Have You Ever Been Experienced?

I am fairly certain that Jimi posed that question in an entirely different way than I am, but I thought it lent itself nicely to the topic that I would like to cover today. When is the last time that you had a dining experience rather than just a meal? Are you selling meals or dining experiences? What is the difference? Why are dining experiences important in this economy? What are you training your staff to provide for your customers – meals or experiences? I am sure that many of you are saying that we aren’t necessarily set up to provide experiences – but you are! Because foot traffic is down, it is all the more important that we take advantage of every opportunity that walks through the door.

What is a dining experience? I have to admit that the first thing that jumps into my mind is white table cloth, candlelight, tuxedoed waiters and fancy schmanzy food. After I think about it for a few seconds more, I realize that a dining experience can take any number of forms. It only has to include food and something memorable or out of the ordinary to take it to the dining experience level. A dining experience is what compels your customers to tell their friends about their time in your establishment. It is what gives them the story to tell to have that ultra important word of mouth advertising. Creating a dining experience involves far more than the food you are serving. The experience often finds its roots in the servers, the plate presentation, the atmosphere and little something extra that you or your staff can provide.

To further illustrate what I mean by the experience stemming from somewhere outside of just the food, I would like to share a couple of experiences that I have either had or heard about from my friends (word of mouth advertising). Gene and Jude’s hot dogs – with 3 items on the menu, nowhere to sit and no ketchup to be found. Ed Debevic’s – servers dressed in 50s garb with a caustic edge to their interactions. Ann Sather’s – the owner / city alderman waiting tables on a Saturday afternoon. A hotel bar in Indiana where the server anticipated every one of my needs before I could articulate them. A server giving my toddler child a free dessert because she was so well behaved. My waiter playing Houdini every time I needed something. A manager stopping by to see how everything was going and actually meaning it!

These experiences can take on just about any form. As I said before, these experiences give your customers a story to tell – good and bad. They don’t take a menu retooling or a complete makeover of your establishment. Quite often all they take is hiring quality people and setting the appropriate expectations for them. The kind of service and effort that is required to provide experiences for your customers has to clearly communicated to your staff and modeled by you. Explaining the financial impact on the servers will go a long way towards getting them on board. A little salesmanship and suggestive selling builds check sizes and tip sizes. Illustrating to your staff how being committed to providing an experience to your customers will impact their pay will secure buy in on your servers’ part – after all, compensation drives behavior.

With the current state of the economy and people making more deliberate choices about where and how they spend their money, it is that much more important that each and every opportunity to create an added dimension of value and experience for your customer base be taken advantage of by you. This is an economic environment where the strong is going to survive, and this is one simple way for you to raise your game and exceed what every other operation on the street is doing. Create a memory. It could be as simple as giving everyone a free scoop of ice cream (and making it a point to tell them about it) or as simple as getting a commitment from your servers to treat each customer as an honored guest – the most important person in the room. The customer has chosen to spend their money with you – give them a reason to come back! It doesn’t have to take much, just leave them with a story to tell and you will keep traffic coming through your front door and profits in your account!

“Two roads diverged in the woods, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost, American Poet.