When upscale guests, the ones that drop $30./50.00 per person or more for dinner, start cutting their expanses, they will now go out for dinner one or two times less a week than they used to.
Their decision where to go now will be based on many factors.
besides good food, service and ambiance. Price is NOT one of them:
- Where the greeted as family?
- Did the chef send over some comp. appetizers for them to try out?
- Was the A/C comfortable on their last visit?
- Did someone call them after their last visit to inquire about their experience?
- Did they get a birthday invitation for a comp/ wine or entree on their birthday?
- Did they get a 'THANK YOU VERY MUCH' card in the mail after their last visit.
- Did the owner send over a bot. of comp. wine two years ago when they broth friends to their restaurant three time in the same week?
- Did the owner buy them bot. of wine with their business card when they met them in another restaurant having dinner ? or buy them a dessert, discreetly paying the tab before leaving, so their guests would not learn about this gesture before they got their check.
- Did they ever get a refund check in the mail after telling the owners on the phone when called to inquire about their experience, about the only bad experience they ever had?
- Did the restaurant give their guests a small bag of coffee to take home after guests gave a compliment on their coffee?
and the list goes on and on......for a total great memorable dining experience...
actually, what got these people to make reservation tonight was the phone call from the owner in response to his parking attendant reporting back to him that he had overheard his guests talking among them self while waiting for their car " we will never come back again, bla,bla,bla, and gotten the guests name and phone number so the owner could call his guests in the morning. This incident happen many years ago, but the letter from the owner in the mail with a full refund including tip was never forgotten by the guest who had become the best 'un-paid' P/R people he ever had on his 'Work For Food' payroll. The guests mailed back the check and told the owner "We'll Be Back" and they did, 100's of times, each time with new friends...
These are the kind of things that goes on in peoples mind when making decision on which restaurant to make reservation.
1 comment:
Jorgen, you are absolutely correct!
I remember the time when I asked you to come visit with my MBA class at Florida Atlantic University.
You showed up in your chef's whites and told the true story of how a couple from Cleveland, staying at a prominent Miami Beach hotel, had had an incident during their previous night's visit to your downtown Miami restaurant.
It was your habit to call a few of the guests who had dined with you the previous evening. This unhappy wife was quite surprised to hear from you, the owner of the restaurant.
It was then that you learned of this unfortunate incident.
As compensation and apology, you sent them a check for their entire meal and tip.
Twenty years later, that same couple were dining with guests in your then smaller restaurant in Delray Beach.
The man stopped you and reminded you of that night twenty years previous. He then surprised the heck out you by pulling that very check out of his wallet...the one you had sent him two decades ago!
He had kept it all that time. He never cashed it. He showed it to hundreds of folks who were going to be dining while on business or pleasure in South Florida.
I remember how my MBA students sat there...spellbound...and amazed at such a wonderful, true story of real "experiential marketing".
Congrats to you, Jorgen....you make us all proud!
Thanks for sharing and cheers,
Roy
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