Nubank's Unreasonable Hospitality
It’s easy to think that hospitality is a concept reserved for hotels and restaurants. But what I’ve realized from Will Guidara, author of Unreasonable Hospitality, is that it can apply to a lot more industries.
That’s because the core of hospitality—unreasonable and reasonable—revolves around people. Not customers or users. People. People have expectations, pet peeves, and preferences. They have love languages and a bucket list, whether they’re aware of them or not. Paying an unreasonable amount of attention to these things creates magic in the real world.
In the financial services industry, one of the biggest brands in the world practices unreasonable hospitality, even if I’m not entirely sure they’ve heard of the term. The company is South America’s Nubank, co-founded by David Velez.
An instance of Nubank’s unreasonable hospitality involved one of their customers getting married.
The customer asked them for a higher credit limit on their Nubank card because they were getting married soon and were about to spend their honeymoon in Italy. In any other financial institution, the process of this would probably have been a little cold, especially a few years ago.
Although I’m sure the customer went through the standard process of applying for a higher limit, Nubank did the unreasonable. Not only did they raise the customer’s limit, but they also sent a handwritten letter with the best restaurants in Florence and a travel guide.
It’s unreasonable because the letter and guide are, arguably, superfluous expenses. However, the generosity and care it showed had an unquantifiable impact on the customer’s life. Who handwrites letters anymore?
It’ll become a story to tell, which strengthens the relationship with the brand and is very likely to lead to conversations about the company. That’s how unreasonable hospitality can help, even if you aren’t dealing in hotels or restaurants.
If you wanted to share your thoughts and feedback, I'd love to hear them. You can contact me through email, francisjudealcantara@gmail.com