We aren't in Real Estate. We are in the Hospitality Business.
Like many of you, I recently powered through the second season of The Bear. For those of you who haven’t watched it yet, it is not just about the evolution of a family-owned restaurant and its unlikely owner. It’s a peek behind the curtain of how the relationships and mindset affect the entire restaurant experience.
You have to admit there is nothing quite as satisfying as a great meal in a restaurant that clearly understands the customer experience. While The Bear’s view of what it takes to own and run a restaurant may have a fair amount of Hollywood influence, I don’t think it is far off of the mark.
49%/51%
I recently heard the author, speaker, investor, and restaurateur, Danny Meyer, speak. I read his book ‘Setting the Table‘ years ago and hearing him again reminded me of why he is a spectacular restaurateur and an impressive leader and businessman. What I admire most about him is his willingness to admit his failures…and he has had some pretty epic, very public ones.
Meyer approaches staffing in his hospitality group in the most practical and logical way. Clearly, he doesn’t interview every person working in his huge company, but he has created a culture that is so airtight that his foot soldiers know exactly what he is looking for in a team member. He is highly focused on having teams who support and help each other while serving the customer.
Meyer believes that the best talent has technical expertise or experience in the field which equals 49% of their skills. It is important that they are good at the things you are hiring them to do. The other 51% is their hospitality quotient, which he defines as having the right personality and temperament for service. I think this certainly translates well to our industry. While it is important that our staff understands the fundamentals of real estate and relocation, if they don’t know how to effectively interact with customers, agents, vendors, and coworkers then they aren’t a fit.
The danger of mediocrity.
I have seen relocation departments and brokerages that tolerate employees who underperform or cause problems for way longer than they should. I used to do it myself. They may have years of relocation or real estate experience, but they can be unpleasant, unmotivated, or unhelpful. Sometimes there is a fear of a lawsuit or that the agent or client base might be upset if we terminate them. But here’s the deal, by tolerating bad behavior we are setting the bar for every other employee. We are saying loud and clear to our other employees that this behavior is okay.
Danny Meyer calls them ‘whelming’ employees. The underwhelming ones you hopefully get rid of, the overwhelming ones get promoted. The ‘whelming’ ones are the ones that just phone it in. They get by and do fine. Those are the ones who silently shift your culture to a place of mediocrity. Just because an employee does their job, doesn’t mean they do it well or that they are creating the impression you want out there of your company or department. They may be quietly losing business for you. Whether you believe it or not, we are in the hospitality business.
What defines a great experience?
Every single person has had a very bad and very good restaurant experience. Like the time when my daughter was a child and her mac and cheese came with the added feature of a long curly black hair in it. The waitress said “Oops, sorry. Do you want another one?” Needless to say, they were out of business in six months.
I’ve had too many great experiences to single out any one restaurant, but the ones that make a big deal out of celebrations always make me smile. We were recently in Santa Fe at a lovely fine-dining restaurant called Coyote Café. I had put on the reservation that we were celebrating my daughter’s graduation to achieve her Master’s Degree. When we walked in the host greeted us and asked my daughter about her degree, and congratulated her. The waiter and his helper both acknowledged her when we sat down and brought us each a glass of complimentary champagne as a congratulations. They also comped our dessert. The food was fantastic and the service was impeccable. At the end of our meal, the manager came by to acknowledge her and asked if we had a good meal. He also complimented our waiter and his support staff by saying how lucky the restaurant was to have such capable staff. What a lovely touch to take the time to acknowledge them in front of them to us. The food could have been subpar and we still would have been happy due to the personalized and spectacular service. It cost very little to make us feel the way we felt when we left.
The importance of forks.
To really understand the world of fine dining and what we can learn from it, I recommend you watch episode 7 (Forks) of season 2 of The Bear on Hulu. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t watched any of the show. It is a peek behind the scenes of how a fine dining restaurant is run from the week-long perspective of an unwilling and unpaid intern. Not just any restaurant, a Michelin Star restaurant. It is mind-blowing the extent they go to create a perfect dining experience for every customer. And while some of the practices seem slightly ridiculous, as the week goes on it becomes clear what they are trying to achieve…an experience we will remember for a lifetime.
When you think about what a fine dining restaurant earns per transaction and what a real estate company and relocation department earns per transaction, it is shocking we don’t work harder to deliver a similar customer experience. Did we just get the deal done, or did we joyfully help our clients navigate the process of realizing their real estate dreams? Will they remember the agent and the company fondly the next time they are ready to sell or buy real estate? NAR statistics say no. 73% of people say they would use their agent again but sadly, only 12% actually do. Not a memorable enough experience.
Here are Danny Meyer’s six emotional skills that make up the 51% hospitality quotient he looks for when hiring:
being kind and optimistic, or having hope
intellectual curiosity
a strong work ethic
empathy
self-awareness
most importantly, having integrity
Meyer says he asks this question to every person he interviews. “What is the greatest misperception that other people have about you?” He says that reveals if they are self-aware about how we are perceived which translates to Emotional Intelligence. I agree, there is nothing worse than someone who doesn’t see their own weaknesses or at least perceived weaknesses.
We can teach someone to use the software and technology, and how to calculate a referral fee. We can have them get their real estate license to better understand the business, but you can’t teach empathy. You either have the capacity for it or you don’t. You can certainly hone those skills through life experiences and effort, but if people don’t want to make others have a good experience, then maybe our industry isn’t right for them. I encourage you all to evaluate your employees and agent team. Do they have the right 51%? Because if they only have the 49% skill set, you won’t get to 100% customer satisfaction.
“Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.”~ Danny Meyer, Restaurateur, Speaker, Author and the Founder & Executive Chairman of the Union Square Hospitality Group
