Customer Experience
The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect.

Will Guidara helped make Eleven Madison Park one of the world’s best restaurants. He did it by practicing what he calls "unreasonable hospitality." He says that their food was as good as it could be, that their service was as close to technically perfect as possible, that their room was one of the most beautiful in the world, yet it wasn’t any of those things that actually got them to the top. In his view their success was based on unreasonable hospitality, the art of turning ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.

I thought of Guidara this week when I initiated what I thought would be an ordinary transaction. 22 years ago Debbie and I bought two wooden storm/screen doors from Vintage Woodworks, who promises "architectural details direct." This week I emailed them, asking if they sold replacement gasket tape for the storm windows.

They don't. And that was the beginning of my extraordinary experience. Annette, now "my" customer service rep, called me to tell me that I could get what I needed at any big-box retailer. Then she emailed me to reiterate what she had left on my voice mail. She said "if you have any other questions, just ask". I replied by saying "since you've offered, will you tell me the size and type of foam I should look for?". She said she didn't know, but she would find out. The next day she wrote back to give me very specific product details.

Let's do the math: This is one phone call, three emails and personal research for a product that I am going to buy somewhere else. This is for a homeowner who is going to buy two screen doors in his life, and he did that 22 years ago.

Will Guidara says that he hopes that in the future what he describes as unreasonable hospitality "feels very reasonable. Right now it’s unreasonable because so few people approach these kind of grace notes and relationship building with any spirit of creativity or relentlessness. But if everyone did that all the time, businesses would be better, people would feel good, and the world would be a better place.

Thank you Annette and the team you represent for making me feel good, and for making the world a better place.

Article: Why Every Business Needs to Embrace ‘Unreasonable Hospitality’.

Related Article: 5 Key insights About Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect