"It's
ShowTime, Baby and You're the Show"
Part
III
Know
your Guest
"If
you don't know where you are, any map will do."
-
A lost soul
To get your bearings, you need to measure guest usage
and attitudes toward your concept. The First Commandment of
Marketing is 'Know Thy Guest'. Method
Marketing coaches how to orchestrate an experience,
but half the battle is to know your guest. I mean really
know them: Where they come from? Who they bring with them? How
often they patronize your restaurant? Where they go when they're
not in your restaurant? What they like about you? What they
don't like? What aspect of the experience turns them on? What
turns them off?
"Zounds!",
you say, "What do I do?" Research, my friends, research.
"But I do research", you protest. "We have comment
cards! We have mystery shops! We have my wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/mother/neighbors
sharing opinions. I talk to the guests! 'How was everything?'
I ask".
I
am sorry, ladies and gents, but that ain't good enough. It's
information, but it is not wisdom. Many restaurateurs use this
bogus data to concoct a picture of their world that would have
made Copernicus proud. However, the Sun does not revolve around
the earth or your restaurant.
What
are examples of bogus research? We'll start with comment cards.
What's wrong with them? "They are the mother's milk of
restaurants! " you say. "They are cheap". "We
read each and every one." All true. In reality, however,
they represent:
- Only
the people who are motivated to write, not the whole audience
- Only
the questions you think are important, written
in a way that reflects your point of view.
- Only
the answers that rarely tell you why someone
feels the way they do
What
about mystery shops?
- They
tend to be two-dimensional. "Did Betsy wear her name
pin? Is her name really Betsy? Did the busboy smile?
- They
often measure aspects of the operation that have nothing
to do with what makes the restaurant 'work'. If a concept's
strength is its 'spiciness' (this is a real world example),
tell me what a nametag does to contribute to the fulfillment
of the brand's promise?
- They
can't explore the subjective aspects of the experience effectively.
A mystery shop is one person's experience and one
person's definition. You don't run your life based on one
person's report. Don't run your business that way either.
LESSON:Mystery shops are based on a scoring system
that seems to offer quantitative data. Restaurants
offer experience. It is difficult to mix the two.
As
for anecdotal data, fuhgeddaboutit. I love my opinion more than
most. It's informed, well rounded and experienced, but it just
doesn't come close to the potential wisdom of real data from
a representative sample of customers. Does a professional opinion
have value? Sure, but only after the homework it done.
So
here's the main course: Do research, my friends. A simple
study of a proper sample size (which can be as small as 100
people spread over a week) asking open-ended questions about
their experience will deliver you from the evils of anecdotal
evidence and wrong-headed marketing. This is NOT something you
can do on your own. You seek out a doctor for a medical diagnosis.
You need a research professional to handle this. "It seems
like such a simple task," you chide. But then again, it
took a lot of schooling for your Doc to know what a temperature
of 100.1 or blood pressure of 147/100 means. Be smart. Do
research. Use professionals.
Next
newsletter: Orchestrate
A Memorable Experience
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