Be Wonderful, For Real
“We are an original, creative, and innovative company always striving to bring you the best work you ever imagined.”
Sound familiar? That’s because companies are always trying to convince you how wonderful they are. That is, companies that are trying to sell you something. “Original”, “Creative”, “the Best”. Sounds great. Then you dig deeper into their website or evaluate a few of their products or services or whatever they do. Suddenly you realize the reality does not live up to their hype. Worse, you’ve already hired this company based on their platitudes and are now realizing they’re delivering mediocre results.
There are many creative ways for companies to tell us how wonderful they are. Unfortunately for customers, for many, writing their marketing message is the most creative thing they’ve done in years. It’s the only thing they’ve produced where they truly used their imagination.
Last week I attended the Independent Lodging Congress. The attendees and speakers were a collection of the most energetic and creative leaders who design, build, and run some of the most interesting hotels and other hospitality businesses. While there was plenty of discussion about innovative hotels and creative restaurants and superior customer service, I didn’t hear anyone talking about how creative they are.
The discussions were about what makes a hospitality business an experience that wows the guest and keeps them coming back. The examples were places owned and run by the attendees as well as places they admired whose owners and managers weren’t represented at the congress. No one needed to talk about how great they and their places are because the places speak for themselves.
Stop telling everyone how wonderful you are. Be wonderful. Instead of talking about how original, creative, and innovative you are, exemplify these attributes in everything you do. If you truly deliver the best work always, you don’t have to tell people how good you are. They will experience your expertise in everything you do starting with how you talk to them during your first meeting.
Figure out who you are and be that. Always.
Deliver an exceptional experience and let your customers do the talking for you.