Just Tell Your Story

by Richard K. Hendrie

I met with a CEO recently, a good friend and smart businessman. He shared a disturbing piece of intelligence about his company. He did some internet research and found 20 other companies that said virtually the same basic things about the hospitality experiences they each offered, 'We have the nicest rooms, We make our food from scratch. We offer great service in a fun atmosphere.'

"Great branding is great storytelling. The question becomes how you can create a story more compelling than your competitor's."

— Brian Collins /Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide as quoted by Stuart Elliott, NY Times 8/5/2004

I met with a CEO recently, a good friend and smart businessman. He shared a disturbing piece of intelligence about his company. He did some internet research and found 20 other companies that said virtually the same basic things about the hospitality experiences they each offered, "We have the nicest rooms, We make our food from scratch. We offer great service in a fun atmosphere." Now, granted, there were variations on the theme. Select adjectives or nouns were added to further clarify just how "nice" the room was or how 'from scratch' the food was. Service might be characterized as 'friendly'. Fun might be modified to include (pick your word) bar, TVs, promotions, etc. It still boiled down to the same basic narrative: Great hospitality, great food and service in a fun, friendly environment. 20 versions on a boring theme, and, I'm sure many more like them. It's not good business. It's the beginning of an obituary. What's missing? We're missing the story that gives those undifferentiated bowls of porridge character, sizzle and meaning.

Before we define what a story is, let's define what it is not:

• The clichéd mission statement or arid lists of values.
• An advertising campaign
• The policy and procedures manual

So what's 'a story'?

"Stories are lived before they are told."

— Alasdair MacIntyre (as quoted in "The Real McKee", by Ian Parker, The New Yorker, October 20th, 2003)

1. It's the oftentimes inchoate, unarticulated passions of the owner or chief executive that drives them to work, to excel, to produce. It may include barely remembered experiences that somehow taught the crucial lesson which informs their lives in the present.
2. It's the collection of feelings, impressions, perceptions and behavior that comprise how your customer might describe your brand.
3. It's the collective talents, personalities and wisdom of your actors.

This gets morphed into an actual story, which is:

4. A distinctive, branded narrative that describes the ideal customer visit in three dimensional terms and with all five senses engaged. It embodies what the customer feels about your brand and what you feel about it.
5. An actual execution of number four, including all the back of the house processes that allow the story to unfold without apparent screw-up.

Lastly, the story well told does more than sell, it:

6. Recognizes that you have set your guest upon a journey, one on which they seek to restore emotional or psychic balance in their life. This part deals with matters of the heart and mind. It's what the customer feels and thinks, as they undergo the experience. It's the emotional associations they make along the journey based on the stimulus your give. It's the messages they pick up and the opinions they form based on what you communicate. It's the memories created, both from the actual experience and the happy (or unhappy) connections they make with other experiences.
7. Represents change. If you tell your story right, it allows you customer, who is always the protagonist in their own lives, to change, even for a moment. Today, we seek transformation. Transformation from being anonymous to recognized. From being 'a dime a dozen' to valued. From being depressed, cynical, furious, lax or otherwise disengaged to invigorated, hopeful, happy and engaged.
8. Brings your values and your guest's disposition together in dynamic harmony, where you 'walk a talk' that matters to the customer.

"All that?" you say. Yep. Why should you make such a big deal out of making a bed or a sandwich? Because, in our collective unconscious, we all share a belief that everything can be solved over a meal or under the roof of a friend. Whether it was true or not in our individual histories, the solace of the bedroom, the bounty of the kitchen over breaking of bread, all speak to a most fundamental hunger we have: that our life has meaning and we are all, somehow, connected to one another.

So, you're not in the human feeding and bedding business, but in the storytelling and storyliving business. It isn't easy. The other way, the two dimensional path most followed, is much easier because it's tangible, practical, tactical. But that way leads straight to the hospitality grave yard.

So when someone asks, "What kind of place are you?" don't share facts, tell your story and live it.

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Richard K. Hendrie is the Chief Experience Officer of Link Inc., a restaurant consulting and coaching firm. He does extensive speaking to industry groups and associations, offering keynote, workshop and seminar presentations.

Link Inc. © 2005