Being a hospitable person is something that my mother taught me at a very young age. Whenever we had people over for company, my mother always, always offered them a drink and a snack. My friends loved to come over to my house because my mother kept the cookie jar full and within reach of our little hands. My mother passed away when I was fourteen, but not without teaching me that valuable lesson of being a giving person. It’s also interesting to know that Liz Strauss has a similar story to share about hospitality in her post, Making Space For Other People.
As I sit here and reflect on what hospitality means to me, I start to wonder how much better the world would be if each and every one of us was taught hospitality at a young age. What if it were a class like English or Math? Do you think the business world would be different? I really think a class on hospitality would make a huge difference in how we interact with each other. Some say that you can’t learn to be nice, being nice just comes naturally, but I beg to differ.
Hospitality and customer service go hand-in-hand and for those of you who know me, you know that customer service is near and dear to my heart. When I first started writing over at CustomersAreAlways, I thought I would simply be sharing my experiences about all those years I worked in customer service and perhaps provid
e a tip or two. Little did I know that I was opening myself up to a whole new world of teaching others to be passionate people and sharing those passions with others. In essence, passion leads to being more helpful and hospitable. And when we are more helpful and hospitable, we create a sense of peace within ourselves and thus spread that peace to others.
Guest Author: Maria Palma, author of The Good Life and CustomersAreAlways for KnowMore Media. The links I have just shared with you are for posts in which Maria recently shared her goals – always a terrific way to meet an author if Maria’s name is new to you!
Mark your calendars: Maria will be back on Monday, July 16th, when I have invited her to host her every-Monday Customer Service Carnivale here at Talking Story!
~Rosa
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
A Month of Hospitality
Buy at AllPosters.com For those of you who are visiting here from Rosa Says Talking Story blogWelcome! Rosa invited me to contribute to this months hospitality theme and I am very honored to be able to share my…
Hello Maria, thanks for these thoughts. I agree we need to find a way to embed these values in our society – starting with children – but I wonder how many of us learned how to be hospitable, to act with loving kindness because it was something we received, something we experienced, saw, and felt rather than something we were taught directly?
So perhaps we also need to make sure we are supporting families and children in such a way that they get to enjoy the fruits of hospitality – so it will come to them naturally when they’re older.
Just a thought!
I’m looking forward to exploring your own blog – so many goodies to be found on this site – courtesy of Rosa’s great hospitality :)
Joanna
Hi Joanna,
After I posted this I started to think about the same thoughts that you wrote – like how parents could be good role models and how I did learn from observing.
However, when it comes to business school, I think that we’re missing the class that teaches students that money really isn’t the “bottom line”. I minored in Business in college and it was all about the numbers…
Thanks for your comment!
Thank you Maria for this thoughtful post.
Your Mother passed at such a young
age for you Maria. I know you feel
her with you though, and she smiles
to see the woman you are today.
I agree with you Joanna…
I’m the Mom of 3 children ages
25, 22 and one who is ALMOST 11.
The lessons that I have attempted
to teach them no doubt stay with them,
but the lessons that they learn from
observation of my actions I feel stay
with them and are more deeply
ingrained.
Hi, Debra
Thanks for your comment! When I was a manager I realized that the people who worked for me responded well and respected me because I “walked the walk”. Not only did I preach good customer service, I was out there on the sales floor showing them what good customer service looks like.