Why ‘Care’ for Your Customers when You Can ‘Love’ Them?

This is a delightful and refreshing article that renews one’s faith in leadership and in leaders who dare to think beyond motherhood, who dare to have passion, emotion, and who dare to dream.

I don’t know how many times in my corporate life that I have been told that I’m too emotional and that I care too much. The body corporate doesn’t like these characteristics – and if you have any hope of climbing the corporate ladder or navigating the corporate politics, these emotions (in their eyes, ‘weaknesses’) must be banished for more acceptable corporate behaviour.

Reaching for the stars and aiming beyond the horizon are viewed as silly. The hospitality industry knows it is selling and providing an experience to its customers. And I suppose you can describe an experience in cold and calculating terms like – we aim to exceed customers expectations. Duh! If that’s all you are doing then perhaps you should be selling railway sleepers to the department of transport!

It is precisely this dreaming that spells the difference between being mediocre and being special. Isn’t it time to take out the dusty mission and vision documents and to breath life into them and create a strategy that takes you, your staff and your guests on a magic carpet ride?