Are You a Welcoming Company?

If you are, stop it. Right now.

Companies the world over strive to be welcoming—to make customers, guests, clients feel at home and at ease with every interaction and touch point. Whether the experience occurs in their retail stores, in their hotels and recreational facilities, on their websites or in their corporate offices, companies train employees to offer services and amenities that create an experience their customers won’t forget. And companies spend a lot of money doing that. After all, well-trained staff, premium coffee, souped up websites, points programs, free shipping and down-filled bedding aren’t cheap.

All of that is well and good, but it’s a waste of time and money if a company’s primary focus is on being a welcoming company. A company that’s a “welcoming” company is practicing a 21st century version of “If we build it, they will come.”

No, companies today must go one step further and be “inviting” companies. You can’t afford to wait until customers walk through your door or stumble on to your website to pull out the welcome mat and treat them well. You must actively invite your customers and prospects to the experience.

Marketing is one way to invite customers in. But an “inviting” company goes even further and immerses itself in the community. Its leadership and its employees leave the comfort and safety of its own turf and commits to using their time, treasure and talents to improve the communities in which they do business. They serve on boards, both business and philanthropic. They volunteer for community projects and fundraisers. They get involved in school and youth programs. The list goes on and is quite varied, but the commonality is that through these actions, company leaders and employees invite the community to see the company culture at work and witness firsthand the type of service and commitment the company brings to any endeavor.

Kelly Scanlon

Kelly Scanlon is a business owner, publisher, radio host, past chair of the National Association of Women Business Owners and lifelong small business and entrepreneur advocate. She currently owns Interrobang Solutions, a company that provides writing, editing and other professional publishing services for companies. For more than 20 years, Kelly owned Thinking Bigger Business Media, Inc., a company that publishes and produces a variety of publications, products and events that connect growth-minded business owners with practical strategies, resources and information that will take them to the next level of success. She sold Thinking Bigger in March 2018. Kelly serves on a variety of local, regional and national boards designed to advocate and assist small businesses. She served as national chair of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) in 2010-2011 as part of a 5-year tenure on the national board of directors. Kelly was recognized in August 2011 on a list published by Forbes as one of the “Top 25 Women Tweeting About Entrepreneurship.” Some of the other awards she has won include the 2011 United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award on behalf of Kansas City area small business owners; U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2009 Region VII Women’s Business Advocate (for Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska); and numerous others.