guided by Generosity
Aside from being a blast to hang out with, her professional background is fascinating. She has served in a number of key marketing roles in major companies, including Gardenburger, Yahoo!, Adidas, Starbucks, and (RED)—where she worked directly with Bono of U2 as Marketing Director. All along the way, Kim dreamed of applying what she’d learned about hospitality in a community-based shop of her own. I’ll let Kim tell the full story on the night of our panel on July 28 because she tells it so well, but it continues to amaze all of our friends. It’s incredible to watch the meteoric rise of a little company called Salt and Straw to its current status as a Portland icon—something locals and visitors alike must experience—and beyond into L.A. and other markets. Portland is lucky to have her.
Again, I took notes. I listened more and more to Kim about her passion for creating a brand focused on hospitality, generosity, and creating memorable, meaningful customer experiences by letting those principles guide every business decision she makes. We’re working on bringing these concepts to our own work here at eROI:
A generous brand – This is central to Salt & Straw’s core personality. eROI is working to adopt this by pouring more effort into helping nonprofit businesses like Embrace Oregon, a local organization working to improve the foster care system in our state.
Community Events – We’re working to adopt a commitment to hosting free community events where we share knowledge, get to know our peers, and enjoy food and drink together. For each eROI event, we make sure to guide our attendees through the evenings experience. From registration to arrival, to being handed a drink, we ensure to provide a high-caliber event where hospitality and customer experience become the heart of everything we do.
Sadie Lincoln
Founder/CEO
barre3
I met Sadie a year ago, as she/barre3 was a finalist for OEN’s Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award. I was the Chairman of the Judging Committee at the time. Sadie has a magnetic personality and exudes warmth and hospitality as naturally and easily as breathing.
Before meeting her, I’d heard of her star power as Madonna’s personal trainer. She also spent a decade as the right-hand person to the CEO of 24 Hour Fitness before founding barre3 and driving an entire fitness movement called barre.
Passion for the Individual
True to her Oregon roots, she is incredibly genuine, humble, and entirely engaging in conversation. I also had an inside scoop as one of our employees, Danielle Mau-Holmes, has been a barre3 instructor for years and—like anyone who has been to a barre3 class—Danielle gushes about how amazing Sadie is and what an incredible company she runs. It’s absolutely unreal how passionate barre3 customers and employees are about the company. Naturally, I wanted to glean whatever I could from Sadie to apply to eROI:
Ongoing wellness events – barre3 does more than just host classes. They regularly have events centered around overall wellness. At eROI we regularly host a barre3 class, and we’re doing other fun activities: Summer softball; bowling in the winter; basketball in the park at 5pm every Friday; and others. We’re trying to get employees moving together and bonding outside of normal work activities.
Focusing on details – Every barre3 studio has free childcare attached to it. Things like this make people feel special and at ease. eROI may not have professional childcare, but we do have free dog-care (and pygmy goat care for our buddy Brent!).
There is a universal truth as predictable as the law of gravity that you get more in return when you give.
That’s such a mind-bending paradox that makes no sense logically but time and time again I’ve witnessed it working. Sometimes you get a closer relationship. Other times you get more revenue. You get more gratitude. You get more trust. You get more compassion. Or maybe you get something unexpected, like the purpose and meaning that comes from doing work with hospitality. Those moments of clarity aren’t lost on employees and on customers. They become your brand ambassadors and advocates and the virtuous cycle continues.
They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. I’m a believer. At eROI, we’ve shamelessly copied and made our own at least a dozen of the key concepts that you will learn from listening to Jill, Kim, and Sadie.
Come to our Digital Hospitality event on July 28th so you can learn some new concepts to copy and make your own for your business and in life.
Register Now →
We’ll bring the food and drink. You bring your smiling face and a question or two for the experts—Jill, Kim, and Sadie are three of the sharpest, most dynamic entrepreneurs I know.
We promise a night of good conversation and true hospitality.
The post Portland’s Three Top Entrepreneurs Credit Digital Hospitality as Core to their Company’s Success appeared first on eROI.