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Articles
The Little Things
June 15, 2007
Originally published in the QSR Side Order Newsletter
Early this week speaking at a franchise convention hosted in a place known for ‘magic', the service and employees were underwhelming. Does the guest notice? You bet. Last night, I checked in to an inexpensive hotel after a long flight delay, my mood as to be expected. Check-in process was nothing memorable. Walk in to the room, however, and a cleverly folded set of two towels looks like an elephant on my bed! In the bathroom, the towels are folded near the sink to look like a swan! All at a hotel for under $100 per night. Does the guest notice? You bet. Problem is, there are hundreds of other locations for this brand and now I expect that everywhere I go or I will be disappointed. How can you avoid that fate?
As mentioned last week, we discussed ‘Made to Stick' ideas. So, what are yours? Haven't come up with any yet? Here are a few more ideas since folding towels into animal shapes likely won't drive a restaurant's business:
- Have a mantra every employee knows. Keep it simple, short and memorable. Ask the employees to help you create it versus telling them what it is.
- Use genuine, not robotic, phrases such as ‘see you tomorrow', ‘thanks', ‘drive safe', ‘have a great day/trip', using the customer's name if you know them or they pay with a credit card and so on. Too often companies tell their employees ‘say ___ to every customer' without focusing on teaching tone and body language and the customer can sense the insincerity.
- Build the customer and your employees into the marketing program. Go in to a Krystal and you see customer's faces all over the advertising materials. Who better to speak to customers than customers? Jack in the Box has a ‘real live crew member' do portions of their radio spots. Sincerity and believability.
- Get a ‘Second Life' - the new phenomenon sweeping today's generation (along with social networking sites previously mentioned) is a website called Second Life. It's an entire make believe world. Companies in other industries have their own ‘real' estate and marketing campaigns targeting over 7 million users. Consider building a virtual restaurant and recruiting site to show customers and employees what you are all about.
Have a great week while I undo my swan towels to dry my face!