Today after church my family and some friends had lunch with my friend at his new restaurant. Mike Sattler, Owner of Tuscanny Market & Vineyard is the greatest web researcher. He finds the most unique wines, food products, decorations, and appliances — at the best prices.
He has a brick oven that can cook a pizza in 2 minutes. He has the only electronic wine dispenser in Austin where customers can buy a card and use it to take $.60-$4.00 sample tastes of all his wines before they buy. He’s got unique sodas, cheeses, crackers, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds — never seen those before.
During my first lunch there he was looking for my opinion on some things in the restaurant. He had great decorations, and the food was fantastic. I noticed some little things…he didn’t have a soda fountain upsell size, signs were too high, get rid of the household items, analyze category metrics and cross-sells…you know, the kind of things any average customer would notice 😉
Then I told him I was going to the bathroom…for me the ultimate test for a good restaurant. If they take pride in their bathroom, I figure they take care of the rest of the place.
The bathroom was nice. Needed pictures, which he knew. But what stood out to me was the hand dryer. It blew air at mach speed and dried my hands faster than paper towels. I watched my skin move beneath the the powerful nozzle as if my hands were posessed.
It was the Xlerator hand dryer. I saw their site…they claim to dry hands in 10-15 seconds. I believe it. See this article on the Xlerator.
But the point is I told my friends and wife to go wash their hands. And now I’m telling you about this. I’ll tell others. Why? I’ve never seen this before, and thought it was cool. Mike spent a few extra dollars for this dryer…but it should quickly pay off.
I think little things in the customer experience can make a big difference in driving customer choice and word of mouth.
It’s why I go to Mexican restuarants with great chips and salsa, despite the food. Or the tipping point for me to choose one sandwhich shop over another because they serve soft ice. Or the chinese buffet, just because they have free ice cream.
Think about the little things you can do in your business to stand out, be remembered, and perhaps lead to word of mouth.