| Research Tidbits from Bureau
West Research Group - July, 2003 |
| Increase Profits by Catering to the Rich
With customers spending cautiously,
businesses are looking for new sources of revenue. One option: find a way to appeal to the
rich. America’s wealthy are willing to pay top dollar for a product or service that
appeals to them. It seems to us that the last bastion of luxury that is exclusive to the
rich is truly exceptional customer service.
In a recent article in Inc. Magazine,
the chef at the Inn at Little Washington – perhaps America’s poshest inn –
reveals his secrets for "delivering the perfect experience." Can you adapt them
to work for your business? (Continued below) |
Advertising’s New "Secret Weapon"
OK, it’s not secret, but we think
that its potential huge impact is not yet fully appreciated by marketers. We’re
talking about online content-targeted advertising –
that is, advertising links that appear next to relevant content on websites, such as the
sponsored links that appear next to search results on Google (or above them on Yahoo).
The beauty of this kind of advertising
is that it appears when customers are interested. For
example, when you search on Google for "focus group moderator," you’ll see
an ad for Bureau West Research Group. You may actually find the ad helpful, whereas, if
you saw it when you searched for, say, "discount airfare," you’d be more
likely to regard the ad as an annoyance.
Better yet, this kind of advertising is
relatively cheap, and you only pay when people actually click on the ad. Should you add
online content-targeted advertising to your mix? It certainly can’t hurt to give it a
try.
Sources:
Bureau West insights; Google Adwords;
Business 2.0, June 2003 ("Putting Online Ads in Context") |
| Don’t Sell to the Rich? You Can Still Profit
Sure, spending
hours learning about customers’ preferences can make them happy, but it doesn’t
always make economic sense when you’re selling to the mass market. There are still ways you can increase profits by improving service. In the same
issue of Inc., Norm Brodsky,
who writes a column about small business, tells how he learned about customer service when
he met the late King Hussein of Jordan (continued below). |
|
Here are five strategies used by
the Inn at Little Washington to deliver exceptional customer service:
Measure the
customer’s mood: When a new party arrives in the dining room, the
captain assigns it a number that assesses the guests’ apparent state of mind (from 1
to 10, with 7 or below indicating displeasure or unhappiness). The mood rating is typed
into a computer, written on the dinner order, and placed on a spool in the kitchen where
the entire staff can see and react accordingly. Whatever the circumstances, the goal is
crystal clear: "No one should leave here below a 9."
To that end, restaurant staffers spare
nothing in their attempt to raise the number – be it complimentary champagne, extra
desserts, a tableside visit from one of the owners, even a kitchen tour.
Cultivate
expertise: It’s not enough for staffers to be courteous, they also
must convey an extraordinary degree of competence. Employees are encouraged never to stop
learning about their job, the inn, and anything else that might take the team closer to
perfection. In line with that philosophy, all staffers – from managers to waiters to
hosts – are assigned research projects and expected to become the resident expert on
their subject, which can range from wild mushrooms to French merlots and vintage port
wines. And staffers are called upon to demonstrate their expertise by giving presentations
to their co-workers.
Tolerate
failure...once: Making good on customers’ wildest fantasies
isn’t easy. It requires everyone to be "on" all the time, and to practice
impeccable follow-through. If an employee makes a mistake, they’re told immediately.
"It sounds rough, but it actually reduces the employees’ anxiety by letting them
know what is expected," the chef says. "Plus, bad habits aren’t allowed to
form."
Hire for
attitude: Early on, the founders assumed that technical ability and
experience were the best indicators of future performance. They were wrong. Talent, they
learned, means little if an employee has a lousy attitude. They found that "over
time, nice people can be taught almost anything."
Don’t
say no: Staffers are forbidden even to utter the syllable. The phrase
"I don’t know" is also discouraged. Following several months of
apprenticeship and training, all new waiters undergo a rigorous test, in which veteran
staffers ask every imaginable question, from when the inn was built to peculiarities of
the menu.
The bottom line: if you can
differentiate an offering based on truly exceptional service, you can charge more... and
customers will line up to pay!
Sources:
Bureau West insights; Inc., July
2003 |
|
Eight years ago, King Hussein
invited the board of directors of the Simon Weisenthal Center (on which Brodsky serves) to
visit Jordan. When the group met the king, he had something personal to say to each of
them ("Oh, Mr. Brodsky, you’re a businessman from New York, I understand"),
and when the meeting was over, he walked the group back to their cars!
Brodsky writes: "King Hussein had
made me feel about him and his country exactly the way I want my customers to feel about
me and my company – warm and fuzzy. I want to send the message that I care about them
personally. That’s how you develop long-term relationships." He adopted those
practices, as he does whenever he encounters a good service idea – such as the case
when a clothing salesman sent him a handwritten thank-you note.
The point – whether or not
you’re able to escort your customers to their cars or send them personal notes –
is getting into your customers’ heads and figuring
out how you can make them feel good about your business and keep them coming back for
more. How do you do this? Ask them! Let us design
customer research for you, so you can make your customers happier... and increase your
profits.
Sources:
Bureau West insights; Inc., July
2003 |
Bureau West Research
Group can conduct the research you need to better understand your target market, including
focus groups, one-on-one interviews, on-site observation and mining online forums. Give us a call at (818) 752-7210 if there’s any way we can assist
you.
Sincerely,
Jay Zaltzman, President
Bureau West Research Group
Tel: (818) 752-7210
We email research
tidbits like this one as they become available. We hope they’re of interest to you,
and they’re also a great way for us to keep in touch (but please just send us an
email if you prefer not to receive these tidbits). And please tell
us if you know of anyone else who might benefit from these tidbits. Just send
us their name and email address, and we’ll email them a sample Research Tidbit. |
Sign up for our Research Tidbit email newsletter!
We email Research Tidbits like the one above, at no charge,
whenever we come across information we feel might be useful to our clients (approximately
once a month) - and hopefully, they help keep us top-of-mind!
Do you know of anyone else who might benefit from
these tidbits? Enter their name and email above and we'll send them a sample tidbit. |
|