I was speaking throughout Japan last week to BNI networking groups and the public. Before leaving the country, I took my daughter to a little restaurant called Gonpachi, which was near the hotel we were staying at. It was a nice little place in Tokyo with great food and service, but what really got my attention was the reception we received when we entered the dining room. As we entered the room, one of the waitresses yelled “irasshaimasei!” Whereupon all the patrons joined in by yelling “irasshaimasei!” I asked my daughter, “What in the world?” are they yelling at us, to which she replied: “They are more or less saying, “Welcome to the restaurant!” I thought, wow, that’s pretty impressive. What a nice touch.
I sat back and watched as patrons flowed into the restaurant, and with each group of people the waitress and the patrons would yell out, “Welcome to the restaurant!” in Japanese. As people slowly trickled out of the restaurant, they yelled, “arigatou gozaimashita!” which means, “Thank you very much” to everyone as they left.
Isn’t that what a good networking group should be like? When you visit a networking organization and the members say (through their actions and words), “Welcome to our group” and “Thanks for visiting us” with enthusiasim and genuine interest, you just have to come back to the group again.
This truly is an important secret to a good network. Make visitors feel welcome! When people feel welcome, they want to come back.
OK, if you start yelling “irasshaimasei!” at them when they enter the room, you might not actually get the response I’m thinking about here but . . . you get the idea. Make people feel welcome, and they’ll return. That, my friends, is the sign of a great restaurant as well as a great networking group.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under BNI, Business, Emotional Intelligence, Ivan Misner, Marketing/Sales, Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.7 Responses to “An Important Secret to a Great Networking Group”
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July 16th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
That’s so cool!
July 16th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
First impressions … as they say. Making visitors feel welcomed is essential, if not just the polite and professional thing to do. Much like the restaurant in Tokyo welcomed visitors into its establishment, networking groups should warmly and enthusiastically welcome visitors to their meetings. After all, networking is about building relationships.
July 16th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
making business associates, customers, clients, etc welcome and at ease is as important as it is in the restaurant biz.
sounds like you had an enjoyable evening.
July 18th, 2009 at 11:35 am
This is so true of any retail or service (i.e. human interactive) entity! Let’s take my recent trip to the mall, for instance. Some clerks immediately belt out their current deals, some greet you and let you know they are there to help, some just look at you like you’re yet another darn “browser.” Even if I AM just a browser, I like to be warmly acknowledged and welcomed…it’s a basic human desire/need to be Accepted. Who knows, maybe I’ll buy something this time or on another trip because of this good experience!
July 20th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Japanese politeness, courtesies and hospitality are very visible everywhere you go in Japan. Being in the tourism business for many years, I find these leaving a long lasting impression in me as it did with you, Ivan. My “Look East” long stay in Japan made me apply what I learnt to hotels where I worked in the later years. What the Japanese waitresses and departmental store assistants did stresses the important of “meet and greet” in Japan’s hospitality and retail businesses and this have taken different forms in certain well established Isetan stores around the world and in hotels as well (Guest Relations Managers, Concierge Desk, and greeters at the door of 5-star hotels). In our BNI Sydney Inner West Region, we keep training our Visitor Hosts (VH) and chapter members to have a VH Desk as a visible point to meet and greet. This warm welcoming gesture makes the visitor feel comfortable and emotionally ready to network in the group. One can never go wrong to thank visitors for coming and ask them to come again the following week. The lasting impressions will, as you summarised in the end,lead to a sustainable and successful business partnerships. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us in your blog, Ivan.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:22 am
What a well observed trip Dr Misner!
Beeing welcomed is important and I see that it’s practised widely now.However doing it sincerely, honestly is still not rampant, not through my recent experiences.”Visitor host’ can greet guests robotically..if there’s such a word! What successful and true Networker do is..yes, enthusiastically and with all their heart.
Let’s emulate them and of course the group from that Japanese restaurant!
July 20th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
A warm welcoming greeting is pleasing in most situations, professional as well as personal. It’s also great to have that reinforced at the end. But let’s not forget the middle. When a guest comes to visit a chapter meeting, it makes sense to for as many members as possible to show interest in this person during their visit, and then have a follow up call or note in addition.