How We See It

Marketing & Your Guest Experience

Understanding the guest experience and continually personalizing it will deliver better results.

Lessons From The Ritz-Carlton

Turning Guests Into Loyal Raving Fans

The Declining Need For And Escalating Value of Human Service

Technology has been steadily reducing the number of human service interactions we require in an average day. For at least the last decade, the list of what we as consumers can do for ourselves is growing rapidly.   Between kiosks, web based solutions and mobile apps, most routine customer service functions (product knowledge, price checks, inventory inquiries etc.) are now completely do-it-yourself.

With this “self-serve revolution” in place, it’s easy to regard human, person-to-person service as a somewhat archaic commodity for which the market value must be dropping.  I’ve actually heard retail executives say as much, inferring that customer service people have become merely low value cogs in the machine.  Not only do I completely disagree, but I’d go so far as to say that any company that adopts this attitude is making a colossal and potentially fatal mistake.

There’s No App For Empathy

What technology has done is to automate the most routine and repetitive customer service tasks; the real mind numbing stuff that deserved to be mechanized.  What is hasn’t done (at least not yet) is automate advanced problem solving skills, empathy and likeability.  Hence, customer service as we know it, is evolving to become less about functional skills and more about cognitive reasoning and emotional intelligence – the really hard stuff!

Technology hasn’t lowered the value of personal service, it’s raised it.  As the need for personal, human service declines, its value in circumstances where it is required becomes exponentially higher!  It’s precisely because we can do so much ourselves that when we encounter something we can’t, it’s literally jarring.  Consequently, the stakes are immediately higher.  These are situations where the customer has already reviewed your frequently asked questions board, called your automated help line and read your user’s manual.  They’ve made every attempt to solve their own problem – all to no avail.  The only remaining option is to call an expert who can help.  The human being they call or visit at your business is the last and most vital stopping block between your customer and your competitor’s doorstep.

Moments Of Truth

A great example of a company that gets this concept is Zappos. 75% of Zappos sales are transacted without any interference from a human being – all totally systematized.  Most businesses would invest proportionately in the side of the business that generates the majority of sales – the automated 75%.  And yet, Zappos puts incredible emphasis on the hiring, training and compensation of the people who respond to the 25% of sales that do require personal service.  The rationale is simple; the 25% personal sales are regarded as do-or-die moments of truth when the system won’t cut it and when the customer needs the brand to truly perform.  These are the sales that create memorable experiences and word of mouth.  To skimp on talent at these most pivotal circumstances discredits the entire brand.

The best analogy I’ve heard is that the role of the customer service person today is much like that of an airline pilot.  The pilot is not paid to fly the plane – that’s almost completely done by the autopilot system.  Rather, the pilot is paid to be there in the critical moment when the system fails.

Some Thoughts On My Dinner Tonight

Crazy dinner tonight. Here’s what wasn’t learned. It’s the list you make when everything that can go wrong did. I sat back and wondered, how can so much go so wrong, and yet the staff and operator think that everything is just fine? Is there so much business that they’re banging down the door to get in? No. So what’s the deal? Simple. No one cares to be better. Take a look.

• All servers should be taught to write down orders no matter how much they think they will not forget because they have “memories like an elephant”!
• Apologize for mistakes, but once you say “I’m sorry” for the 5th time, maybe something else is going on?
• Teach your servers to ASK FOR HELP BEFORE THEY GET IN THE WEEDS!
• Do not expect a server to be able to provide an awesome experience for guests, if they have never seen what one looks like! (Especially if you did not show them one during their training!)
• Manage your shift changes better! You lose more guests during this time than any other.
• Work less, entertain more!
• Scheduling is not about your P&L. It is about providing a great guest experience from the time you open – to the time you lock the doors!
• If you (manger/operator) are going to work a staff position, do not go back into a GVA (guest viewing area) dressed like you just fought a war!
• You should be running “silent kitchens”.
• Have I said, “Train your staff!” yet?
• Make plates eye appealing!
• How many guests does it take to make a rush? One!
• Shoot the next manager whose server asks me, “Do you need change?”
• Never make eye contact with a guest and not speak!
• Stop walking by my table as if you have nothing to do and not prebus or refill my drink, or any of another million things.
• Don’t yell,” Have a good night and thanks for coming in”, while you are 15 feet away and not even looking in my direction.

It’s The Service Stupid

One of my core service beliefs that I personally hold and professionally Coach is that you can’t deliver a higher level of service than you have ever experienced. If you haven’t experienced it, how are you going to model it?

Likewise, if you do not understand how important the guest experience is, then you most likely never will. If you have never seen it, been trained with it, had it modeled in your home by your parents or teachers or other important people in your life, you probably do not understand its importance or practice it in your daily life. Owners and operators who are not ‘service minded’ look at their business as a simple transaction based enterprise. “I make you food, you pay me. Next!” And you would think that given the natural selection process that exists in our industry that these attitudes would be, over time, yesterday’s news. But after reading several comments here, you realize that is not the case.

Creating a unique and exciting guest experience is the objective of high-level service operations. Whether it is Fast Food, (Truitt Cathy) Fine Dining (Charlie Trotter) or anything in between (Danny Meyer), successful owners and operators understand the battle for the each and every guest hinges on delivering a better guest experience. They build their entire operation around it. It’s in their DNA and therefore their businesses too. It permeates every aspect of not just what they do, but who they are. These are the truly service minded owners and operators and they are usually some of the most successful in the industry. People want to be around other people who make them feel good in general and during a ‘life event’ dinner especially.

Another core value I hold and Coach is that every time a guest comes to your establishment, they do so in the context of a ‘life event’. First date, last date, birthday, anniversary, new job, lost job, new car, time with friends, etc. Each and every guest visit is an event in their lives. If you understand this, and embrace it, then add something to it that is unexpected or above and beyond, or that simply allows them to enjoy the event more, you make them loyal, raving fans. Fail to add to their event and you are literally taking away from it, there is no middle ground with the guest experience. This may or may not be a conscious thing, but it registers that your place isn’t special or unique and they therefore seek out other places to visit and enjoy. The first place to make them feel great wins! And if you understand that people make their choices based on emotions more than anything else, you get this and you’ll experience more success because you do.

Special Orders & Substitutions

Logistically, if you can do something to accommodate a guest request, you should do it. Is it added stress to your production processes, maybe, but isn’t the next order that comes in added stress also? And the next? If you do not handle stress well, you shouldn’t be in the Restaurant business. The only reason you should ever give to a guest that you cannot do something is if you do not have the means by which to do it, or it is not in the best interest of the guest to do so (turning a high chair upside down so that the parent can place a child seat in it comes to mind! or serving a drink to an obviously inebriated guest).

If you do not have the production capability to accommodate different requests that are reasonable, then you have the wrong production capability. Likewise, if you do not have the talent to prepare a dish a different way that does not overload your production capabilities, then you have the wrong talent. Can you be prepared for everything? No. But unless you have flexibilities built into any of your plans, they aren’t really plans are they?

The corollary is that if you are not service minded when it comes to your guests, you most likely aren’t with your staff, managers, vendors, etc.  Also, your staff won’t deliver a superior experience either because you do not model it or expect it.

Service Or Food?

A superior service (experience) is more important than superior food. Superior service can overcome bad food, great food cannot overcome a bad experience. Argue all you want. But like the earlier quote in this thread, at the end of the day, if you don’t serve the guest, somebody else will.

This has nothing to do with how unique your operation is versus the guy down the street. We all produce an experience, that’s the product. Of course it’s different from one place to the next as are the personalities that produce it. And the idea that one guest doesn’t much matter is complete hogwash! This is a business were you fight for every single guest. We have talked gazillions of times about how much less of a cost it is to keep guests rather than trying to find new ones! I’ve heard lots of whining about how there is too much competition in our industry today, but never have I heard that there’s not enough.

Also, being accommodating isn’t ‘special treatment’ it’s an extremely reasonable expectation! The demands of consumers in general today are getting more deeply defined – some call it more demanding go figure. And manipulation is the most sincere (worst) form of apathy and it doesn’t work.  Guests aren’t stupid.

You need to recalibrate your thinking and your culture to accommodate the demand by guests for establishing real relationships with the brands they support. Continue to treat each guest like a transaction and you’ll become irrelevant.

All this was inevitable. It’s the evolution of the social process and I think it’s about time. Culture changes. It’s a fact. Deal with it. It’s also a tremendous opportunity for those who are prepared to take advantage of it. But I guarantee you, if you do not like change, you will like irrelevance even less.

Death To Napkin Rolls

Barry Chandler reminded us of one of our “Top 10″ pet peeves – napkin rolled silverware. Take a read.

Eating With Your Mind’s Eye

Garnishes are to a dinner plate what accessories are to fashion models: They set off attributes to their best advantage. But making food look nice — the “halo effect” of plate presentation — doesn’t require foam machines or truffle shavers. Here, a three-element plate gets a simple, effective makeover.

One caveat: Because we tried to show as many techniques as possible on one plate, this comes dangerously close to overdone. Learn to stop garnishing at the first moment of satisfaction — or even before.

Select the plate: Go with plain white, and keep proportion in mind: For three components, a 10-inch plate with a 1 1/2 -inch rim and a slight well gives the food a little room to breathe. The well defines the space and keeps liquids from running. The rim frames food just as margins frame words on a page.

Watch dimension: A little piling goes a long way. Towers of food that topple with the first cut of a knife have gone the way of the ’90s.

Use a kit: When having guests over for dinner, do what restaurant chefs do. Have some of the following items handy to choose from as the muse strikes, provided they make sense where you use them:

• Chopped parsley.
• Chopped and/or whole chives.
• Chopped scallions.
• Diced red bell p epper.
• A bunch of clean greens or herbs (such as watercress, flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, basil, thyme or sage).
• Black or white sesame seeds.
• Toasted pine nuts, pecans, slivered almonds or other nuts.
• Smoked paprika.
• Edible flowers.
  

Make garnishes work: Too much color can look clownish, and everything should belong. On our makeover plate, the red pepper strips on the sugar snaps and black sesame seeds and scallions on the couscous set off the colors and enhance the foods’ flavors instead of clashing with them.

When it comes to greenery, keep in mind that parsley goes well with all savory dishes, but other herbs should be used only if they are already components in the dish. Basil would be fine on our makeover plate because it’s in the sauce, but sage leaves would be inappropriate.

Some of the most fashionable finishing touches are also the tastiest: varieties of coarse sea salts and freshly ground peppercorns.

Source: The Washington Post 

Top 10 Reasons To Take A Sledgehammer To Your Host Stand

I hate most host stands with a passion – and the whole host situation in general. This is the most critical station yet the most abused by operators and managers. Here are my top 10 reason why. Feel free to add yours if you’d like.

1. It accumulates clutter that is an eyesore.
2. It does not have any functional utility for the guest.
3. It allows staff to hide from the guest.
4. It forces the guest to come to you, and not the other way around.
5. It becomes a hub for business other than the business of the guest.
6. It becomes a leaning tool and not a Hosting [verb] tool.
7. It will force you to talk to your guests and actually be the Host [verb] for the guest experience.
8. It will force more physical contact with the guest and thereby a more meaningful greeting.
9. It will allow the guest to take in the whole show as they enter and immediately be caught up in the experience more.
10. Because you don’t have one at your house when you host people there!

More On Hostesses…

• Can A Restaurant Hostess Cause Bankruptcy?

Quick! Take Out A Pad & Pencil…

…and write down the names of your top 20 best guests. Can you do it? You better be able to or else!