I am aware that what happens to me would not affect most people. However, I have been thinking about brand management quite a bit recently and this struck a chord with me.
Tonight I walked into Chipotle near my house to get dinner. As I walked up to the counter the employees were all in the kitchen area talking and joking around. When they finally saw me they said “One minute” or something similar that told me I had been put on hold live and in person. The only thing worse is when you walk up and someone is talking on the phone and gives you the “just a minute” finger at the same time as they completely ignore you.
I brushed this interaction off because I was hungry and wanted a ‘dang quesa-dill-a’ with chicken. After they made my food, I asked for the corn and pico to go with it, and asked for everything to go. As I reached the register, the manager came out of no where to take my payment. She told me the total, I handed my debit card over, and I started to get that paranoid feeling like I was paying too much. The manager did not hand me my receipt, she set it on the counter next to the register. That little guy in charge of my paranoia started kicking my brain saying “PAY ATTENTION”.
I grabbed the receipt, looked at the manager, and promptly told her that she rang up my order incorrectly. At which time she gave me a line about how a quesadilla is a quesadilla, but when you ask for salsa it makes a burrito. This astonished me. No other Chipotle has ever made that claim to me before, and I go to Chipotle more than I care to tell you about.
My purpose is not to let you hear me complain about a less than desirable interaction at one of my favorite restaurants. It was instead to lay the groundwork for a checklist of sorts. This is a list of things you should think about when dealing with your customers. It is also a list of things that the Chipotle employees screwed up on.
1. You should be responsive to your clients and ready to act when they call on you
Those of you who deal with your clients daily, cringed at this first item. I cringed when I wrote it; not because it is wrong but because it needs qualification. You SHOULD be ready to help, respond to, or reply to your customers. This does not mean that you should ask “how high” when they say jump. It means that you should be there ready to listen and talk to them whenever they come knocking.
When I walk into a restaurant my first hope is that someone who works there will notice me, take my order, and give me my food. That is why I went there in the first place and why I am willing to pay extra for food I could make at home.
2. You should set your client’s expectations appropriately and be consistent
I learned by example that you should “under promise and over deliver”. Set the expectation just under what you think you are capable of and then exceed that expectation. You will impress your clients AND you will create brand evangelists. With the way that people are connected to each other, the old adage that “an angry customer will tell 10 other people about their experience” no longer stands. It is more like an angry customer will tell 10,000 other people about their experience. The other side of the same coin is that a company who impress their clients will be talked about as well.
Chipotle has the advantage of consistency in its food, whether or not their employees live up to the standard of the food is up for debate. I know that I can just as well go to any other store and get a delicious quesadilla.
3. Know who your clients are
You not only need to know the target group of people who are going to buy your product, you need to be friends with them. If you are friends or at least buddies with them, it is way more likely that they will call you and share their ideas and concerns with you. If you are paying attention, these ideas and concerns can make or break your company. A communicative client is one of your most valuable resources.
Chipotle’s customers are hungry and impatient. They provide quality food for their hungry customers, but the fact that their employees don’t even pay attention to you when you walk in the door leaves something to be desired.
4. Be informative and don’t surprise your clients
As a business you should keep your clients right where you want them, happy, fat, and content (see #2). Give them the information they need and keep the rest to yourself. I typically read and re-read emails I send about three times when it really counts. Sometimes, I will even write the email and go to lunch. This way I can think about what I am writing and look at it from the perspective of the client before I send it.
I have put out more fires before they started by just keeping contact with clients to the point and not confusing the issue by giving them more information than they need. My first draft email almost always has way too much information. I cut out all the fluff, get to the brass tax and send. Anything more opens you up for trouble later, and does not set expectations appropriately. The best way to know what should be in your emails is to know your clients, know what they are looking for and meet or exceed their expectations, but not so much that you cannot get your job done.
Chipotle doesn’t have all of their items on the menu and depending on who is at the register you run the risk of paying a completely different price. When I expect to spend $4 and end up spending $7, this is a surprise I am less than happy about.
3. Understand that your actions and the actions of your employees can burn the deal
The reason your clients have come to you and are paying for what you sell is because they don’t want to do what you do in-house and they think that by giving you money you will SOLVE their problem. This means they are assuming you will not CREATE problems.
If you create more problems than you solve, you will find yourself on the curb without a shirt.
4. When in trouble, fix the glitch
Everyone knows that problems come up, unexpected things happen. You can’t see them coming and you can’t prevent them, which is exactly the definition of unexpected. When these things happen, the best thing you can do is assess the situation, handle the situation and in doing so exceed your client’s expectations. It is your job to make sure that when you make a mistake that you own it, solve it and make sure everyone walks away happy.
The manager did not offer to solve my problem. In fact, she walked away from the register, leaving me standing there confused about what I just paid for and why it was a different price than I was used to. I finally asked her for the rest of my “burrito” and she had someone make a bowl of rice and veggies.
5. See Opportunity in the things you do
It seems that everyone else is doing everything that you already do but faster and cheaper. If you do not see and take hold of opportunity when it slaps you upside the head, you will lose the race, your company, or worse. PAY ATTENTION.
There is opportunity in every interaction, whether that means that you are constantly getting more data that will lead to a new product or your client is angry and asking for something. Your interactions with your clients is the best time to find out what they need and how they need it. This means that you have the chance to stagnate or seize what is in front of you and build up your business accordingly.
The employees at Chipotle do not know this information, they are just part time workers who are trying to get free food and a paycheck. Some of them are probably still in High School, so you cannot expect much from them. This really is no excuse, but for some reason the bigger the company is the more they get away with. You and I both know that any employee in a small company has more responsibility for the projecting the right “face of the company” than that same employee would at Chipotle.
The difference between yourself and a Chipotle employee should be that you are willing and able to step up and prove yourself, your product, and your company time and time again. Chipotle’s product is not their employees, it is their food and it is delicious. This makes it easy to look past a bad experience. You do not have this luxury with a small business.
If you can be the product, sell the product, and support the product you will rise above your competitors. You will be a leader in your market and your hard work will pay off.
Tags: brain, Brand Management, burrito, chipotle, corn, dang, debit card, dill, groundwork, interaction, kitchen area, paranoia, pay attention, quesa, quesadilla, receipt, restaurants, sorts
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