Southern Hospitality is Warm Welcome for Clients Relocating to Raleigh
August 15th, 2007 Categories: Why Move to Raleigh?
I help lots of people relocate to Raleigh. Many of them hear what a great place this is to live through magazines and various lists of best places to work, live, run a business, etc. Best of all is the large number of recent relocation clients who are telling me they heard about Raleigh through word of mouth.
One comment that I always hear from my relocation clients is how friendly everyone is here. That’s quite a compliment. Raleigh is also known for a great real estate market, top notch universities, a robust economy, and a good balance of big city amenities and small town communities. Relocation clients typically mention one or two of these things as reasons they move here, but the one thing everyone mentions is our warm and inviting brand of southern hospitality.
If a place has to be known for something, I guess friendliness is a good thing to be known for. If you are planning to move to the Raleigh area be prepared for an instant immersion in this thing called southern hospitality.
When you go to a restaurant or a store the waitress or clerk will make eye contact, smile and ask you how you’re doing. When someone asks you for something, they will say please. When you are approaching a door the person in front of you is likely to pause long enough to hold it open for you.
Oh, and when that happens, don’t forget to say thank you. We’re really big on saying please and thank you here. And don’t be too surprised when someone refers to you as ma’am or sir. They’re just being polite.
My favorite southern hospitality story is one of a young man I helped relocate to Raleigh for a job at Cisco. As we visited various neighborhoods looking for a house to buy, people would say hello, or good day, or how’s it going as they walked by us. If they didn’t speak, they would at least smile and give a friendly nod just to acknowledge our presence.
After this happened a half dozen times or so, my client told me how impressed he was with all the people I knew. I had to tell him that I actually did not know a single one of the people who had been speaking, smiling or nodding as we passed by them. They were all just practicing southern hospitality.
If you are considering relocating to Raleigh, or any of the surrounding areas, click here and request a free relocation package. It contains some really great maps, area info, home info, and much more.
