Iman Jalali

Hospitality Industry: Companies within the food services, accommodations, recreation, and entertainment sectors.

Those involved in restaurants, hotels, bars and clubs use the term “industry” often, but unfortunately it seems that hospitality has been stripped away from the industry. Building relationships used to be a huge part of the hospitality industry, but it has been replaced by turnover, profit and greed. Restaurants are looking for ways to get patrons to eat faster and leave quicker. Clubs are packing in the tables for bottle service and charging in excess of $300 for a bottle of liquor. While some owners and operators within the industry have gone down this road, there are others who have stepped up and are building long lasting relationships with their patrons.

Months before the Elysian Hotel opened up in Chicago I was invited by David Pisor, the owner of the hotel, for a sneak peak of the property. It’s a very common thing for a hotel to have sneak peeks and events before the hotel opens to build buzz around the property, but generally these events are for those who are in the press or in the industry. I’m in neither of the two… David Pisor had actually invited people involved in Chicago social media for this special night. Interesting and very smart… They had the entire kitchen staff there to create samplings of their menu, we toured the entire hotel, met the executive chef and GM of the hotel and David Pisor himself. It’s a beautiful property and I highly recommend trying one of their great restaurants, better yet stay at the Elysian.

I spoke with Mr. Pisor about his vision of the Elysian and what sets the Elysian apart from the many other ultra luxury hotels in Chicago. His answer couldn’t have been more perfect… He wants to make you feel at home at the Elysian, it’s not just about a place to sleep for a night. One unique fact about the Elysian is that the staff doesn’t accept tips. Mr. Pisor explained, imagine arriving to the hotel from traveling and you’ve got bags, but unfortunately you forgot you have no cash… he doesn’t want you to stress about tipping the bellhop. You should arrive and feel like you’ve arrived at home where the entire staff is ready to help you with your every need, without the thought of tipping. There are so many little elements like that in the Elysian that it truly sets itself apart from other hotels.

The Elysian isn’t just about how nice the rooms are or how good the food is… it’s about the personal touch. Of course the rooms and food are above any other hotel, but it’s the staff, the management and the owners who truly make the Elysian what it is.

The rest of the industry can learn a thing or two from David Pisor and the Elysian…

Since I started at Train Signal about two years ago we’ve doubled the size of the company and have learned a tremendous amount regarding the whole hiring process. It’s truly one of the most important processes in a business that can’t be rushed. From owning my own business to my time now at Train Signal I’ve learned how important hiring the right person is. It’s beyond just having the right skill set, education and background… it’s so much more. For most companies training new employees is a costly expense, so you might as well take your time in the hiring process to make sure you’re investing into the right person.

One key thing I always look for in potential hires is culture fit. Would they mesh with your current employees? And literally the question… Can you see yourself and other employees going out to have drinks with them? Sometimes the most talented people can also be damaging to your companies culture. Company culture is what defines you, it’s the soul of your company. It’s overlooked so many times in companies, especially in companies that are growing rapidly. It’s so integral to your companies success to define your values as a company and live by them. Hire based on your values and culture, definitely fire based on them… more importantly hire slowly, fire quickly.

I never wanted to make my blog political, but I’m sorry this goes beyond politics. I’ve never been so embarrassed to be from the state of Illinois as I have been after seeing the former governor Rod Blagojevich on “Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC. If you didn’t happen to watch an episode let’s just say he doesn’t have a clue on how to use any piece of technology. Anything from turning on a MacBook, sending e-mails, text messaging or even operating a digital camera. I’m not even stretching the truth here, his other team members were constantly left in shock as how the former governor of Illinois didn’t even know how to type on a computer, let alone send a single e-mail.

Excuse my language, but how the fuck did someone so technologically backward become the governor of a state? Tech is huge industry in Illinois and I’m sorry, but I want a governor who understands tech to represent the tech industry and bring jobs and more business into Illinois.

Rod Blagojevich, I’m glad you’re out of office… Grandparents these days have Facebook accounts, 10 year-olds are running around text messaging and you can’t even turn on a MacBook…

I know you’ll never read this as there’s no chance in hell you’ve got Google Alerts setup.

In the current economy businesses everywhere are trying to drum up sales in anyway possible, most using discounts and coupons. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of discounting and coupons… as a consumer I love it, but as a business I try to avoid it at all costs. Part of it has to do with my belief that if you build a great product/service with great customer service backing it you don’t need to offer discounts and coupons to entice people to buy.

Same thinking goes into my thoughts on marketing budgets… my ideal company would have a marketing budget of $0. I want my product, my service, my employees, my brand, my company to be the marketing. There is a lot of “gray area” in that statement though… You might have a large marketing budget while you’re building up your company and there’s also a lot of things that might fall under “operational marketing” like e-mail marketing, but in my ideal company I’d have to spend no money at some point on print, web, TV or radio advertising. Customer acquisition would be organic. I rather focus on creating a better product/service or provide a better “experience” for my current customers.

Let’s go back to talking about discounts… these days most online retailers offer most of their discounts and sales offers via e-mail. That’s part of the problem… your e-mail list generally consists of customers who’ve already purchased from you and your most loyal followers. Giving them discounts isn’t the only way to entice them to buy. If you’re selling clothes online maybe when you get a new shipment in you offer it first to your e-mail list… talk it up, “Exclusive First Look”. Sometimes relevant information is all it takes to generate revenue from your e-mail list. A highly targeted, relevant e-mail blast with great information always generates revenue.

To me being discount heavy to your current customers is backwards… I believe that discounts are a great way of enticing on the fence buyers to pull the trigger, but after that it’s the job of every other aspect of your business to keep them coming back. Worst part of being discount heavy is you start to train your best customers to wait for discounts to make purchases.

Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData has a great quote: “Discounts and promotions are our version of ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ They are taxes placed upon brands for being unremarkable.”

Dear Big Media,

Plain and simple, you’re acting like big bullies. The two of you on the playground that are being the most troublesome bullies right now are Warner Bros. and Viacom. Let’s start with you Warner Bros., bullying companies like Netflix and Redbox into doing what you “think” is right for business. Notably, Warner Bros. strong arming a deal with Netflix to implement a 28 day “sales only” period in which Netflix will now wait 28 days after a DVD/Blu-ray sales release before allowing customers to rent the movie. Netflix in return received streaming licensing rights to a large collection of Warner Bros. catalog. It’s a no-brainer that Netflix’s business model is shifting focus from physical media rental to online streaming and the movie studios know this. The studio heads think that by implementing this “sales only” period they’ll increase the sales of physical DVD’s, highly more profitable to studios than movie rentals. One problem… it’s a horrible idea. Thanks for making piracy look better and better everyday. Making people wait 28 days before renting a movie won’t make them more likely to buy, it’ll just make them more likely to pirate it.

When will the industry learn that people don’t like obstacles to accessing the content they create. We’re willing to pay for it, we understand you don’t do this for free, just make it easy for us to access it. There is a reason the iTunes store is so successful… you make it so easy to download a song, sometimes I don’t even realize how much money I’m spending, such a simple, quick process. I’ve even found myself renting movies from iTunes for $3.99 a pop just because it’s so easy and I don’t want to leave my place and walk downstairs to the Redbox.

Next bully is Viacom… Viacom this week announced that they’ll be removing all Comedy Central shows from Hulu. Hulu has quickly became the premier website for watching TV shows online, with over 40 million visitors a month. Two of the most popular shows on Hulu are “The Daily Show with John Stewart” and “The Colbert Report”, both Comedy Central/Viacom shows. From the looks of it negotiations broke down when Viacom demanded more share in the advertising revenue and Hulu couldn’t afford to do so. Typically content owners like Viacom receive 50 to 70 percent of any advertising revenue generated.

Again a horrible decision…I turn to Hulu for TV shows, because it’s user friendly, very fast content delivery and they have a wide variety of TV programming from different networks. I’m not going to seek out Comedy Central’s shows on ComedyCentral.com, instead I’ll watch something else on Hulu. I’m not sure what Hollywood is thinking, but the current thinking of pulling content away from the marketplace is not the way to go. Make content more accessible to consumers and their wallets will follow.

Sincerely,
A Viewer

P.S. Stop building around the wants of the advertisers and start building for the viewer… when you do so the advertisers will follow, I promise.