It is very difficult to be fully aware of the day to day experience your company provides its clients, suppliers and employees.
Abstract your business. Think of the last meal that you ate out with friends. Think of the full dining experience from pavement to pin number.
What table were you sat at? Did the menu ‘concept’ need explaining? Was the specials board in another room? What price was the house wine and did they take your order before you looked at the mains?
Eating at restaurants exposes an extensive list of interesting service, product and experience elements. The value here is asking ourselves where these map to in our own business and acknowledging our room for improvement.
Do you have a reservation?
Translation: We greet you with barriers and protocol first
Do you know how the menu works?
Translation: We’re complicated, it’s about us
Normally we suggest that you order x and then y with z
Translation: We up-sell before sale
We have one last table left, sorry its not our best
Translation: We’re fine with poor experience for one more sale
Let me recite the eight special dishes for you to memorise
Translation: We’re good at knowing what we do, hope you can keep up
We clear the empties as quick as we can
Translation: We’re busy, you better hurry up
Our cutlery is our cutlery
Translation: We don’t eat our own food with our own knives
Our house wine starts at £25, next bottle up is £32
Translation: We love sales not products
Dining out is a very contained experience, it only lasts a few short hours and we’re very critical when parting with our own cold hard cash.
What’s your ‘worst table’ and who’s getting the blunt knives? Service experience and communication are fundamental to the satisfaction of the products we sell.
The list could have gone on.
Although I fear it was in danger of going full Larry David.
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