The Super Clients

Every small business has these special customers, you know who I mean, the regulars who come often to your place and spend nice money. They love your restaurant and are happy to enjoy a good meal at your place.

But these customers are not just good clients, they are also very powerful influencers and if you do the right thing, they can become your best sales force. Let me explain what I mean.

Whenever you have very happy clients, you can "leverage" them to spread the word about your restaurant. If you are familiar with my Formalized Referral System in a Box, you know that you can pamper these customers by offering them gift certificates for them (and this is VERY important) for their friends and family members to come again to your restaurant and get a nice discount.

Why would you like to give something to clients who come regularly anyway? Because by giving them a free meal or a discount you prove three things directly to them:

1. That you care about them. There is not just about the money but you genuinely want them to be happy and have a great experience dinning at your place.
2. That you appreciate their patronage and are willing to demonstrate it not just with words but with a gift.
3. You pamper their ego since you, as the owner or manager of the restaurant, acknowledge their presence and reward their company. Everybody likes that.

But there is another very important benefit that although it may be not obvious to them, it will happen anyway:

By surprising your best clients with a gift, you will exceed their expectations.

This will translate in them telling all their family and friends how great your place is and how nice you are. This is sales at its best. Genuine, spontaneous praise of a business by a person you trust and like. The amount of potential customers and sales that this initiative will bring to your restaurant is priceless.

I recommend you that you take a hard look at your regular customers and make a conscious decision to approach them and give them a reason to be really happy that they visited your place.

Just one word of advice: don't be cheap here. If you just give them a free dessert or glass of wine, it is a nice gesture but it won't woo your customers. If you do this, make it stand out. Complement their whole meal, bring them a bottle of a complementary good wine, give them a gift certificate that they can use in their next visit... you get the point.

Think about this as a proven marketing investment that will bring you good reputation and many new customers. It is way better to spend money with your best clients than to waste it in newspapers or yellow pages ads trying to bring new customers all the time.

Good luck and happy meals,

Jose L Riesco

The impossible customers

You all know who they are. Angry people who are looking for an excuse to blame everybody around for their unhappiness.

I met a few of these when I was managing my own restaurant. Actually, we had several who were regular clients and keep on complaining all the time: about the temperature of the food (too hot or too cold), about the service (too slow or they didn't spend enough time chatting with them), about the music (too loud or they just didn't like it, could we please turn it off?)... you get the point.

Now, if you have read my book or just my blogs and articles, you'll know that I always advocate to bend backwards to please your customers. But what if the customers are impossible to please? What can you do to please those customers who no matter what you do will always complain?

First I will tell you what no to do. You don't want to confront them or to argue with them. This is exactly what they are looking for. They have rage inside and a good fight with a waiter, manager or restaurant owner will give them satisfaction and perhaps an excuse for a free meal.

What you need to do is to diffuse the situation. Try to no take their criticism personal (it is not) and give them alternatives to their complain. For example, when they asked me to turn off the music, I explained to them that I understood that they wanted to talk but most people were enjoying the music so I lowered the music a bit and relocated them to sit on a different table farther away from the speakers. That didn't make them happy but they complied and I took the arguments for them to complain about.

Try to work a solution with them and if everything else fails, offer them a free meal and let them know that perhaps next time they should look for a different restaurant. If they appreciate your place, they will come back and hopefully behave next time. If this doesn't happen and you see that they come over and over and always complain, well, there is a point to cut your loses. Let them know that this is the last time that you serve them and invite them to visit a different restaurant next time.

I still remember the case of a couple, the guy quite introverted and his wife always complaining about every single thing. They used to come to my restaurant and although, they spent good money, no server wanted to wait their table because they were impossible to please. At one point, I had them with them so I approached their table and I told them that since they never seemed happy with our food or service, I will complement them their dinner that night and invite them never to come back to my place. The impact was immediate. The always quiet husband looked at her wife and told her in a quite angry tone that he really liked my restaurant and wanted to stay so she better be quiet.

After that day, things changed for the better. Although she still complained here and there, her attitude was very different and she behaved almost normal.

The point that I am trying to make is that you must always please your customers but also you can select the customers that you want. After all, if you can't make some customers happy, no matter what you try, what's the point? It is not good for either of you. Besides, they will have a negative influence on the rest of your clients.

Treat your customers the best you can and eliminate the ones that cause you problems or disruptions. In this way, your restaurant will be always full of happy people and that's what you want.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco