The Chicken and Egg of Hospitality
We've been pushing the boundaries a bit more with our recent Northern Vessel social media content. Instead of focusing on coffee, we're venturing more into our core principles and practices around hospitality and mindset. In a recent Instagram post, we used a negative quote concept. This is done by showing what the normal narrative is (crossed out), followed by how we perceive it. Here's what it said:
Hospitality = Service / Service is about the transaction, while hospitality focuses on the experience.
Hospitality is only for the service industry / Making people feel seen and valued works in any field, not just for coffee shops or restaurants.
Hospitality is one way / It's a cycle - When people feel it, they're more likely to share it with others.
Hospitality requires extravagance / The simplest acts often leave the biggest mark.
Hospitality is just being nice / It's about creating a genuine sense of welcome and connection.
As expected, someone chimed in on the comments, right on cue: "I will be hospitable when the average guest treats industry workers like humans and not machines."
It looks like we have a bit of a chicken-and-egg type scenario here. As customers, we must apparently earn the right to be treated with dignity. If we treat the service providers well enough, we'll earn the right to also be treated well. In reality, if they treat their customers like trash (which is increasingly more common), the customers will feel disrespected - the opposite of valued - and the relationship will be damaged.
Consumers, if you frequent businesses that treat you like this, I encourage you to run away and never go back.
Businesses, if you have team members who possess this attitude, I strongly encourage you to clean house. This will pollute your culture faster than anything.
There's a flip side to this chicken-and-egg scenario. Let's say you're engaging with someone with a poor attitude. I can almost guarantee that treating this person as poorly as they are treating you is a one-way ticket to a disastrous outcome. Or, you can take the opposite approach by showing genuine hospitality. The beautiful part about hospitality is that it's contagious. Someone with a terrible attitude who is met with hospitality has the potential to reverse course. I've seen it play out again and again. I've witnessed people clearly having a bad day, ready to take it out on the next service worker in their path, only to be met with beautiful hospitality. Almost instantly, this person's attitude begins to shift. Fast forward just a few minutes later, and this once-grumpy customer starts showing hospitable traits to other customers. Hospitality spreads!
Hospitality shouldn't be an act of quid pro quo. Instead, it's a simple act of dignity, respect, and honor. Genuine hospitality belongs in every setting, every industry, every discipline, and every situation.
Sure, you could withhold hospitality from someone until they earn it. That's one way to approach life. Or you could freely give it, knowing you're doing the right thing, and watch the beauty that unfolds.
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