Is corporate hospitality still as strong as it used to be? Definitely. Even with the rapid development of social media platforms, face-to-face interaction is necessary to develop corporate connections. It’s imperative to strengthen ties through personal social networking as well as through the digital spectrum, especially in the business-to-business world.
Surprisingly, the best time to work on corporate hospitality is when corporations, specifically your competitors, are cutting back. In the current economic climate, it demonstrates that business is still good for you and you can offer value added benefits that differentiate you from what others in the industry are doing. When clients feel recognised there are great opportunities for positive referrals and feedback that can increase your volume of business.
Corporate hospitality helps to build relationships with new and potential clients, as well as nurturing and cultivating a strong rapport with existing clients. However, if you want to create loyalty and a lasting relationship, it’s important to keep your social media marketing consistent with the participatory event you are hosting. Using social media parallel to face-to-face networking presents an opportunity to know your customers better by letting them provide their comments and opinions about the event. Given the somewhat intimate nature of most social media interactions, clients will be more likely to give their honest and candid views.
In order to strengthen current relationships with clients as well as build new ones, SilverDoor has decided to develop corporate hospitality by acquiring a box at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Rather than taking clients out for lunch and talking about business for an hour, we find that in a relaxed and enjoyable environment we can get to know everyone on a more personal level. We like to make our clients feel valued by taking them out to do something that they will enjoy. More importantly, corporate hospitality gives us an opportunity to thank them for their continuous support throughout the years.
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Image: Ben Sutherland (Creative Commons Licence)
