Here’s the moral of this story, upfront:

Purposefully train your entire staff to look for opportunities to create a “star moment” with a customer.

Now to my story. Last week I had my days mixed up and pulled up an hour early to my local Starbucks for a caffeine fix. After tugging on the locked door I headed back to my vehicle. “Hey, where you going?”, rang out behind me. I turned to see a young lady at the door.

Her name was Maria and she was in the middle of opening, but invited me in. Maria whipped up a white chocolate mocha and continued with her duties. Impressive.

Ask yourself these questions…

Was this a big hassle for Maria? Probably not.

Did Starbucks make a killing on this one sale? No.

Do you understand why this action is so critically important for you and your staff? (I hope you answer yes here.)

There are 4 copycat coffee houses within 4 miles of where I live and work. To this point I could care less which ones I frequented. Often I would meet customers or friends in whichever location was closer at the time.

Now, there is one coffee house I will visit.

Does Starbucks train their staff to create these “star moments” on purpose? Probably, really doesn’t matter though. What matters is if YOU do.

Had a great phone conversation with a long time friend who has lived in Atlanta for the past 10 years. He was the best man at my wedding and we don’t get a chance to catch too often.

Very bright guy, MBA from Ohio State- works for a large software firm specializing in accounting software. Knows nothing about local store marketing and doesn’t really care to.

Curiously he asked again what I’ve been up to during the past few years and I mentioned (for the 100th time) that I specialize in Local Store Marketing for restaurants.

Silence.

He re-phrased the question, “But what benefit do you offer to these people?”

Hmm. Not a bad question. He was forcing me to articulate the benefit, not just the feature.

After thinking about the restaurant owners and managers that I help, I came back with this- “I dramatically increase restaurant sales…by teaching the owner Local Store Marketing.”

At this point, you’re wondering what this has to do with you and your restaurant. Possibly a lot.

If your restaurant has an identity, or if you can invent an identity, you can begin to differentiate your local personality.

First time customers may come into your restaurant because they’re hungry- but if they return, they are doing so because of how your place made them FEEL. It may have been your televisions, it may have been the way they were treated, it may have been a combination of things.

If you don’t know why your regulars are regulars- ask them. And then market your identity!

So I’m talking to a restaurant owner from Seattle a couple of days ago. Her and her husband have no experience in the restaurant business, but decided to investment some money in a new hamburger franchise (which will go un-named.)

They had their soft opening 7 months ago and were telling me how successful that was and how excited they were to be owners in this system. The projections for the first six months were to average 14K in weekly sales and they were now hovering around 18K.

Everything sounded pretty good which prompted me to ask a logical question, “Why are you calling me, and why now?”

The way she answered that question revealed a common problem that I see among many restaurant owners, whether they are start-ups or grizzled veterans.

Her answer was simply- “With regard to ongoing marketing, what do we do now?” She continued, “In other words, we have exhausted the media advertising recommended by the franchisor and we have placed ads in all the media buys that we are supposed to, but sales have been leveling off for the past 3 months and we’re concerned.”

“Frankly when we ask our franchisor about Local Store Marketing, they advise on doing it but offer no assistance! Now what?”

Of course my answer could go in many different directions, but I started simple…

“Ann, do you and your staff reach out to your customers and ask them simple questions- such as where they are from, have they visited more than once, where do they work, why do they come here, etc.?”

The answer was no.

That’s when the revelation hit me. There is a distinct difference between marketing a restaurant and simply placing ads and praying.

Restaurant owners who think they are marketing their restaurants are simply placing ads and hoping that customers come in, come back and never go to the competition!

Restaurant owners who MARKET their restaurants recognize that 20% percent of their customers return and account for 80% of sales! They hone in on these regulars and learn everything they can about them so they KEEP returning and bring friends with them.

The message here is simple- touch tables (especially during lunch), find out who your repeat customers are and market to them like crazy.