What Sunny’s should have done that Central Tiffin Room did.
These are two experiences I get to hear about, from a couple
who went restaurant hopping. A week ago, they dropped in at the Central
Tiffin Room for Benne
Masala Dosa. The place is packed and so they wait. One of the staff at the restaurant
walks up to assure them a table would go free in 5 minutes. Soon enough they
are seated. The service is lightning quick and the benne masala dosa turns out
to be heavenly. They also tell me the coffee was to die for. They leave elated
at the food and dining experience they’ve had. Despite the place being jam-packed,
the couple want go back as soon as they can.
A few days later they drop in at Sunny’s. The man
at the counter who seems to be the owner is on the phone talking. He barely acknowledges
them. Once he is done with his call, the couple asks for a table for two. The
one shown isn’t to their liking and so they ask for another. None available,
comes the reply. The couple decides to take a stroll down Lavelle Road to check
out other restaurants. When they tell the man at the counter of their
intention, he isn’t too happy. His displeasure is clearly written on his face. The
couple decides to leave.
When the incidents are narrated to me, I am taken aback. You
see, the CTR business operates on a classic low cost model. CTR is
supposed to drive value to the customer purely on functional lines. Meaning,
for a low price you will get tasty clean food and quickly. CTR isn’t about a dining
experience. It’s purely food. Contrast that with Sunny’s. For the high prices
you pay, you are supposed to get super food and a super experience. Far from anything
‘super’, the couple in question got a cold shoulder from the man in charge. As
a business, Sunny’s is supposed to be a differentiated
model, and so the value drivers are a combination of great food, service,
and an overall dining experience. But none of that comes to be for the couple.
Imagine if the counter person at Sunny’s was clued into the brand’s business
model. What would he have done? He may not have been able to get the couple a
table right then, but he could have promised one later. He could even have offered
to keep a table for them the next time they came around and so on. What he
instead did was cross Sunny’s off the couple’s go-to restaurant list.
Isn’t it ironical that a low cost eatery got a couple to want
to come back based on an overall experience, when the fine dining place should have
been doing that?! Think about that. The lesson here? Never mind the business
model, experiences that customers encounter have nothing to do with infrastructure
or the atmospherics at a service provider’s. It’s the service people and their behavior
that matters; to the extent that a ‘budgety CTR’ beats a ‘pricey Sunny’s’ at eliciting
customer loyalty via the dining experience provided.
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