Your guests define 'value' by the totality of the experience: the service, the décor, the food and its flavors and aromas and the cost: all details that create a memory. The most memorable experiences come from an organized, well-rehearsed and communicated performance. Great 'word of mouth' is built note by note, scene by scene, act by act, so that by the end of the visit your guest walks away 'wowed'. Or bored. Or, worse of all, disgusted. It's your choice.

We live in extraordinary times. The world appears to be going upside down and inside out, all in slow motion. We've entered a new era, worrying if the old tools will work.

One change is already apparent. Our guest has become more discriminating about how and where they spend their "dining out/experience" money. We already know that restaurant frequency declined in 2000 by 3% and went to other foodservice venues, such as convenience stores and supermarkets. Now, we're in a new era. Fear stops people in their tracks. As the current level of fear fades, I predict guests will demand a new standard of experience because the stakes have been raised. This won't be in the limited arenas of physical safety or financial security. It will extend to how we redefine individual needs, community and brotherhood.

So, two questions come to mind.

1. What happens if our industry doesn't understand these changed times and heightened need for human engagement?

We are not, nor will we return to business as usual. Recognize it and re-energize or face the prospect of losing guests, profits and restaurants. Apocalyptic? No, smart! The economy is in a tailspin. From the long view, this is nothing more than part of the continuing cycles we have enjoyed/suffered since our formation as a nation. I am a believer in affirmation. Its power is gained, however, from a clear-eyed, courageous understanding of where one stands this minute.

Our business is a fickle, fantastic and brutal lover. We need to make money, but if branding decisions are based on cost side savings, you will fail. Further, if your thinking remains as it was yesterday, you risk everything.

Restaurants are an integrated and integral part of how we live. No catastrophe will alter the basic human desire to gather and commune. If anything, the craving for community becomes more poignant and visible. We can and must nurture that need.

2. How do we address this paradigm shift?

The Five Golden Rules of Method Marketing provide a blueprint. They put your store in the center of the universe as a potential home away from home. They preach a method to orient and train your associates on how to engage you guests in a real and human fashion. They offer a means to define yourself in a unique way. Your guests seek the comfort of a friend they understand and trust. Being "truly you" provides much of that security.

Faith Popcorn talks about a shift toward 'cocooning', the idea that we will turn inward and seek the safety of home and hearth. I believe we can tap into that with an appreciation of our potential to be that home and hearth.

We are in the experience business. We create and sell memories, not chicken fingers. We entertain guests, not covers. We use staff as a group of actors to engage an audience. It may not be as easy as placing a plate of food in front of a customer or using a two for one coupon to bribe someone into your unit, but it is our new and great opportunity.

When times are flush, it is easier to get away with substandard performance, to use all the typical excuses for shrinking volumes to avoid the truth. Now we have additional excuses -- Recession! War! Know this: we are both the source of the problem, and we are the answer. I don't know about you, but I prefer to have my fate in my own hands.

Next issue, we will offer a diagnostic test to help you determine if you are in trouble, and what you might do about it. --> Take the Business Quiz

[Send Page To a Friend]

---

Part I - Deliver on Your Promise
Part II - Deliver on Your Promise
Part III - Deliver on Your Promise
Part IV - Deliver on Your Promise
Part IV - Deliver on Your Promise