Nina’s birthday was last month. It wasn’t one of the big ones, but it was worth celebrating, nonetheless.
Although we have lived in Ashland, Ore., for almost 10 years, we had not been over to Bend, a town that we visited several times many years ago. I suggested we drive over, spend the night, and come back the next day. It’s a 3-1/2 hour car ride, most of it spent driving through wonderful scenery.
A nice dinner would be appropriate, so I did some research and made reservations over the phone for the night of Nina’s birthday. The person on the phone was very nice.
We arrived there for dinner and the place was busy–a good sign! Nice feel, farm-to-table, noise level reasonable–it looked like we would have a good experience.
Then we are told by the hostess that our table is the one next to her station.
I ask if there are any other tables available.
No, she tells me. Then she says that if we wanted a specific table or a specific server, we should have mentioned that when we made the reservation.
I am stunned. We had never been there before. How would I have known to do that? I mentioned that as the hostess went off to help others.
Given that there is nothing we can do about the situation, we settle in. Our server is great. The food is very good. But what the hostess did and said is part of our dining experience.
The main thing I will remember about that dinner was being expected to know things that I had no way of knowing, not how good the food or service was.
Do your clients ever feel this way? What is it that you and your staff take for granted in your process?
Have you ever looked at your process from the perspective of a client? Or has the focus more or less been what works best for your company?
Laying things out in detail and doing that systematically is one of the best ways to get very good reviews from your clients–and, consequently, to get more repeat business and referrals from them.
That all seems so obvious, but many of us get seduced by the hustle and bustle of our own worlds, to the exclusion of the clients whose business is needed for the company to succeed.
What is the equivalent of the table by the hostess station in your business? And how do you help your clients, especially the new ones, avoid sitting there?
The best way to find out is to ask some of your best clients.
Want the right atmosphere to do so and more business from them? Take them to a restaurant you like and before making the reservations, ask your clients where they like to sit. They will love you for it!