By Pete Hill
In the last few newsletters I have been talking about the importance of seeing things through the customer’s eyes and the importance for business owners to really know what’s going on out there. I wanted to move on from this theme in 2007 but felt I had to share an experience I had over the break, as it exemplifies so much of what I have been talking about ( in particular see the Great Dunedin Breakfast Experiment article in our website ).
My wife and myself were on a weekend drive and came across a real neat looking restaurant where we decided to stop for breakfast/brunch. The (I guess) owner was serving a couple (the only other customers) at their table at the time and this necessitated him passing us at the counter on a number of occasions, including making coffees right in front of us without acknowledging our presence. When he finally could find nothing else to do he addressed us, pleasantly enough, I must add. We then had an almost surreal conversation that went something like this:
Me: “I see you have an all day breakfast there, can we have the eggs any way?” Him: “Yes, please” Me: “Pardon?” Him: ” Yes, please you will get the eggs anyway, its clearly written on the board” Me: “No, I meant can I have the eggs done any way, ie poached or scrambled?” Him: “No, thanks” Me: “Pardon?” Him: “No thanks, I can’t be bothered with that, I only fry them” Me: “Well...ok let me think about it” Him: ‘Look, I’ll poach eggs for both of you if you insist, or fry them, but I’m damned if I’m going to waste my time doing them differently for each one of you, it’s just too much hassle” Me: “Ok, thanks we’ll just move on, I don’t want to be too much trouble”
This, of course is not about how eggs should be done. It’s about how you treat customers. And customers are the only reason you set up in business in the first place. I couldn’t really have cared less how the eggs were done, I was merely making an enquiry – that’s what customers do. With a bit of thought you can turn any enquiry into a positive even if you don’t have the answer the customer wants. For example, he could have said ‘No, look, I’m sorry but we are only set up to fry eggs as part of this breakfast but we do them our own way which is low fat and delicious – you won’t regret trying them” (or better still) ....“Sure no hassle”
Every business has ‘awkward’ customer enquiries which we hate as we can never come up with an answer that will immediately satisfy. The silly thing is that if we think about it (and discuss with the staff) they are the same theme over & over again. The key is in scripting. Scripting allows you to formulate well thought out stock answers to those ‘awkwards’ that presents you in the best possible light to the customer. When you know the answer you control the conversation – and gives you the best possible chance of keeping the customer you invested so much time and money in getting through your door in the first place.
For more information on how to improve your business, ask any of our team about YBT’s Profit Improvement Workshop
