Words and their meaning in marketing

[TheBeachHouse]

I'm in the northeast (Massachusetts) and we've got the flag flying ... here and up and down the street. But I also like our flagpoles that look like ship masts.
The flag is on our lighthouse all summer which I love.
Here's our town common

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Ipswich ?

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I'm in the northeast (Massachusetts) and we've got the flag flying ... here and up and down the street. But I also like our flagpoles that look like ship masts.
The flag is on our lighthouse all summer which I love.
Here's our town common

.

Dupe. (I shouldn't be allowed to use the iPad .)

 

[user 26]

Beach House are you asking me? No, south shore.

 

[Morticia]

See the trouble for me is family owned and run implies there will be a family potentially with small children there which I really don't want - tied in with the situation I have had before of kids answering the phone and everything being a bit sticky, and unprofessional.
perhaps "independently own and professionally run" - we personally emphasis we have 30 years or more hospitality experience between us and how we are able to make immediate changes if there is a problem. However it was interesting in a survey by (I think it was A R) said that people didn't trust owner run establishments to be professional they trusted an employed manager to deal with problems more effectively! Find that the height of irony!.

My parents always stayed at corporate hotels figuring there was some sort of rule book that had to be followed.
Ditto chain restaurants.
My life baffled them. ;-)

 

[sachi3679]

See the trouble for me is family owned and run implies there will be a family potentially with small children there which I really don't want - tied in with the situation I have had before of kids answering the phone and everything being a bit sticky, and unprofessional.
perhaps "independently own and professionally run" - we personally emphasis we have 30 years or more hospitality experience between us and how we are able to make immediate changes if there is a problem. However it was interesting in a survey by (I think it was A R) said that people didn't trust owner run establishments to be professional they trusted an employed manager to deal with problems more effectively! Find that the height of irony!.

Because an employed manager has (several) bosses above him who only care about customer retention. In every corporation I have worked for, if I try to do anything except give the customer exactly what they want, they complain to corporate, get what they want plus some and then I get in trouble. No matter if the customer was rude, offensive, aggressive or threatening. With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer.

 

[gillumhouse]

I'm in the northeast (Massachusetts) and we've got the flag flying ... here and up and down the street. But I also like our flagpoles that look like ship masts.
The flag is on our lighthouse all summer which I love.
Here's our town common

.

Dupe. (I shouldn't be allowed to use the iPad .)
.

Himself is working on the painting for the 2017 motorcycle event - my iPad is back in his area again until completion.

 

[Morticia]

See the trouble for me is family owned and run implies there will be a family potentially with small children there which I really don't want - tied in with the situation I have had before of kids answering the phone and everything being a bit sticky, and unprofessional.
perhaps "independently own and professionally run" - we personally emphasis we have 30 years or more hospitality experience between us and how we are able to make immediate changes if there is a problem. However it was interesting in a survey by (I think it was A R) said that people didn't trust owner run establishments to be professional they trusted an employed manager to deal with problems more effectively! Find that the height of irony!.

Because an employed manager has (several) bosses above him who only care about customer retention. In every corporation I have worked for, if I try to do anything except give the customer exactly what they want, they complain to corporate, get what they want plus some and then I get in trouble. No matter if the customer was rude, offensive, aggressive or threatening. With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer.
.

I get in trouble. No matter if the customer was rude, offensive, aggressive or threatening. With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer.

This is why no one in customer service does anything for you. They're tired of getting beat up for whatever they do.
Now guests have the internet. They can yell and scream about how awful we were to them.

 

[Anon Inn]

I'm in the northeast (Massachusetts) and we've got the flag flying ... here and up and down the street. But I also like our flagpoles that look like ship masts.
The flag is on our lighthouse all summer which I love.
Here's our town common

.

Beautiful!

 

[Copperhead]

We don't use the words 'family owned....' but our website has a segment about the owners/innkeepers with a picture (just looked, boy those people were young! lol New picture needed!).
That is enough I think for the viewer to know we are family owned.

 

[Morticia]

We don't use the words 'family owned....' but our website has a segment about the owners/innkeepers with a picture (just looked, boy those people were young! lol New picture needed!).
That is enough I think for the viewer to know we are family owned..

Our photo is 10 years old. One of us has a lot less hair and the other one is completely gray-haired. And we're both a little stouter. ;-)

 

[OnTheShore]

Just to be clear, In asking my question about why being "family owned and operated" is important, I am not saying that is not important -- it is; rather mine was a rhetorical question to try to provoke thinking about the word-smithing from a marketing-speak guest benefit perspective....
On our website, we don't say anything about the ownership (or operatorship) of our place on our home page, although we do have a guest testimonial quote that sort of gives some of that background. The "About Us" page gives more information.
Of course, our business is legally structured as a corporation; there may only be one shareholder, but i guess that means we straddle the corporate-owned / family-owned divide ;-)
BTW, the flag is important to us up here, too.

Happy Memorial Day!

 

[JimBoone]

See the trouble for me is family owned and run implies there will be a family potentially with small children there which I really don't want - tied in with the situation I have had before of kids answering the phone and everything being a bit sticky, and unprofessional.
perhaps "independently own and professionally run" - we personally emphasis we have 30 years or more hospitality experience between us and how we are able to make immediate changes if there is a problem. However it was interesting in a survey by (I think it was A R) said that people didn't trust owner run establishments to be professional they trusted an employed manager to deal with problems more effectively! Find that the height of irony!.

Because an employed manager has (several) bosses above him who only care about customer retention. In every corporation I have worked for, if I try to do anything except give the customer exactly what they want, they complain to corporate, get what they want plus some and then I get in trouble. No matter if the customer was rude, offensive, aggressive or threatening. With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer.
.

I respectfully disagree. A dissatisfied customer always has the recourse to take his/her business elsewhere and as the business owner I have a vested interest in retaining that customer and not having him/her unhappy, but yes there are unreasonable customers and any transaction must benefit both customer and business owner.
Yes from personal experience and that of family working in larger companies (not lodging) the unhappy customer can take a complaint several steps up the ladder and often get what he/she wants often because that person just doesn't want to be bothered yet that makes one person happy and usually doesn't change the policies that caused those problems initially.

 

[JBloggs]

"With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer."
Completely missed the mark with this comment.
Our entire lives (more than financially, but that too) are invested in our small businesses, so it is 10 times for important for us. it IS SKIN off our back. And in fact, the dissatisfied customer doesn't just make us mad if they are rude, it effects us in more ways than you will ever know.

 

[JBloggs]

Just to be clear, In asking my question about why being "family owned and operated" is important, I am not saying that is not important -- it is; rather mine was a rhetorical question to try to provoke thinking about the word-smithing from a marketing-speak guest benefit perspective....
On our website, we don't say anything about the ownership (or operatorship) of our place on our home page, although we do have a guest testimonial quote that sort of gives some of that background. The "About Us" page gives more information.
Of course, our business is legally structured as a corporation; there may only be one shareholder, but i guess that means we straddle the corporate-owned / family-owned divide ;-)
BTW, the flag is important to us up here, too.

Happy Memorial Day!.

I understand. That was actually my original question and the purpose for this post, was how to word it.

 

[Jcam]

"With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer."
Completely missed the mark with this comment.
Our entire lives (more than financially, but that too) are invested in our small businesses, so it is 10 times for important for us. it IS SKIN off our back. And in fact, the dissatisfied customer doesn't just make us mad if they are rude, it effects us in more ways than you will ever know..

exactly this is what I don't think they understand as an owner any customer who is not happy takes money directly out of my pocket (1) by dealing with them and (2) by the review they may or may not do in response which affects my reputation as well.
The number of times when in a big hotel I wanted to help people or knew the room they were being checked into wasn't suitable for them (under a wedding, over the bar etc) but there was nothing we could do big corp didn't care.

 

[Silverspoon]

Beach House are you asking me? No, south shore..

Ever get down this way, SS? Isn't it time for a face-to-face?

 

[sachi3679]

"With a small business owner, there is no recourse for a dissatisfied customer."
Completely missed the mark with this comment.
Our entire lives (more than financially, but that too) are invested in our small businesses, so it is 10 times for important for us. it IS SKIN off our back. And in fact, the dissatisfied customer doesn't just make us mad if they are rude, it effects us in more ways than you will ever know..

exactly this is what I don't think they understand as an owner any customer who is not happy takes money directly out of my pocket (1) by dealing with them and (2) by the review they may or may not do in response which affects my reputation as well.
The number of times when in a big hotel I wanted to help people or knew the room they were being checked into wasn't suitable for them (under a wedding, over the bar etc) but there was nothing we could do big corp didn't care.
.

Sorry, I guess I worded that badly. I didn't mean there is no impact for a business owner, but that the customers I deal with (in my corporate owned job) want something now (usually for free) when something goes wrong, and if *I* personally don't do it quickly enough or the way the customer wants it, there is immediately someone else for the customer to go to. Yes, a customer can do damage and a lot of it to a small business by taking away business or by posting poor reviews, but that doesn't immediately solve their problem, which is what I was addressing before - why a customer would prefer a corporation to a small business.
And of course, there are corporations that don't care, but the perceptions are there that if the customer can only speak to the *right* person, their problem will be fixed.
Now as to why a customer *should* prefer a small business to a corporation, that is a whole different thing.

 

[Hillbilly]

We could add this to the site pretty easy. We just need to come up with the rules and regulations for the elite group. They can also be the top listed properties if we choose. They could have a icon (logo) next to the listing to showcase them. If we decide to do something let me know. I feel it would be a nice feature. But lets not jump into it. Lets really think how we want it and word it correctly.