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"It's
ShowTime, Baby and You're the Show"
Part
I
Know
your Guest
"What
will the audience accept? In terms of actors etc? The audience
produces the play. Understand its disposition."
-
Harold Clurman, On Directing
The Chief Marketing Officer of Nieman Marcus once etched
the Ten Commandments of Marketing into a suitably ancient looking
tablet. Number one "with a bullet" was Know
your Customers.
The implications are staggering. We spend so much time looking
for 'new customers' or pine for 'the customers we're not getting'.
Stephen Stills got it right when he said, "Love the one you're
with." (Although he meant something a little different according
to his ex-significant other). Your current guest is the starting
point, the central absolute to moving forward, the "True
North" on your business compass. When you understand who
your guest is, what makes them tick, why they like you (or not)
then you can know yourself. It means you need to:
- measure
quantitatively
- measure
qualitatively
- measure
regularly
Why,
oh Dr. Rick, why should I spend money I don't have to get information
I already know? If I had (and here you fill in the excuse) better
operations, better service, better advertising, better location,
less competition, a bigger labor pool, blah, blah, blah, then
things would be fine.
I'll give you three reasons:
- To
establish credible benchmarks for guest behavior and attitudes
- To
measure your performance against those benchmarks over time
- To
build your "unique-special-one-of-a-kind" experience
with these insights in mind
Now for
a little story, all true, only the names removed but all juicy
details retained. A restaurant company decided they needed to
expand their guest base. They said, "Pizza is the second
largest selling food in America." They were not known for
anything resembling pizza. "No problem, we're known for great
food, we can make great pizza, ergo post ipso facto, we're in
the pizza business, boys!" They went ahead and purchased
nearly $200,000 worth of equipment and began renovation in three
sites, because they had to move quickly. Lot's of internal resources
were applied to making this great. Fun name, quality menu development,
knowledgeable imported talent and the focus of top management.
Unit number one began to serve pizza. Big show! No Sales! Great
Aroma! No Sales! They coupon. No Sales! They give product away
to the customers for the regular menu. No Sales! They smile. No
Sales! And then, No Profits! Even worse, overall sales declined.
Even worse than that, overall profits went south below the red
line.
Finally, Marketing suggests, "Let's do a little research."
World-class professionals did focus groups. Current guests said
that adding pizza was a laughable because a) it didn't fit the
concept, b) if they wanted it to fit the concept, pizza should
be prepared in a way that was consistent with the rest of the
concept and c) what idiot thought this was a good idea. Box Score,
Guests 0, Company ($500,000).
My grandmother once said, "I is Irene Sayre Sumner and I
know erything." She was 7 years old and she didn't. Neither
did the very smart people (they were very smart) at "We're
not a pizza" Restaurant Inc.
For you to see what is possible, you must see as the guest sees
and feels and acts. --> GO
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Part
1 - Know your Guest
Part 2 - Know your Guest
Part 3 - Know your Guest |
