Have you ever heard the phrase, “It takes a village”? 

You most likely have and know that in BNI, it takes a team of business professionals to provide a warm, welcoming, and positive referral environment. 

I’m Cys Bronner, Executive Director for BNI’s Greater Los Angeles regions, BNI4Success, and today, I'm going to share with you just one of our important coordinator roles for every BNI chapter, the Visitor Host Coordinator 

As members, we know that there’s a whole lot going on to help us get the most success from our membership, but did you know that there’s a whole lot more going on to help you become members? Most likely not, you were busy receiving the best Visitor Experience you could. I know this because if you didn’t have a positive Visitor Experience, you would not have moved on to your next step – the Member Experience. 

So, let’s take a look at how it all happened….

·      You registered in advance to attend a meeting.

·      There was a Visitor Host Greeter at the meeting to welcome you in person or online.

·      There was also a Visitor Host – might even be the same one – who introduced you to others, helped you get settled, and made sure that you knew what was going on during the meeting. 

·      Then, near the end of the meeting, the Chapter President invited you to spend some time with the Visitor Host Orientation Specialist (we call that role the “Closer”) who answered any questions, gave you information about the things you should know but didn’t ask, and invited you to apply for membership consideration. 

·      After all that, you got some good old-fashioned follow up by phone, text, email, What’s App, whatever from the aptly named Visitor Host Follow Up Specialist. 

Whew! That’s a lot of gears in the machine, isn’t it? 

It is! But what you didn’t see is that there is a very important team leader making sure it all takes place and hums along the track for you. Of course, it’s the Visitor Host Coordinator. 

Like all of our BNI Coordinators, they oversee and guide that team towards successful completion of the various aspects in their specialized team or unit. 

Without them, you would lose the liaison to the leadership team or worse your Visitors - your potential referral partners – wouldn’t have anyone ensuring that the Visitor Host Team works together efficiently. 

In our region we have something called “Monday Communications”, it’s a great way to start the week for our chapter with each team leader, including the Visitor Host Coordinator, and touch base by email, BNI Online™, in person or phone. 

Personally, I think using the BNI Online™ meeting room is the most efficient, but I also think the best method is the one that you’ll use.  

This way the Visitor Host Coordinator can find out the status of the follow up, discuss what’s been working and what hasn’t with the greeters, update any Greeter Chat Host quick notes or ask about Visitors being put into BNI Connect AND a little due diligence conversation about the guests who may have already registered. – Remember to pass that info on to the leadership as well. 

Btw, that meeting is an important one to find out if a team member will be out and decide how you’ll shift a little so that every visitor to your chapter is still getting the best Visitor Experience ever! 

I always like to ask if a Visitor was given an application (online or otherwise) and how that conversation went.

more at: http://bnipodcast4success.com/2023/03/04/the-visitor-host-coordinator-podcast-39/

BNI4Success Podcasts

The Voice of BNI Greater Los Angeles; Where we’ll talk about referral networking that works!
http://bnipodcast4success.com