Ever since I was a young boy I remember what a great feeling it was to walk into a restaurant or store and have the owner come up and greet my father personally, “Hi Sheldon, how you doing?…I got a great table for you…” Was it a great table? Maybe not all the time, but the fact that ‘my dad knew the owner’ felt special and I know my dad felt the same way.
You may not remember the name of all your customers. But you can just as easily greet them with a smile and say something like “It’s been a while how are you doing?”
Customers, and people for the matter in general, like the feeling of being known. Being recognized. So if you are the owner or manager, take 20 seconds to walk over to the table of a new customer and introduce yourself as the owner or manager. To ‘check in and see how everything is doing.’
And, when you see that customer next time, say “hi.” It goes a long way to making their experience with you a better and more memorable one. And that my friend, is how you get more repeat customers and bigger profits.
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A restaurant in Australia served beer, wine and sodas. They decided to create their own private-label wine. They thought this reasonably priced wine would sell well. Especially since their profit margin on the private-label wine was better than on most other beverages.
The wine went on the menu and sales were okay. The owner then told all her employees to recommend their private-label house wine when taking drink orders. Guess what? Sales increased.
The owner then added a private-label dessert wine to the menu and had her employees recommend that just as the main meal was finishing. Sales grew again.
The moral of the story is not to be hesitant to recommend something of value to your customers. Is it being pushy? Not at all. Its business and your customers know that. You’ll be surprised how many times they’ll say “yes, I’ll have that” when you suggest it to them.
A case in point is McDonald’s ‘Super Size’ campaign. The promotion, where McDonald’s employees asked customers after they had placed an order if they wanted to ‘super size’ their meal – giving them bigger fries and drink for only a few cents more – was such a success that many other fast food operations copied the approach.
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How do people order from you? Do you make it easy for them to order? Are your menus easy to understand? Are they interesting to read? (Remember, while I’m using “menus” and “servers” this can all just as easily apply to your website, brochure or retail store).
If you don’t make it easy to order from you, people won’t. It’s as simple as that. On a menu in a Vancouver deli the 3 most popular platters are listed at the top of each menu. There are 37 items in total which any customer can choose from. Guess what people who are in a rush order? How about first time customers? Did you guess one of the top 3 most popular platters? You’re right.
Here’s an interesting fact: People like to buy what others buy. They think, “If others are getting that one, it must be good…I’ll have one of those too.”
Think bestsellers. It works for the NY Times, Amazon, and many others…
Try to promote top sellers in each area of your business. Whether it’s a best selling spa package, dessert, or tour.
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If I wanted to be served by a robot I’d buy my food from a vending machine. But I don’t. So why do so many servers take orders sounding half asleep and like they don’t give a damn.
“Can I take your order”…”okay”…finished.
When you meet a customer for the first time, take the time to create a relationship with them. Even a brief one. And, if you just introduce yourself. “How are you doing today? I’m Steve, your server. If there is anything I can get for you, please don’t hesitate to call me over at anytime.” It’s not hard, but a genuine greeting goes a long way.
You don’t have to intrude into the customer’s life, but be friendly. Give your customer a smile…and watch them smile back.
The key here is being sincere. If your staff sound like they are reading a book and rush off, or have a cold appearance, the magic disappears.
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There’s nothing like walking into a restaurant or hotel and getting a warm welcome. In Japan when you enter any store you are greeted with “Irashaimase!,” a word that simply reflects a hospitable welcome and a sense of ‘ thank you for coming’.
Why is this so important? It provides a separation between the cold or neutral street outside and a warm and welcoming inside. Like all first impressions, a friendly greeting puts people into a happy mood. Important? You bet. When people are happy they buy more.
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On the surface, this section would appear to apply to owners and managers of restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses. If you’re not in one of those businesses, don’t turn the page just yet. There’s a lot you will learn from these pages…because we all actually deal in hospitality.
Apply them to your business and get ahead of your competition.
Ignore them and your competitors will slaughter you.
Research shows that most people choose to return to a restaurant based not on its food, not on its location, and not on its logo or interior. The number one reason is service. Not just ‘so so’ service. Great service. Think about this for a moment. We hardly ever return to a restaurant when the food is great and the service stinks. However, we quite often return to dine at spots where the food is pretty good, though definitely not the best, yet the service is spectacular. In our minds we don’t usually think about it this way however. The superior service provides such a great experience that it makes the food and drink that much better. Bad service on the other hand quickly turns us off and makes everything around us that much less enjoyable.
In the following posts we will cover several points you should read…then ensure most or all of them are worked into your business.
Think about these not as single points, but as parts of a system. That doesn’t mean you have to implement all of them at once. But, as fast as you can, put them all into action, and watch the magic begin.
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A very successful entrepreneur named Michael Masterson is famous for saying that the first stages of launching a new business need to be focused on one thing and one thing only – sales. Though this concept may seem foreign to some, with a bit of investigation it makes perfect sense. If your business can’t make enough profit to survive, you’re business is heading for a nosedive.
You need to make enough money so that your business can start improving itself – both by expanding marketing and sales efforts, and implementing customer support and service systems.
While at the early stages of your business you may not be able to service your customers the way you know you should or want to (because you don’t have the money to), if you don’t deliver to at least the level of your customers’ expectations, you’ll likely never see them again. Continue Reading ▶
Posted January 27, 2010, under
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I will soon start posting the first section of the Profitable Relations Manual. Stay tuned or subscribe to the RSS. Coming at ya shortly …
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