Dr. Misner had an experience at a restaurant in Japan that inspired today’s podcast. The waitress and all the patrons greeted every new arrival with “Welcome to the restaurant.”

Shouldn’t a networking group be just as welcoming? If BNI chapters make visitors feel welcome, visitors will return.

Sometimes a BNI group’s members can get so connected that they forget to talk to visitors. If you see that happen, share this podcast with your group.

How does your group make visitors feel welcome? Share your tips here.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 120 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan, how are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great Priscilla. I am at BNI headquarters this week. We have directors training with dozens of BNI directors from around the country, around the United States, and a few internationally, that are going through three full days of training, so that is what I will be doing for the next couple of days.

Priscilla:
Wow, that sounds good. What are you going to share with us?

Ivan:
I have a fun topic today; it is about making visitors feel welcome in BNI. This topic came about by an event in Japan. I was speaking throughout Japan last month to BNI networking groups and to the public. I was there with my eighteen-year-old daughter; she just turned eighteen. She wanted to do a language program, so I went there for BNI, and I took her with me. We did some BNI meetings together with her speaking in Japanese, which is great.

Before leaving the country, I took my daughter to a little restaurant called Gonpachi. I understand that is it a chain, it is not a one of a kind, but there are many of them. It was pretty near the hotel that we were staying at. It was a nice little place in Tokyo, had great food and good service.

What really got my attention was the reception we received when we entered the dining room. As we entered the room, one of the waitressed yelled, and I know I am going to mess up the word, my Japanese is horrible, but it was something to the effect of “irasshaimasei.” She just yelled that out and all the patrons joined her in yelling it, “Irasshaimasei.” I turned to my daughter and said, “What in the world are they yelling at us?”

She said, “They are more or less saying, ‘Welcome to the restaurant.’”

I thought, “Wow, that is really impressive, what a nice touch!” I sat back and watched as the patrons flowed into the restaurant, and with each group of people the waitress, and even the patrons got into it, and they would yell out “Welcome to the restaurant” in Japanese. As people slowly started to trickle out of the restaurant, they started yelling, “Thank you very much” in Japanese as they left. “Thank you very much.” I even jumped in. I could barely say the words, but I jumped in. I thought it was fun.

Isn’t that what a good networking group should be like? When visitors come to BNI and the members say through their actions and words, “Welcome to our networking group; thanks for visiting us,” when they say that with enthusiasm and just genuine interest, you have to come back to the group again. I think this is truly an important secret to a good network, make visitors feel welcome. When people feel welcome, they want to come back. So if you started yelling “Welcome to our group” at the end of the room, you might not actually get the response I am thinking about here, but I think you get the idea.

If BNI chapters, through their actions and through their words, really truly make visitors feel welcome, those visitors will return. And that, my friends, is a sign, not only of a great restaurant, but of a great networking group. I would love to see BNI chapters all over the world share their podcast with their members, because I think that is one of the things that sets BNI aside from our competition, is the core way we potentially welcome visitors. If we can carry that out effectively, we will continue to be the world’s largest networking organization.

Priscilla:
I agree. And I just have to ask, did that happen in any other restaurants or any other places that you were in in Japan?

Ivan:
It didn’t. That is a great question, because I am told that it does happen and that it is somewhat common and that they do it not only in restaurants, but sometimes in stores where they say “Welcome to the store.” It is not an uncommon tradition in Japan, but I was there for a week, and that was the only place that I saw it done. I felt like I wanted to come back. I was sorry it was my last day. If it had been my first day, I definitely would have come back because it was such a great technique.

I don’t know how, in BNI, to incorporate that in reality. I don’t think yelling out “Welcome to BNI!” is maybe the thing to do, but it is the impression, and the impression was so welcoming. If we can do that at BNI, I think that you have got to get visitors to come back. It is all about making people feel comfortable. Sometimes in networking groups, the relationships become so tight, you meet and start talking to the fellow members, and you forget to reach out to that visitor and make that visitor feel welcome.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
When we see that starting to happen in your chapter, share this podcast with your members, because I think it can really help with a group.

Priscilla:
In our group, I am one of the visitor hostesses, so I get a chance to meet all the visitors right away. We hand them off to another member who is going to take them around and see if there is a power partner for them or somebody that they might really connect with in the group. And then we greet them by name during the meeting and thank them for being there. I think that really makes them feel comfortable and glad that they are there.

Ivan:
Absolutely, I think we should start to train the visitor host to start to say, “Welcome to our BNI group.” First words out of their mouth should be “Welcome to our BNI group.” I think this is a great tradition that they have in Japan, and we should incorporate it worldwide in BNI.

Priscilla:
I will test it out on Thursday.

Ivan:
Great; let me know how it goes.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
And for the listeners, try to apply this concept of not necessarily yelling it out when they come but telling them, “Welcome to the group.” And leave some messages here on the podcast, and let us know what you think.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Is that it, or do you have anything else you would like to share?

Ivan:
Nope, that is good for this week.

Priscilla:
Okay, good. All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Misner.

I just want to thank you and let the listeners know that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.