Make Every Customer Experience Special - A Restaurant Mini-Case Study

Nothing Can Help You If You Don't Recognize The Consumer POV

By David Miranda

The following mini-case study is a good example of how recognition marketing can help a business. Recognize the root problem. Recognize the appropriate solution.

A friend of mine who was in the restaurant business asked me for advice regarding a new casual dining restaurant which had been open for about a year. He said the restaurant was located in a highly competitive area, but was not performing up to expectations. He thought the concept was appropriate; his prices were competitive; no history of negative customer comments and the management and staff were capable, yet his restaurant was underperforming the competition. What could be the problem? Did he need to spend more on local marketing? Have more promotions? Change the menu?

I agreed to pay the restaurant a visit as a mystery shopper. Here is a synopsis of my experience.

I called the restaurant around 3PM for a dinner reservation later that evening. The phone rang, and rang and rang. Finally a recorded message came on. "Thank you for calling O'Malley's (not the real name). Our hours of operation are lunch, Monday through Saturday, from noon until 2. Dinner is served Monday through Friday from 5PM to 11PM and Saturday from 5PM to midnight. Thank you for calling." I decided to call back. This time I got a real person. I related that I wanted to make a dinner reservation for that evening. I was told the restaurant did not take reservations. I asked whether there would be a wait if I arrived around 7PM? "Yes. Around that time there might be up to an hour wait." was the reply.

I arrived at the restaurant at around 7PM. The interior lobby was filled with patrons waiting for their table. I worked my way through the crowd to the reception desk where I found myself in front of two hostesses who seemed busy filling out charts and lists. When they were ready, one looked up and said, "How many in your party, sir?" "Two", I replied, "How long is the wait?" "About an hour. Can I have your last name?" I gave her my name and she gave me a pager.

During my wait (of over an hour), I watched as more new people entered the lobby, while some jumped up as their pager went off. I thought is was very Pavlovian. During my wait, I visited the restroom. It was untidy - paper towels on the floor because the waste basket was overflowing. No hand soap in the dispenser. Soon my pager went off and I approached the reception desk and turned in my pager. A hostess with an armful of menus asked me and my guest to follow her to my table. She not only got to the table and deposited the menus before we were seated, she passed us on her way back to reception commenting that Sue would be our server.

Sue arrived. The first words out of her mouth was "Can I get you something from the bar?" After our drink orders, she told us to look over the menus and she would be back with our drinks. Sue returned with our drinks and said "Are you ready to order?" We said no and she quickly disappeared. A little while later, we were indeed ready to order. No Sue to be found. We did see her flitting around other tables, but could not get her attention. Finally, Sue was ready. "Are you ready to order?". We placed our order and it later arrived. As the empty plates were being taken away, Sue asked us would we like anything else. We said no, and, she immediately pulled out our prepared check and said "I will take that when you are ready".

We paid the bill and made our way out of the restaurant. No comments from Sue or the hostesses when we departed. During our dinner, we also did not have any contact with a member of restaurant management.

The next day I called my restaurant owner friend. "So how was dinner? Did you come up with any ideas? Do I need to change menus, pricing, do more advertising?" I said no to all, but I did give him the following advice.

1. You are not selling food and beverages. You are selling experiences. The experience starts and ends with first and last human contact a consumer has with your establishment whether that contact be in person or over the phone.
2. Answer your phone during all hours of operation and make sure the person answering the phone is a trained people person, not just the person who heard the phone ring. If the person calling took the time to call for a reservation - take it and say thank you, we look forward to seeing you tonight, Mr. Smith.
3. Hire and train professional hosts and hostesses. These are your first impression ambassadors for your clientele. Demand that every new guest be greeted and once they know the customer's name- use it, as in, Mr. Smith, welcome to O'Malley's. Your table will be ready shortly. Ban the host or hostess from yelling out a patron's name to advise their table's ready. Have the host or hostess go find the customer. When customers are escorted to their table, make sure they are comfortable before departing the scene. And ditch the pagers.
4. Pay constant attention to the cleanliness and tidiness of the public areas. It is a direct reflection on the cleanliness and tidiness in other areas of the restaurant.
5. Hire and train professional people-friendly service staff including wait staff, bus staff, and bartenders that can engage customers. Opening statements like "Would you like something from the bar?" is not as engaging as "Welcome to O'Malley's, my name is Sue and it is my pleasure to serve you this evening." Shoving a check at customers while their dinner plates are being removed is a signal "to pay the bill, we have more people we have to seat." Suggestive selling will improve the average check and profit, such as "Do you have room for some of our great desserts. Our Key Lime Pie is to die for? or "May I suggest a latte or cappucino?"
6. Restaurant management should visit every table every meal period to introduce themselves and ask how their experience was. Here is where a restaurant can gain immediate insights on the clientele, what they liked, suggestions regarding the menu, is this their first time, how they heard about the restaurant, i.e. word-of-mouth, advertising, drove by. A daily management diary with these comments is better than any focus group and serves as a body of information to assist in running the business.
7. When customers leave a restaurant, everyone (wait staff, bartenders, bus people, host and hostesses, and management) should take a moment to say thank you and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

My friend shared my experience with his team and he has implemented a recognition marketing program to put his customer experiences first. I returned some time later and recognized the difference.

Brand Architecture Of Identity - A Disciplined Methodology For Success

At Story Of Eight Forces That Can Make Or Break A Brand

By David Miranda

I learned many years ago that the old adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is not true. I had the pleasure some time ago to meet my friend, Bill Ryan, the founder of Mandala, a San-Francisco-based consulting firm. He is a fascinating individual whose bio, among other things, includes a stint as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation trained by the Maharashi Yogi, himself. Bill moved on to the business world and was a major architect in developing the Yahoo! brand. Bill believes that each company has a story to tell, but it must first follow vision and strategy. (I highly recommend anyone contact Bill for his unique perspectives and invaluable guidance of "getting your story right".)

As a brand marketer, I was curious about the techniques and methodology he employed. He shared with me what he calls, The Architecture of Identity (A of I). He taught this old dog "some new tricks". The A of I, a mandala of which was created by Bill's Mandala is included here, is a unique way to develop and nurture a brand. It is premised on the notion that a brand is the result of two dimensions of eight forces. The first dimension includes the three core forces - vision, positioning, and voice. This dimension can best be described as "How the brand is seen from the inside of the enterprise" by its internal stakeholders from grassroots to the boardroom.
The second dimension includes the five marketplace, or external forces including market relevance, product/service superiority, ecosystem integration, management and culture, and finally sustainability. In simple terms, this is how the marketplace perceives the brand.

The Architecture Of Identity is a discipline to ensure that these two dimensions are in sync and, if they are, provides the greatest opportunities for success. So with proper credit to my friend, Mr. Ryan, the following summarizes the Architecture Of Identity.

Core Forces - How The Brand Is Perceived Internally

Vision – This is the brand's unique reason for existing – the core insights responsible for the brand's creation combined with new sparks of genius that continue driving it forward. Vision should be heroic, but simple. The vision statement for The Coca-Cola Company, for example, is "To have our products available within an arm's length of desire."

Positioning – The optimum desired brand position, both in people's minds and in the competitive landscape, that provides the best opportunity for success. As in racing, competitors continually vie for positions at the start and during the race that give them the best chances for winning. For brands, as in racing, people pay attention to the front runners. It should be noted that a brand should not confuse size (revenue, number of locations, etc) with brand positioning. The largest brands, for example, are not necessarily the most innovative or the most consumer-centric. Southwest Airlines is not the largest airline, but it is perceived by air travelers as having the best customer service by U.S. air travelers. Apple is not the largest technology company, but it is considered the most innovative brand.

Voice – The brand's personality, i.e., the attributes it desires to project in the marketplace. This is what marketers most often refer to as “brand attributes.” This is not just "what a brand says"; it is also "how a brand says it." Brands are like people. Each has its own unique personality traits. Think of Nike (Just Do It!); Gatorade (Is It In You?); MasterCard (There Are Some Things Money Can't Buy); and BMW (The Ultimate Driving Machine). These tag lines are synonymous with the personality of their brands. Now name their major competitors and their respective tag lines.

Marketplace Forces - How The Brand Is Perceived Externally (In The Marketplace)

Market Relevance – the market’s actual acknowledgement and recognition of the brand versus what was intended by the brand (vision, positioning, voice). Once a brand has lost its perceived relevance in the marketplace, it is all but impossible to regain it. The examples are many. Perrier was once the leading bottled water sold in the U.S. Pontiac and Taurus are being retired. Remember PanAm, TWA, and Atari?

Product/Service Superiority – the criteria for evaluation of the brand, e.g., leading in quality, performance, functionality, innovation, expertise, etc. In the marketplace, the advantage lies with those brands who consistently demonstrate their leadership in providing the best price/value; are the most innovative; and demonstrate their expertise supporting their brands with consumers and partners. To be perceived the best creates considerable and expensive barriers-to-entry for potential insurgents.

Ecosystem Integration – how the brand integrates into the marketplace with consumers, with partners, with distribution channels, with technology platforms, and with media channels. Successful brands must take a holistic view of the landscape. A leading brand, for example, is worthless if does not have distribution and "shelf space". A leading brand cannot achieve its potential if it does not extend itself to emerging media channels and technology platforms.

Management and Culture – the perception of the brand's leadership, innovation, competency, credibility, values, and integrity. Take Apple, for example. Apple was the creation of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Mr. Jobs, considered the company's visionary and creator of the brand's unique culture, was forced out of the company he founded. Without his leadership, Apple floundered. His return has marked one of the great turnarounds in American business. The iPod has created a business and pop culture phenonmenon that has changed, forever, how people consume music. Apple stock has soared since his return.

Sustainability – the brand's ability to successfully compete in spite of strong competition, economic conditions, or other potentially disruptive conditions. The ability to persevere and succeed is the characteristic of a strong brand. New insurgents are entering the marketplace every day threatening incumbents. Incumbents must agressively deal with these insurgents or risk becoming irrelevant. Microsoft, for example, was slow to respond to Google and Yahoo. AOL was slow to respond to MySpace and Facebook. Large media and entertainment companies were slow to respond to iPod and YouTube. Sustainability of brands demands proactively dealing with opportunities and threats of insurgents.

In summary, this is a dynamic process that requires relentless oversight in order to make adjustments as required by market conditions. What is your brand's story? If you need help, contact Bill.

Thank you, Bill, for sharing your story with me.

Mandala and Architecture Of Identity are used by permission of Mandala-VSS.

Marketers Are The Investment Bankers Of Brands

Is Your Brand Gaining Or Decreasing In Value?

By David Miranda

You have no doubt heard the term, R.O.M.I (Return On Marketing Investment). It is the critical metric on the success of a brand's marketing investment. Just like an investment banker's success is measured on the increased value of investment portfolios, a marketer is responsible for increasing brand value for the company. The CMO of a company is really a CMIO (Chief Marketing Investment Officer).

For the past six years, for example, BusinessWeek and global brand consultancy, Interbrand have produced its annual rankings on the most valuable brands in the world. The report identifies the top 100 global brands that have managed to create and sustain strong performance in today’s competitive market. (The Top Ten Global Brands are shown in the chart above) Brand values were determined using the method Interbrand pioneered nearly 20 years ago and has since used to value more than 4,000 brands. Brand value is calculated as the net present value of the earnings the brand is expected to generate and secure in the future for the time frame from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.

BusinessWeek 2006 Best Global Brands Highlights

Turnaround Performances: After year over year decline from 2000 to 2004, Nokia (#6) has regained its leadership position in the mobile telecom industry with growth in both the high and low ends of the market. Nokia’s scale has always made it competitive in the rapidly growing low priced segment, but a resurgence in design and a concentration on desirable features has meant that Nokia is now able to maintain its average selling price and reinvigorate its brand image with the high end consumer. Likewise, Motorola (#69) has historically struggled in the high end of the market…until the Razr. A hero product, it has in recent years helped the brand maintain its solid number two position in the category.

Top Gainers: The top gainer with a brand value increase of 46%, Google (#24) creates growth under with the strategy of "do no evil" positioning itself at the opposite end of the spectrum from the more corporate Microsoft. Overall growth of Internet commerce has perpetuated consumers’ acceptance of purchasing goods and services online enabling eBay (#47) to skyrocket in value up 18% and the third highest gainer this year. In the second spot with a value increase of 20%, Starbucks (#91) has found financial success by leveraging the brand with a premium fast food and extending its product offering into music and publishing.

Top Decliners: The growth of mass retailers has taken market share from traditional apparel brands such as Gap (#52). Losing the most brand value with a decline of -22%, Gap has been unable to clarify its brand image and with a less distinct positioning the brand has been less effective at selling clothing causing reduced long-term stability. Ford (#30) continues to lose money on every car sold – and brand value year after year. Down -16% this year, Ford’s American heritage is an insufficient brand attribute to hold off growing competition from Japanese and German automakers. Down -12% this year, Kodak (#70) has made valiant strides to catch up with the digital world, however the reality is that competition is fierce and profitability is thin compared to Kodak’s film business and thus the brand’s value continues to decline.

In summary, it is important to understand that every marketing decision for a brand is an investment decision. Invest wisely.