August 2006        •       www.visionsmc.com       •        410-849-8095   

 Editor's Note

Earlier this month, I was sitting in a comfortable chair, looking out over a beautifully landscaped yard and Maine's Penobscot Bay. A fire was crackling in the background, subtle music was playing, and the smell of good food wafted around me. I was in a newly discovered restaurant and, while I was relaxed, I can't ever completely take my marketing hat off-especially since I'd already started writing this issue.

When I was starting my own business, I was assessing who I knew and what industries they were in to see where I might plumb for business. I was surprised to realize how many people I knew who owned and ran restaurants.

"What fun!" I thought. I love the creativity of restaurants, and the whole eating out experience, and was excited by the possibility of working in this dynamic arena.

My hopes were soon tempered by the co-owner of one fabulous restaurant. "Most restaurant owners don't spend what they should on marketing," she told me. So, I started watching how restaurants were marketing themselves-new ones opening, favorites that I get to whenever possible, and places recommended by others.

And I learned that my friend was right in one respect. Restaurants, especially boutique ones, don't spend a lot of money in what people consider basic, or traditional, marketing-advertising and public relations.

But she was wrong in another respect. Good restaurants have to be great at managing the customer experience, and great restaurants have to excel at it. And customer experience management is an important part of marketing.

In looking at how restaurants pursue excellence in customer experience management, there is something we can all learn from a great meal in a fabulous restaurant. (Who said market research is boring?) I bet that your favorite restaurant is probably better at customer experience management than your company is. Instead of just thinking like a diner, think like an executive-what can we all learn from dining out?

Molly Hughes Wilmer   

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 Feature

Dining Out to Perfect Your Customer Experience

Restaurants are everywhere. Dining out is on the increase as two-income families have less time to prepare food at home. As a result, you, the customer, usually have a pretty good idea of what you like and what you don't like in a restaurant. The pressure is on for the restaurateur.

Going to a restaurant is one of the most sensory, intimate and complicated commercial encounters most of us participate in. Eating out involves a symphony of sensory experiences managed by the restaurant, including:

• Verbal and physical interactions with at least one staff member,
• The personality, warmth, and mood of those you interact with,
• The sound or sounds of the restaurant, including background music and the volume of other guests,
• The tactile feel of the linens and silverware,
• The physical feel of your seat and the table height,
• The lighting from candles, lights, windows,
• The look of the restaurant,
• The aroma of food, flowers, candles, and the staff's cologne.
• The temperature, beginning with air and moving on quickly to your cold drink and warm rolls,
• The visual presentation of your food-both how the plate is placed on your table and how the food is placed on your plate, and
• The taste of your food and your drinks in individual components and together in harmony and contrast

Timing is important, also-how long do you wait before being greeted, seated, welcomed at the table, served, cleared, given the check and given your receipt? For great and even good restaurants, every single one of these detail is important, coordinated and consistently executed-and that consistency is tantamount. (Imagine your business is a restaurant-are you starting to feel the pressure?)

This multi-sensory experience is integrated into an overall identity-a brand experience-that customers can usually describe fairly consistently. My new favorite in Maine has their subtle logo woven into a custom rug, and patterned into the stainless steel bar facade. The colors of the restaurant reflect the waters and coast of the Penobscot Bay.

In a good brand experience, the décor, the sounds and smells reinforce the taste of the food. Busy, fast-paced, high-energy restaurants have a very different look and feel from quiet, softer, traditionally elegant restaurants. Restaurants that pleasantly surprise you with unique service touches, unusual music, clever wall hangings, or unexpected table settings will also probably pleasantly surprise you with creative culinary work.

The brand experience also sets an expectation for quality or style of food. Walking into a Chili's chain restaurant with reproduction retro signs on the walls sets a different expectation than walking into a French bistro with original art on the wall by local artists. Walking into a café with lace tablecloths will lead you to expect a different type of food than a rough-paneled room with fishing gear on the walls.

Thinking about the different components of a trip to a restaurant, you can see that it involves the traditional components of a customer life cycle that most businesses (retail or commercial) offer, from introduction via web, phone or in person, delivery of the product/service, ongoing service, to the billing via the check presentation and receipt.

If you remember Collins' "Hedgehog Concept", from the last issue, one of the facets of the "Hedgehog Concept" was what you are deeply passionate about. Excelling in ongoing customer experience requires an unending commitment and consistent pursuit of excellence. These restaurants cannot get complacent about the floor wearing down, the menu offering, the wait staff, or about any detail of the experience. This process of ongoing, passionate pursuit is described by Thoreau: "Do what you love. Know your bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still."

The restaurants that excel in customer experience management have their marketing move forward naturally into referrals and repeat business. You, as a guest, are going to go back, and you're probably going to tell your friends and colleagues about it. This is an extension of their marketing that evolves easily, with no effort, beyond mastering the customer experience management, leading to their business growth.

Most good restaurants can't just stop at this natural evolution. They understand that, for them, public relations means dealing positively with restaurant critics to garner rave reviews.

Restaurants can take their marketing further. Several of my favorite restaurants put a little more effort in encouraging customer loyalty, and repeat business, by offering a series of special events or fund raisers for local organizations. Many restaurants place ads in the standard publications for their area. Some chefs write books, do guest appearances, offer cooking lessons or demonstrations-the list of public relations options is long and creative.

But there are great restaurants that do no advertising, and no outside promotion. They have "simply" mastered the fine art of customer experience management, and their businesses are thriving.

Not all businesses can focus on so few marketing tools. But not every business needs every marketing tool.

Think about how powerful the restaurant model is for the rest of us. You are already offering your customers an experience-consciously or not. What if you consciously honed that experience, focused on it, "gnawed at it", as Thoreau described? How far could great customer experience management take your business?

What Can You Do? How do your customers experience your company? Create a flowchart defining the possible paths your customers may take as they get to know and do business with your company. Then, conduct an audit of your customer's experience. Survey your customers, invite them in for focus groups, or ask friends or colleagues to be "secret shoppers"-even in a commercial business, this can be done. One CEO I know frequently orders from his company's online site. He reviews the online searching, ordering and payment processes, the follow-up email confirmations, the accuracy of delivery promises, as well as the packaging and invoicing eventually received. It's amazing what he experiences, even under his own name!

Ask the Expert Question Is customer experience management the same thing as customer relationship management? Answer No. Customer relationship management, or CRM, usually refers to database software that triggers computer-generated actions based on the customer's activity with a company. (I.e. if you haven't purchased in six months, you may get one letter, email or offer, while if you haven't purchased in three months, the system will generate a different letter, email or offer, or even a call center phone call.) While these can be very sophisticated and logically intelligent systems, they focus largely on customer transactions, and not the truly personal customer relationship. However, CRMs get a lot of press because they are usually "comprehensive" systems provided by software vendors. Customer experience management is not computer-generated, is much more tailored from company to company, and rarely involves a comprehensive solution from one vendor alone. Customer experience management can sometimes benefit from a good CRM system. Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

 Want to Know More?

Do some market research of your own. It's easier if you go in a small group, and do not discuss serious business. Enjoy the experience, and notice what you enjoy, and what you don't. And remember, consistency is key, so see what happens when you go more than once. Then, think about how it can relate to your own business. Here are some good and great restaurants I've enjoyed "studying":

The Brass Elephant, Baltimore, MD
Le Madeleine, New York, NY
Red Sage, Washington DC
Boatyard Bar and Grill, Annapolis, MD
Bruno, Lorgues, France
The Bicycle, Baltimore, MD (I haven't been since it's been sold, but the initial reviews have been good, so it's still on my list.)
Bistrot du Coin, Washington, DC
The Edge Restaurant, Camden, ME (the new discovery overlooking the Penobscot Bay)
Wild Ginger, Mosier, OR (I haven't been yet; it's the new creation of the Bicycle's former owners, Chef Barry Rumsley and Deborah Mazzoleni, so it will be worth checking out)

Most of the fine restaurants I've visited in Japan have taken customer experience to an art form.

Share yours: email molly@visionsmc.com.

© Molly Hughes Wilmer, Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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