Every Business is a Hospitality Business
This went out yesterday as issue 19 of The Angelo Report, a weekly newsletter published every Sunday afternoon.
The lease is almost up on my 2021 Mazda3 Sport hatchback, so I’ve been shopping for a new car.
One vehicle that piqued my interest was Toyota’s Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid that now has both enough power and pizzazz to merit a look. In Quebec, it qualifies for $7500 in combined federal and provincial rebates, making it almost affordable, too.
(Side note: what happened to small, affordable vehicles in North America?)
The Prius is hard to get — I’ve heard of delays of at least six months, and as much as over a year. But I spoke with a dealer near me that had a used 2023 Prius available to test, which would allow for a close-enough comparison. I made the appointment for a test drive, showed up, and waited fifteen minutes only to find out… the car wasn’t there.
The rep called me back the next day to ask me how the test drive went. You can imagine how that conversation went, and it pretty much ended as you might expect: a big shrug and a half-hearted apology for my experience.
Interestingly enough, the call came through as I was heading out the door to test drive a new Impreza at my local Subaru dealer. There, I received a warm welcome, was given the keys to take the car out for as long as I wanted, and zero pressure to do anything beyond think about my experience.
(Side note 2: I hate to admit it, but the best test drive experience I’ve had so far has been at Tesla, where everything was handled through a web form, the car had a pre-programmed route I could follow to experience its handling on all manner of Montreal roads, and then a long conversation to answer any questions we might have.)
I’m not especially interested in trying to find another dealer for the Prius test drive. The experience really soured me on the brand, and right now I’m strongly leaning towards the Impreza.
I think we can all point to two companies in the same industry that offer vastly different experiences. In my own experience, there’s Air Canada vs Porter, The Bay vs Simons, Dell vs Apple… and the list goes on. One company has an almost adversarial relationship with its customers, and the other strives to make the experience special.
When I checked into a Fairmont hotel in September, my birth month, there was a small serving of macarons and a birthday card waiting for me in my room. I hadn’t mentioned anything about it when I made the reservation; the team saw that my birthday was coming up in a few days, and surprised me with it. This is hospitality.
When I pulled into the parking lot of an independent garage one morning to get some work done on my old Civic, the manager greeted me by name; I suspect he looked up my license plate as I parked and saw I’d had an oil change done a year earlier. This is hospitality.
In the end, every business is a hospitality business, but only a few of them know it.
Around The Web
- We’re tiring of algorithmic recommendations —which are almost always wrong, at least in my experience— and instead moving towards (online) human recommendations.
- This week’s episode of Raging Moderates featured an introspective conversation on some of the reasons behind the results of last week’s U.S. election.
Thought Of The Week
I’m so tired. That’s it. That’s the thought.
I hope you’re doing okay.