Serving Suggestions

February 3, 2009 · Comments

breakfastWhat would you like for dinner? The very question throws open a lot of possibilities, and it requires that you give it thought. Even if you settle on a cuisine — Thai, for instance — are you going to try a noodle dish, or sticky rice? Pork or seafood? We could do this all night, couldn’t we?

In the restaurant business, you can always tell a professional server by their drink offer, or their dessert offer. An average server will open with, “What can I get you to drink?” A pro will ask you, “How does a Grey Goose martini sound?” The difference is vast. One is an open-ended stream; the other is a yes-or-no question. Even if you don’t want a Grey Goose martini (and that’s not my drink of choice), it usually jolts you into answering with the drink you do want, without that open-ended feeling.

By the way, is it any surprise I’d choose to hire Justin Levy and Colin Browning to work with me at New Marketing Labs. Justin owns a restaurant and Colin is an accomplished barbecue cook.

Always Recommend

One factor in my professional career that I believe has given me the most success is something I learned from one of my first great bosses, Dave Johnson from NYNEX (now Verizon). Dave never wanted me to bring him a problem. He wanted me to bring him one or two recommended solutions to a problem.

As best as I can, this is something I practice all the time in business.

By learning reasonably early that recommending solutions was way better received than asking for answers, I started down a road that has, so far, been really darned successful. You can do the same thing. It only takes a little bit of thought each time.

Narrow Things Down

Menus. Restaurants have menus. Now, technically, a decent chef can cook plenty of things with the right ingredients and tools. But smart restaurants build menus around things they know they can successfully sell, around things they know their customer base likes, and around things that can set them apart from other local restaurants.

Do you have a menu? Is it small enough for your customers to pick from? If you were a server, would you have the right drink by name that would spark your guest’s interest?

Write a Great Menu

I went to a restaurant in Billings, Montana, that turns out to be a chain. Famous Dave’s is an award-winning barbecue restaurant, with a menu containing such writing as, “Georgia Chopped Pork: Smoked for up to 8 hours and chopped to order, our BBQ-slathered pork is juicier than a Georgia peach.”

What I like about everything on the menu (see it all here is that every choice seems like a good one, if that’s what you’re hungry for. A great menu, and by extension, an excellent server, makes you feel like you’ve selected exactly the right meal for the night.

Does your business communication do that?

A Neighborhood Feel

I wrote a little while back about my experience at Applebees. I’ve also written about cafe-shaped businesses. What I’m getting at is that the biggest opportunity these social media tools permits us is the choice to be a homey feeling restaurant, like a family kitchen, instead of a cold chain experience. It’s up to us to keep that feeling in mind.

Is your restaurant – or your online presence – inviting? Do you have room for people to gather around? Is your kitchen a showplace, or just a mechanized delivery system? If you’re the chef or the owner, do you circulate around the tables and talk to your guests? What are they enjoying? How can you better serve them?

And, what’s for dessert?

Finish Strong

At dinner the other night (also in Billings, Montana, where my clients took me to four different amazing restaurants), the servers forgot to clear the dishes the moment we were done eating. This left a dozen or so people talking around the bones of our meals. It was uncomfortable. We all were aware. And it was one of those situations where it seemed every server in the restaurant vanished at once.

It’s a little thing, but it’s a big thing, and that came right before the bill, where we decide on the value of our server’s contributions.

In business, always finish strong. The dining experience doesn’t end with the delicious main course. It ends when the guests have left the restaurant and all the business in between the first lifting of a fork until the car door shuts is still yours to win.

Remember, we want them coming back.

And now that we’re done, may I ask, how was your dining experience?

Photo credit Nadya Peek

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  • After 6 years of working in the restaurant industry while going to college, I can really relate to a lot of the suggestions. I'm currently working for a marketing firm and appreciate the great analogy. "Fill them up with the meal and still get them buying desert!" THX Chris
  • This is an excellent article, thanks for sharing your experiences. The commentary on bringing solutions forward instead of problems is great for anybody in any career.

    Especially in today's world where every employee and customer can become an ambassador for the corporate brand, it's vital that everyone learn to think like this. Marketing doesn't end with the marketers any more ... not that it ever did, but the situation is really different these days.
  • Thank you for framing how we might think about our marketing & communications. I too was fortunate to work for bosses who wanted to know about solutions as well as the problem.
  • As a person who has spent more than 20 years in the hospitality industry, I totally appreciated your metaphors! What a great explination for business and life for that matter. I think that it may also help soften the blows of not getting the business; some days you are in the mood for Osso Bucco, some days it PadThai. It isn't that you don't like the Osso Bucco - just don't feel like it today.

    What I learned early on as a server is how to read my guests ASAP and change my approach to give them the exact evening they were looking for. I had many managers try to fit us all into a box by giving us a script for what to say and do at the table. This served as an okay tool for the newbies, but most guests read right through that crap - if you are uncomrtable wearing "flair" and singing the specials - then your guests will also be uncomfortable and less likely to enjoy the experience. The best servers tweaked it to fit their own personal style and then tweaked some more based on their read of the guest.

    Anyway - as I start out on my new business venture I am totally going to use this metaphor to help me stay on top of my game. Thanks Chris.
  • I love the idea of offering a suggestion rather than asking an open-ended question. You know your "menu" - make a recommendation!
  • Position is everything! There's a lot of interesting new neuroscience research going on in decision making. A couple of points I like to keep in mind are that people are more likely by a significant multiplier to make the "bad" but immediately gratifying decision if they're under stress. [RadioLab's excellent podcast about choice. Lawrence Lessig is later in the show.] Baba Shiv did an experiment where subjects were given a string of numbers to remember. Some subjects only had to remember a short string, others had a long string. Then the subjects were asked to wait in the hallway before going into another room to write down the number. The real test was happening in the hall while they were waiting. A researcher offered them either cake or a healthy fruit plate. The people who were stress because of having longer strings to remember chose the cake in shockingly huge proportion.

    This is a simplistic example, but I think it has some practical business application, especially in these stressful economic times. It's more important that ever to get our positioning right. We either have to jump the hurdle of "this is the right thing to do" and convince our clients to take the time and effort to make the "right" decison. Or we can position our services in a way that is immediately gratifying to the customer. Either way, our potential clients are more stressed out than they have been in since the dotcom bust and we should take that into account wherever possible.
  • Great post, Chris. I really like the real-world analogies you use to make your points. Too many bloggers rely on business-speak and jargon as if they're talking to a closed set of people. You, on other hand, open up the conversation to everyone by making your posts so accessible. It's never about inside and outside, it's about making a connection across the barrier between the two. Thanks
  • "how was your dining experience?"

    i consistently come back for more - so it's fulfilling. You are my "Ruth's" Chris.
  • Great article. I really like the restaurant analogies - easy for anyone to relate with.
    I also dig the references to Billings, MT. I work about 1/2 mile from that Famous Dave's!
  • stevenimmons
    Bring solutions, not problems is a wise approach. I would add a cautionary note however, appearing to 'suggest' too early or 'have an answer' too quickly can play badly in certain cultures. I know it is not the intention, but in the 'stiff upper lip' world of England it can appear somewhat gauche to be presumptuous. I often find that clients want to feel a bespoke solution is coming their way, even though in all other realms of sense a proven 'cookie cutter' solution 'from the menu' is a lot more appropriate (and cost defined!). Understanding global restaurant culture might well be a first step to understanding successful globalisation!
  • Chris,

    I always look forward to your posts - this one is a perfect reason why. You've made great use of the restaurant metaphor. I will take this one to heart. I am going to start recommended instead of asking. Great advice for anyone. Show them that you are working on solving problems. Even if your solutions aren't what the want, they have something to work from. Perfect! Thanks!
    @balemar
  • Jordan Rohde
    Best question I was ever asked in an interview, and one I use to this day when I interview, is "are you a problem solver or a problem identifier?" the people that are problem solvers will answer yes and provide examples where they ahve done this, without hesitation.
  • Relationship equity is what separates a product with a name from a brand.

    The marketplace you compete in, whether it's your personal brand or your product, is often filled with competitors who, at the functional level, are parity. Delivering what's not expected, or what's expected in an exceptional manner, creates relationship equity. This not only builds your brand, it also provides competitive insulation.

    Your post highlights the importance of the total package, which is much more than the functional benefits of the product, in creating relationship equity.
  • My meal was delightful thank you.

    It gave me a brief glimpse of where I might take my marketing for holistic health services.
  • You might remember Dave Carter (@dkrcarter) saying this in the recent Awareness Inc webinar that you participated in -- "Everything I learned about social media, I learned as a waiter in a restaurant." This struck home with me because (in a past life) I managed restaurants for ten years and spent additional years either in the front or back of the house. So much of what makes good sense about social media is what a successful restaurant operator does -- listen to and know your what your customers want/need, treat them as you would want to be treated (the golden rule), apologize sincerely and fix mistakes as soon as you find out about them, know what's happening at all times both in your restaurant and in your market, be yourself, be authentic (believe me, their gut can tell the difference), be honest, and do the right thing always (not the easy thing). Following these precepts will make it easy for your customers to be an evangelist for your business. We all know how word-of-mouth works.

    I'm sure there are many more similarities but these are the ones off the top of my head and seem imprinted in me (years of practice!). Aren't these all the things that any smart company does in the social media world?
  • @Deidre - you know, I'd forgotten that he said that. How interesting. I'm thinking we're on to something here.
  • @Deirdre @chrisbrogan I was in sales and I'm a mom --never been a waitress. But since I've been involved int social media I've learned simple etiquette in real life that I never was taught growing up. LOL.

    I'm nicer now. And my tantrums aren't as scary to passers-by.
  • Oh, MAN!

    <<>>
  • >>>Connie scrambles to re-write her business website<<<
  • Interesting discussion comparing a food menu/cuisine choice to business. Developing a menu in this household can be difficult. Some members of the household are visual. They have to see what we have to offer in the kitchen before they can decide on a meal plan. The same can be said of finding the solution to a business problem. You need to visualize the possible solutions, and you never know, the solution might be right in front of you.

    This post has given me a lot to think about.

    P.S. I was a waitress for years, and one of the best at my job. It might just give me the edge at this business thing now that I'm no longer in the food industry!
  • Jill Mullin
    Great post. I am a sever turned account person and I often credit restaurants for teaching me everything I know about business. A restaurant lesson of mine that parlays into business and social media:
    Appearance is Everything!
    Iron your shirt, clean your fingernails, keep your hair back and don't smell like smoke. Who wants a dirty waiter serving them dinner? A servers appearance is crucial to your dining experience. Much like the appearance of your website, office and even your employees (certainly the client facing ones) is critical to your business experience. It's not shallow, it's human nature. People like to be around nice looking things. Clean, organized and visually appealing will always beat out messy, wrinkled and stained. Packaging is everything.
  • In the food business, a lot of [egotistical] chefs make the fatal mistake of deciding to serve what they think people should eat, not what people _want_ to eat. Big difference.

    My parents owned a classic Chinese mom-and-pop takeaway for over 25 years while new, "cool & hip" joints kept opening up with their trendy fusion inspired food (or whatever the era's fad food was, currently its tapas) and just as quickly shut down.

    My parents understood exactly what hungry people wanted. They culled the items that they loved but the regulars never bought. They created word-of-mouth buzz for new menu items. They did the little things that became our takeaway joint's unique selling point: Remembering the names of every regular. Giving free drinks and prawn crackers to big spenders. Sending the regulars a bottle of wine at Christmas with a simple handwritten note. Service with a smile.

    Heck, my parents didn't have to do any of this as Australia does not have a big tipping culture, but I reckon they could teach the best of us online marketers a thing or two about marketing and hospitality!
  • Chris, I had a great conversation with my 77 year old grandmother about cafe-shaped communities. It was a lightbulb moment for both of us-and a whole new way to understand how to win on the Internet by building great conversations
  • Not to get lost in the allegory but I ran into a perfect example of Finish Strong Saturday night at the Highland Kitchen in Somerville, MA.

    My companion and I ordered an appetizer recommended by the server, however when she returned with it, it was the wrong plate. It took us a few seconds to absorb this so we needed to call her back over to tell her about it. She took it away sincerely apologetically and the manager (could've been owner) returned with the correct appetizer again with sincere apologies. At that point all was more than forgiven in our minds and if asked about the experience, I'd recommend it.

    We finished our appetizer and meals and sat talking over drinks for an hour and when I requested the tab, the waitress brought it over and wished us well. Within the minute, the same manager returned and placed a glass of an Italian Moscato (dessert wine) in front of both me and my date apologizing again for a mistake earlier in the night (probably about 90 minutes removed at this point) and mentioned the wine was "a lovely way to finish a fantastic meal". Passion for his customers and his product within one small gesture.

    After the first apologetic gesture I'd give a thumbs up for this restaurant if asked for my opinion. Now I make it a point to recommend the Highland Kitchen to friends, family and colleagues.

    P.S. I recommend both the Freeform Mushroom Lasagna and the Braised Pork Shoulder with Smoked Bacon (ludicrously tender)
  • Grant Currie
    Great analogy. Food and business . A man after my own heart.
    Keep up the good work
  • Making a recommendation is one thing when the diners are already seated there with a great appetite, because you're offering a solution to a problem that they know they have.

    But you know how horrible it can be when the restautant has a fellow standing outside and "recommending" the day's specials to passers by.

    I think it's one of the most fundamental aspects of any relationship that you don't answer a question that isn't being asked. If you know that a client, or your spouse or child for that matter, has a problem that you can solve, you need to invest the time to help them articulate the problem and ask the question. Then you can recommend the solution.
  • If we all had the same "menu mentality" with our busineses, as you so aptly described, we all would see dramatic improvements in our results-Finishing strong is the key! thanks for sharing Chris- awesome post and great insight!
  • Stephanie
    You gave me a new appreciation for those dreadful years I spent waiting tables in college! This comparison is simple, something I know well and an approach I can use to improve my peformance and the service I provide for clients. Thank you!
  • Great analogies Chris! As another restaurant industry employee (7+ years) I appreciated the article. I'm actually taking alot of the concepts that I've learned over the years in the restaurant industry and applying them to my blogging and wedding photography business. Like someone said previously, its all about reading your customers / guests / clients and customizing your product or service to meet their needs. If you can do that, you win every time!
  • another great post that I can apply to our business in the dental clinic
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