Books have a approach of adjusting our perspective and bringing new lenses to life and completely different mindsets to thoughts — which is why we not too long ago kicked off a quarterly e book membership inside our Buyer Advocacy Workforce at Buffer.
Late final yr, Åsa Nyström, our VP of Buyer Advocacy, launched us to the e book Unreasonable Hospitality: The Exceptional Energy of Giving Folks Extra Than They Count on by Will Guidara, the previous co-owner of legendary New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
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As an Advocacy group, we had a objective to realize extra hospitable buyer assist in our on a regular basis interactions, and this e book felt like an ideal match for our group.
Right here’s how we arrange our e book membership, together with some key takeaways our group had studying this e book.
How we arrange our e book membership
I pitched the concept to our Advocacy group in December, and we took the vacation break to learn your entire e book.
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Right here’s how the e book membership labored:
- We narrowed it down to 3 books after which voted for the one we most needed to learn. (Buffer has a studying profit, the place we are able to expense any e book on Kindle, Audible, or buy a bodily e book to accommodate to our completely different studying kinds).
- We set a studying objective to complete your entire e book earlier than our e book membership assembly.
- We’re a distant group, so we hosted our e book membership over Zoom.
- We kicked off a working doc to share notes as we learn the e book.
- We crafted questions forward of time and shared them with the group a couple of days beforehand so we may come to the sync ready and able to share our ideas.
When it comes to frequency, we set the bold objective to sync as soon as 1 / 4 to talk in regards to the insights and share how we are able to use the brand new information in our day-to-day work. We’re additionally planning to iterate on the format as we go.
For this preliminary e book membership, we took the vacations to learn your entire e book — Buffer is closed for 2 weeks in December, so we had loads of time. On the finish of January, we met as a group to debate.
Our key takeaways from Unreasonable Hospitality
Our first e book membership was an enormous success and sparked an inspiring chat amongst the group about hospitality and the way we are able to “transfer the needle” in SaaS buyer assist.
Listed below are a couple of key takeaways we gleaned from the e book:
To start out with a fast abstract: Unreasonable Hospitality is a precept that guides us as we take unusual transactions and switch them into extraordinary experiences.
1. Conflicting targets push us to lift the bar
Within the e book, the writer mentioned the concept of setting out the objective of attaining a near-perfect, “five-star eating” expertise, whereas additionally balancing one other objective of being “unreasonably” hospitable. It gave their group the prospect to go above and past on this new territory and carve a reputation for themselves.
As a Buyer Advocacy group at Buffer, we mentioned the fantastic thing about having conflicting targets that push us to lift the bar. We have now some excessive expectations as a Buyer Advocacy group as a result of our work is so integral to the expertise we would like Buffer prospects to have. Our imaginative and prescient is to:
- Transcend the standard and ship the distinctive. We go above and past for our prospects. Every year, we proceed to reiterate our imaginative and prescient and targets as a group.
This yr, we set the lofty targets of being extremely environment friendly and hitting report response instances, whereas concurrently elevating the bar in displaying hospitality in our buyer assist and delivering a stand-out expertise.
We mentioned how we now have the chance to discover this new house collectively. To not solely hit our targets, however to craft an expertise and lift the bar.
2. We’re aiming for ‘one measurement matches one’, not ‘one measurement matches all’
Oftentimes, when working within the buyer assist trade for quite a few years, it may be straightforward to slide into the mentality of the “one-size-fits-all” strategy with regards to chatting with prospects.
This ends in treating all prospects the identical by leaning on scripts, snippets, or workflows to assist pace up effectivity targets. Sadly, this doesn’t lead to a stand-out expertise.
At Buffer we have adopted a hospitality mindset to offer route to our buyer assist conversations. This implies we lean into private connection and deep product information to offer our prospects with a pleasant expertise. We attempt to transfer away from the one-size-fits-all strategy, and lean right into a extra tailor-made buyer assist expertise.
We imagine within the “one-size-fits-one” strategy. Clients may write in asking the identical questions, however we keep away from sending the identical reply to every buyer. Each buyer will get personalised, particular care. We’ll tailor our strategy to the person.
We lean into growing a private connection, searching for alternatives to go above and past for the client, and using our deep product information to present prospects an distinctive expertise.
Working in a distant setting, it may be straightforward to enter “auto-pilot” once we’re within the inbox. This may be true for all buyer assist settings, whether or not in-person or not. There’s an opportunity of “tuning out.”
Nonetheless, delivering a stand-out buyer assist expertise requires being diligently intentional about being current within the inbox and switching our mindset from “tickets” to “conversations,” as if the particular person was sitting proper in entrance of us.
There’s a component within the e book the place the writer talks in regards to the “Sizzling Canine” story. It begins with a gaggle of 4 foodies eating at his five-star restaurant on their final day of trip in New York. The writer overheard them speaking about all of the completely different eating places they received to attempt on trip. One particular person pipped in and talked about, “Yeah, however the one factor we didn’t get to attempt was a New York sizzling canine.”
A lightweight bulb instantly went off within the writer’s head. He ran across the nook, to the closest sizzling canine stand, purchased a $2 sizzling canine, and introduced it again to his five-star kitchen, and in some way he satisfied the chef to serve it. The chef had hung out finessing the new canine, reducing it into immaculate items, and including a sleek of ketchup and mustard.
Towards the top of the 4 foodies’ meal, he lastly introduced them with the new canine dish, saying, “To be sure you don’t go dwelling with any culinary regrets, a New York Metropolis sizzling canine.”
And revealed the new canine reduce into 4 excellent items. The 4 foodies flipped out with enthusiasm and pleasure. Every particular person mentioned it wasn’t solely the spotlight of the meal, nevertheless it was the spotlight of their journey to New York, and so they’d be telling this story for the remainder of their lives.
The writer simply may’ve given the desk a bottle of champagne, a extra typical particular expertise, however the additional effort he put in made an enduring impression. Hear the story from the writer right here:
3. Deeply understanding the connection of our work & how this impacts our prospects
One quote specifically from the e book actually stood out to us: “When asking actual property brokers what they do, many mentioned they offered homes. However, the good ones mentioned they have been promoting properties.” The nice actual property brokers understood the significance of their work and the worth of serving to individuals.
This highlighted how vital it’s for us to all the time maintain Buffer’s imaginative and prescient top-of-mind. Shifting our mindset from: “I am simply serving to a buyer do XYZ,” to “I am serving to this buyer or small enterprise do good, and I’m having an influence.”
It’s a refined shift that helps us join our work with our higher-level imaginative and prescient. Listed below are a couple of methods we do that:
- Being intentional and current within the inbox. As I defined above, we do that by switching our mindset from tickets vs. trying on the dialog as if the particular person was sitting in entrance of us.
- Having one another‘s backs as a group. Within the e book, the writer talks about how he was holding a unclean dish behind his again and the way he knew in two seconds his group would assist him and instantly seize the plate. Their group had a language of their very own, that they had indicators and communicated through signal language to assist one another.
Translating that to our Advocacy group at Buffer, we’re a close-knit group of 19 close-knit unfold throughout the globe. We have now robust relationships and genuinely care about each other. We already do a fantastic job of getting one another’s backs.
However, as we attempt to take our buyer assist to new heights, we’re asking ourselves if there are extra alternatives we might be aware of as we talk and work nearly. For instance, can we be extra intentional about calling out the place/how we’re working? From a distant work lens, we’re exploring recent methods we are able to talk higher amongst our group and go away indicators and notes for one another so we are able to higher strategize as a distant working group
- Maintaining a watch out for actually good hospitality. We’re continually looking out for hospitable interactions we are able to study from, whether or not it is on the espresso store, auto physique store, or out to dinner.
We needs to be continually considering, “How did this restaurant/firm do it in another way?” and, “How can we borrow and make it our personal?” We then share these tales amongst the group as inspiration.
- Carving out house in our syncs to reward one another publicly and share inspiration. Within the e book, the writer mentions that that they had a each day stand-up as a group, and it was a chance to share reward. We do a number of weekly stand-ups as an Advocacy group, based mostly on time zones (East Coast, West Coast, and Europe).
We’re now working to carve out house in our weekly syncs to share reward of each other, inspiration, and share tales of nice hospitable experiences we have seen not too long ago.
What’s subsequent for our e book membership and group?
I really feel like we’re simply getting began! We set out with an ambition to host a e book membership every quarter to debate a brand new e book or podcast that focuses on hospitality, and we have already got concepts for Q2. We’re additionally exploring the concept of branching out to contemplate books, podcasts, or TED Talks from different specialists of their craft as inspiration.
As a distant group unfold the world over, we’re seeking to higher accommodate all time zones, and we’re contemplating internet hosting an “async” e book membership versus assembly over Zoom.
One lesson we’re taking from our first e book membership assembly is that it felt a bit rushed as there have been SO many speaking factors we may chat by way of. We’re contemplating pacing ourselves — as an alternative of studying your entire e book, we may learn a e book in sections and digest it as a group.
The primary learn of our e book membership has been immensely precious — the concept of unreasonable hospitality is one thing of an ethos the group lives by now!
Maya Angelou mentioned it greatest, “Folks will overlook what you mentioned, individuals may overlook what you probably did, however individuals will always remember the way you made them really feel.”
I imagine the guts of hospitality lies in that. Folks always remember how we make them really feel. It makes me admire how our work in buyer assist actually issues.
We’re excited to take our learnings from the e book membership, and put them to work! Do you could have any concepts or options on what we must always focus on subsequent? Discover us within the inbox (there’s all the time somebody from the group in there!) on howdy@buffer.com