Last month, we spent a few days with friends in Bordeaux, France who 20 years ago turned a crumbling chateau into a wedding venue. To call the chateau beautiful is an understatement. Descriptions like ‘romantic,’ ‘flawless,’ and ‘unforgettable’ don’t do justice to the experience their team delivers to every couple who ties the knot there. The wedding business is as highly competitive as any other. Our friends stand apart by taking excellence to a whole new level.
I couldn’t help comparing this to the work communicators do to help build a company reputation and how just achieving ‘excellence’ isn’t enough. In today’s business environment, we need to aim for more – a commitment and accompanying behavior so valuable to internal and external stakeholders and society that the company becomes the most trusted and respected triumph in its space.
In his business, Will Guidara, author and restauranteur, would call this ‘unreasonable hospitality,’ the title of his new book. He defines unreasonable hospitality as giving customers and employees ‘a lot more than what they expect’ and when the effort connects with people and in so doing, gives his team the gratification that comes from doing something awesome to make someone happy.’
What does ‘unreasonable hospitality’ look like for Mr. Guidara? He gives an example of when a couple came for dinner on their wedding night after family politics torpedoed their plans to host a bigger party. Upon getting the reservation, his restaurant team researched the newlyweds and found their first dance song would have been – Bill Withers’ Lovely Day.
On the night the couple came into the restaurant, his team gave them a ‘moment’ when, toward the end of their meal, they escorted the couple to an upstairs private dining room where the song played, the staff circled around them, and they got their first dance after all. Says Guidara, ‘It was a gift that only we could give them in that moment.’
I’m willing to bet that all of us working in communications have stories of similarly memorable events, programs and interactions we created for our companies or clients with stakeholders—internal and external—that made a difference and really moved people. One example I read about that has stayed with me for a few years now is the #Sounds of Cricket campaign in India for Cochlear Implants.
From my own work, ‘Fly to Fight Sepsis,’ an initiative we created to support a new test for sepsis, a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. Sepsis progresses rapidly, and is responsible for 11 million deaths worldwide, according to WHO. Critical to managing sepsis is identifying it early. We partnered our client with a non-profit organisation founded by a couple whose son, Rory, died of sepsis age 11. In our research, we learned that Rory loved planes, a finding that drove our initiative which asked stakeholders to learn more and demonstrate their understanding and support by making and flying a paper plane. We brought ‘Fly to Fight Sepsis’ to legislators, school leaders, communities, parents, children’s playgrounds, the media and our client’s headquarters. The combination of knowledge, connection, appreciation, pride and the sheer joy of making and flying a paper airplane in support of an important cause met the criteria for what I’d call now ‘unreasonable excellence.’
To be sure, ‘unreasonable excellence’ is a goal worth pursuing. The attributes Mr. Guidara considers critical to unreasonable hospitality are in all of us:
- Creativity
- Relentlessness
- Intention
- Intensity
- Attention to personalisation
These are foundational to communications and good reminders of what makes our work, whether for reputation or brands, effective, deeply meaningful and satisfying.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Sandra Stahl has created and led communications solutions for many of the world’s leading pharma, biotech, diagnostic, device and consumer healthcare brands over a 30+ year career. Her skills as a strategist and developer of compelling narratives have enabled organizational-and market- readiness, powered investment, enhanced profiles, amplified landmark data, built reputations and influenced opinion. She is a recognized thought leader regularly published in industry, national and international media, and author of the award-winning book, The Art & Craft of PR (LID 2018). Additionally, Sandra is founding faculty in the PR track in the Branding + Integrated Communications master’s degree program at The City College of New York, now in its 10th year, has delivered lectures at university communications programs around the world including Columbia University in New York and Xavier Institute of Communications in Mumbai, India.
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