From pouring beers in a country pub, where the locals would look at me the wrong way if I handed them a pot of beer in a straight glass instead of their usual pot with a handle, to completing some of the highest standards of service training with one of the world’s leading airlines, Emirates, there are plenty of lessons I’ve taken away from working ten plus years in hospitality.
And the more time I spend working in marketing, the more I realise just how much those experiences have shaped the way I think about brands, business and building customer loyalty.
Growing up in a country town, we had a Chinese restaurant with some unconventional interior design choices, including carpet on the walls, strings of beads hanging in the doorways and decor that hadn’t changed in over twenty years.
But you knew exactly what you were going to get.
As you walked in, there were Polaroids of happy customers covering the walls, and the owners greeted the locals by name and commented on how much their chidlren had grown. If it was someone’s birthday, the restaurant lights would turn off and everyone would start singing Happy Birthday as the staff walked out with your pre-made cake from The Cheesecake Shop. It made you want to end up on that wall.
Looking back, it was such a simple example of social proof. Before businesses were asking people to tag them on Instagram or leave Google reviews, this restaurant had a wall full of people who’d had a good time there.
I saw that same sense of connection working at an RSL, where the regulars would come up and ask about my week before they’d even found their seat. Or seeing a regular’s name on the booking sheet, knowing they preferred a window seat and allocating them that table before they arrived.
It wasn’t just about satisfying the human need for food, but another equally important one: connection. That desire to be seen, heard and remembered was what kept people coming back.
In a world where we’re seeing a major shift towards AI, and brands are churning out a lot of the same work, I think how you make someone feel is becoming one of the few things that can genuinely set you apart. Walk into a restaurant today and instead of a waiter coming over to ask how your day has been or whether you’re celebrating a special occasion, you’re directed to scan a QR code. You order through a screen, pay before you’ve even spoken to someone and eventually have your name passive-aggressively called out across the room.
We’re automating, we’re optimising, and somewhere along the way, we’re quietly leaving the human experience behind. None of these things are particularly extraordinary, but they’re the things people remember.
And it’s no different outside of hospitality.
It’s how someone is welcomed into your store, their first experience on your website or how their enquiry is handled whether they’ve been waiting over an hour for their food, or over a week for a delivery that was promised within three to five business days.
I think people often confuse hospitality with expensive. But creating a memorable experience doesn’t always require a big budget, a luxury product or some elaborate gesture.
Think about a real estate agent who leaves a bottle of wine with a generic printed note when you move into your new home, compared to one who takes the time to write something personal. (We’ve received the exact same note the last two times we’ve bought a house, but I’ll happily still take the wine.) Which one are you more likely to remember?
In hospitality, every touchpoint contributes to someone’s experience. And the same goes for any brand. Marketing can’t sit in a silo and just produce campaigns. It has to care about the whole experience, because the whole experience is what gets marketed by the people who lived it.
You can have the most beautiful branding, a scroll stopping campaign and a perfectly curated social media presence, but if the actual experience doesn’t live up to what you’ve promised, people will remember that too.
And as AI continues to make it easier for brands to create more content, faster and at scale, I think the human side of business is only going to become more important. Because when everyone has access to the same tools and technology, what actually makes you different?
Maybe it’s acknowledging a repeat online order, sending an eDM that’s actually relevant, adding a handwritten note to a package or responding to a social media comment with a genuine conversation rather than a templated reply.
None of it is particularly groundbreaking. But that’s kind of the point. Every business is a hospitality business.