06 February 2019
Creating hospitality: confusingly simple?
Traditionally EW Facility Services organised the event The Power of Hospitality at the beginning of this month, on 5 February. For the fifth time in a row she welcomed about 200 guests from all over the country for an inspiring afternoon programme, this time in the striking building of client Rabobank Nederland in Utrecht. Led by inspirer, author and keynote speaker Jan van Setten, they made their ‘ultimate journey’ in the Auditorium. The guests were immediately put on edge, because isn’t creating hospitality really confusingly simple?
Confusingly simple
Jan van Setten challenged everyone to go into the afternoon with an open mind. "Dare to exchange thoughts and dare to experience that you think something you never thought, feel something you never felt and do something you never did before. Our goal is to stimulate and sometimes even confuse your innovative brain. Turn that confusion into wonder and you will go home with at least two new ideas. Confusingly simple right?
Bas Cornelissen, Managing Director EW Facility Services: "With this, Jan expresses exactly what we have in mind with our event, namely sharing knowledge in the field of hospitality linked to facility services. Every year we highlight hospitality from a different angle with speakers who are experts in that field. We invite clients, partners and important relations from the various segments in which we work. A varied mix of beautiful clients with cross-networks. A beautiful cross-fertilisation. With this event we hope to achieve that our guests, will go home full of new insights and practical tools. And that they can use these the next day in their field of work.
Hospitality compass
The packed afternoon was dominated by knowledge and inspiration, stimulating the senses and a wealth of practical examples. Karin Janssen (Director Facilities, Procurement and HR Operations - Rabobank), Marc Westeneng (Founding Partner - flowresulting) and Jan van Setten told and inspired about the power of experience in creating a perfect service. They were the hospitality compass for our guests.
It's all about people
The programme had a good flow of practical examples from Rabobank to theoretically substantiated examples and applicable tips from Marc Westeneng and Jan van Setten. Here and there with a humorous twist but always to the point. The common denominator in all stories is the involvement of your own employees in creating the perfect service. Do your employees really understand why you do what you do as an organisation, do they share this vision? Only then you can be successful as an organisation. And what do they then need to get the best out of themselves in their work? A few important tips that the guests were given: regularly ask yourself what will the (internal) customer miss if you would stop because of success, empower your employees and catch someone on something good and give a compliment. Because giving a compliment is one of the best motivators. As Rabobank puts it so beautifully: 'Happy People = Happy Customers'.
Photo from left to right
Bas Cornelissen, Marc Westeneng, Karin Janssen and Jan van Setten.
