What are the little things that can set your business apart? Where are the details that will make you a market leader? How will you create loyal employees who are in it for the long haul since they are your most important customers?
Here are three ways to create long term relationships with your best customers and employees gleaned from a memorable dining experience I had decades ago.
When I was a kid, my family and I dined at the Moose Lodge every once in awhile. It was a grand treat to me, mostly because I knew we would be meeting our grandparents there. I loved ordering the same dinner as my Grandpa Frank: deep-fried fantail shrimp with cocktail sauce and a baked potato. The shrimp were no-doubt frozen, boxed, pre-breaded shrimp but the cook at the Moose Lodge magically left them in the hot oil an extra minute or two creating the deeply-golden-super-crunchy crust. My teeth would break through that coating to the tender sweet shrimp inside. Those 6 plump beauties were accompanied by deep red cocktail sauce. The kitchen folks at the Moose packaged it in tiny little individual cups and stored it next to the frosty cold coils in the back of the fridge. When I dipped hot crispy shrimp in the icy sauce, crazy good things happened. Side by side with the shrimp came a foil-wrapped baked potato. The ultimate comfort food, its creamy insides were the perfect counter balance to the spicy, saucy shrimp. They stuffed the spud with butter AND sour cream; an embarrassment of riches.
It was a young foodie’s heaven, creating an experience I will never forget, and one that kept my family coming back again and again. After all, you didn’t go to the Moose Lodge for the ambience.
How can you apply the Moose Lodge treatment to your customer experience?
1. Leave the shrimp in the oil just a little longer. Find those points in your customer experience where an extra minute or two makes all the difference.
2. Chill the cocktail sauce to frosty perfection. Seek little ways to adjust your customer experience that will blow your customers away with awesomeness.
3. Serve butter AND sour cream. Provide that little something extra that sets you above the competition for your customer.
These days, everyone is serving your customer’s equivalent of shrimp, sauce and spuds. How will YOU stand out? It’s all in the details my friend.
Let’s get cooking.
P.S. On Wednesday, my husband and I will celebrate 31 years of marriage. Last year I wrote about our anniversary. Our readers seemed to like and share it, so here’s a printable version for you. Enjoy!
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