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Method
Marketing Newsletter: Volume 2 Issue 20
February 8th, 2002
Market
the Restaurant From the Inside, Out.
Part 3
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Synopsis:
Relationship
Marketing is like farming. It takes longer to get a meal
than if you go out and shoot a deer. However, once you harvest
the crop, it will feed you and many others for a year.
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"Companies
don't spend nearly enough
time or money focusing on their current customer."
-
Michael Katz
Your
guests define 'value' by the totality of the experience:
the service, the décor, the food and its flavors
and aromas and the cost: all details that create a memory.
The most memorable experiences come from an organized,
well-rehearsed and communicated performance. Great 'word
of mouth' is built note by note, scene by scene, act by
act, so that by the end of the visit your guest walks
away 'wowed'. Or bored. Or, worse of all, disgusted. It's
your choice. |
If I
could have $100 for each time a client or colleague expressed
the desire to target advertising on "Guests we don't have",
I would... well, I would still do this, but from my Lear Jet on
the way to my 'other office' in Bermuda. Everyone wants 'what
he or she don't got'. This is a Siren song that tempts smart people
to waste money and energy. Is there a marketing process to block
the sound of such a seductive idea and offer another way? Yes.
It is called Relationship Marketing. Michael Katz, President and
Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin Development helped me understand
it.
"Companies don't spend nearly enough time or money focusing
on the current customer. You have interacted with a lot of customers
already, but you spend your time looking for new ones, expecting
that those you have will just sit there. Or worse, you accept
losing the customers you have, because, 'That is the way business
works.' It is like never being satisfied with your current relationship,
always looking for greener pastures. When you mass-market, you
may be trampling the garden to pick a flower.
"The single most cost effective and time efficient long-term
strategy to build your business is to focus on existing relationships.
And the advent of the Internet allows you to do it with almost
no cost. That is the beauty of electronic interaction."
I have searched long and hard for Customer Relationship Management
tools that transcend Frequency Programs, which rely on discounts
or do not bollix up my operations with complex 'IT' programs.
There may well be a time when knowing the complete personal history
of a guest will come in handy. For now, answer two questions:
when did the guest come and how much did they spend?
Michael Katz learned the power of Relationship Marketing with
the unwitting help of MediaOne, a cable provider and giant in
telecommunications. Michael was put in charge of marketing their
new cable modem/high-speed Internet service. The whole marketing
culture at MediaOne hewed to the tried and true philosophy of
quantification. If it could be measured, then it was 'good'. He
discovered that unlike cable customers, who hated MediaOne's mass
marketing efforts to sell HBO, the high speed Internet customer
want to communicate with the company. He sent emails asking for
feedback. He was flooded with responses. He replied and they wrote
back. He began to develop an on-going conversation with thousands
of customers. He hired more people to nurture the relationships,
no hard sell, just sincere conversation. His group became one
of the most successful divisions. When the CFO looked at the budget
for the next year and saw more people being added to "create
and nurture customer relationships" he wanted quantification.
How many sales would these people generate? 'Not the point', said
Michael. Not the Point? Walls shook, people quaked. If you cannot
measure what percentage of your effort results in a sale then
it is not worth the money! Michael left to create Blue Penguin.
To this day MediaOne still sends out direct mail to its Internet
customers. To this day MediaOne still does not give timely responses
to email.
Michael went on,"Everything that can be measured isn't necessarily
important, and everything that is important can't necessarily
be measured. People want their business relationships to be more
personal. Note, I did not say 'contact', because my e-mail inbox
is filled with junk that retailers send me. I mean relationships.
When I give permission to contact me via e-mail, I want you to
respect my time. Develop an organic relationship. It creates a
bond that competition cannot break, not with deals or any other
form of advertising.
"If you want to test my thesis, ask yourself these questions:
- How
many people did you serve last year?
- What
percentage of those guests did you actually interact with?
- What
percentage of those you interacted with told you their name?
Did you remember it for their next visit?
- Of
those you know by name, how many have you interacted with beyond
the dinner table? Done business with? Had a chat with?
"I
suspect you will find that you have left a good deal of opportunity
on the table. Your guests want to be part of a club. They will
be your cheerleaders. Give them the chance to help you."
So easy to say, so difficult to do. Why? I am not sure, but, in
our '30 second, give-it-to-me-now' culture, the quick fix is very
alluring. Stop and think about what you are doing.
Next issue we will talk about 'the
message'. What it is, what it looks like and how to create one.
--> GO
Michael
Katz has recently wrote and published the e-book, 
E-Newsletters
That Work
The Small Business Owner's Guide To Creating, Writing
and Publishing An Effective Electronic Newsletter
If you
are interested in purchasing or finding out more, click
here.
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