Once you align your brand in the feeling business, it is important to quantify the value of positive feelings you are generating in your customers. Your customers always walk in with an anticipation and if you surprise them with something nice, it will start the experience on a positive note. Then you can build on it by adding more experience elements that make them feel joy and once the joy overflows, they get elated. The continuing overflow of joy takes them to a “MUST SHARE” state; where they must share with either a small group of friends or on social media. This sharing is Word of Mouth (WOM), the most credible brand endorsement you can ever get. Identifying the one thing that you can do to surprise your guests immediately after they walk in and then adding more, are sure ways to generate Word of Mouth every time. Value of WOM: Priceless as you cannot buy it. From the beginning of time, it is the most credible and effective marketing ever. Social media has magnified its reach and value. Some brands leave it to chance and do not have a process to connect generating customer feelings to Assured WOM. A Story: Yes, I Fell In Love With My Dental Office I was in Plano, Texas. It was the night before a big presentation and my crown on my front tooth broke. I looked at myself in the mirror, saw the big hole and felt that my professional world was coming to an end. Next morning, I called a local dentist’s office and Andy answered the phone. He was calm as he listened to me. When I was done explaining, he said “Arjun, yes we can take care of you in our office today. Come over by 9:30 am and the Dr. will work on you, in between patients. We will get you back to normal by 2 PM.” Yes, that is what I wanted to hear. I loved the confidence, I also felt assured as he and his team seemed to have done this before. When I got there, Andy greeted me with “It is you Arjuuun!”. I felt really good continuing the phone connection. Then Dr. Nguyen and his team took over and it was like magic. And at exactly 12:30 I was done, sending pictures of my new tooth to my coworkers and family. But then something happened. I was at the counter ready to check-out, and there was no Andy. I waited for a few minutes and was getting into “This is not right” mode; when Andy came running into the office. He was thoroughly apologetic. “Sorry, the line was a little too long at Starbucks. As you are far away from home during the holidays, here is a gift card from us to say Happy Holidays to you”. Oh My Goodness! Wow! This happened at Plano Modern Dentistry, in Plano, Texas on Dec 19, 2018. From the moment I called, they surprised me and continued it all through the experience. And finally running in with the gift card, was the final piece, that put me in a “must share” moment. Thank you, Plano Modern Dentistry Team; you are the best. Questions For You To Get To Assured WOM How do you make your customers feel… Surprised soon after walking in More joy as they continue Specific feelings that trigger WOM How do you react to WOM from your customers? What are you plans and measures for the above?  ...

Every customer, every day walks into your store with anticipation. Everything you do or don’t do impacts your customers’ feelings and all the feelings blend to influence the customer’s relationship with your brand. Hence it is the Customer Feelings that defines your success. THE FIRST FEELING SETS THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE: What is the first feeling your customers have in your store? This is a momentum builder. A positive first feeling creates a positive halo that will go through the rest of the experience and make them feel that they made the right decision to visit. A negative first feeling can start lead to doubt if they made the right choice. Difference Between Feelings & Experience Elements Experience elements = Operator’s check list. You must add a “will do what it takes attitude” that will result in that feeling in every guest every time. An Example: Can A Glass Of Water Make Or Break An Experience I walked into one of my client’s office and Emily at the front desk greeted me with a big smile. She asked me: “Arjun, may I get you a glass of water?” I paused for a second, and realized it was a special moment as not everyday someone offers me a glass of water. My eyes lit up as I said “Yes, I would love a glass of water.” The next second, Emily politely stated, “There is a fridge behind you. Feel free to get a bottle from there.” Ouch. What just happened. My anticipation was killed. I was trying my best to hide my disappointment as I opened the fridge to grab a bottle. I had no problems getting a bottle of water from the fridge. But once an anticipation of something special is set, any disappointment stays with us for the entire experience. That day when I walked into the CEO’s office a part me still held on to my disappointment over being promised and then denied a glass of water. Yes, it has been months and I still have not forgotten. 5 Questions For You To Create That Positive First Feeling What is it? Is it unique? Is it a brand separator? How consistently do you deliver it? Do you have plans to improve it?  ...

Over the years, I have seen that for most hospitality brands, especially restaurant chains, the guest experience drops the most at peak times.  In fact, for some brands, nearly half the customer dissatisfaction comes during peak times. WHY IS THIS THE CASE? Imagine your brand is designed to serve 100 customers at peak time. That means if 100 customers come in, each is likely to experience the brand at the 100% level. What happens if 110 guests come in? Then the 110 guests must share the experience and each get 10/11th of the experience; or 91% experience level. The worrisome part is, for the brand to operate at 91%, nearly half the guests may get below 91% experience level. Is that acceptable for guests?  Will the diluted experience make them want to come back? If 120 guests come in then the level drops to 83%. If 130 guests come in, then the level drops to 77%. WHAT MAKES THIS A VERY DIFFICULT PROBLEM TO ADDRESS? Hospitality brands I have studied, have the following: A lunch peak time between 45 to 70 minutes; and a dinner peak time between 60 to 90 minutes.  There could be other peak times during weekend or other periods. During peak time, transaction spikes to 2x to 4x the transaction levels before or after the peak. Unfortunately, we cannot hire partial labor and labor must be scheduled at 4 hours/team member or more. So how does one plan staffing to address this peak time? HOW DO BRANDS CURRENTLY ADDRESS THIS? Quite a few brands have a team member huddle before peak time to bond and have a huddle at the end of the peak time.  Does a huddle help? Or does the huddle remind the team that ‘we are heading into the peak time under-staffed and somehow need to get through it’. WHAT CAN YOU DO? Think of this challenge from a football example.  If you were a NFL coach then the peak time translates to a “two-minute drill”.  To be a successful coach you must realize the following: The “Two-minute drill” needs a completely different game plan compared to the rest of the game. The success of the “Two-minute drill” may determine if we win or lose the game. It is not just enough to have a different game plan for the “Two-minute drill” but one must practice it frequently. Hence, I strongly urge operators to have a game plan for peak-times.  Here are some thought starters: Change the labor model for the peak time.  Invest more in labor before the peak time (in prepping) and in serving guests during prep time. This is critical as you cannot afford to have dissatisfied guests. Free up management time. During the peak times to cheer the team members and assist them during the period. Have a total different operations system during the period.  Managers can work next to the team and give team members mini-beverage-breaks, being on the clock; giving them an opportunity to catch their breath. Focus on serving every guest one-guest-at-a-time. Instead of rushing to take care of all guests.  Because of this if there could a long line or a few guests may leave.  But that will be better than the guests leaving dissatisfied.  It is much more difficult to get a dissatisfied guest to come back than a guest who chose another brand because of the long lines; as the long lines is proof that the brand is a popular spot worth visiting another time. Huddle to celebrate. Finally, at the end of the peak time, a team huddle is a great idea.  But instead of it being just a “routine huddle”, managers should pause to thank the team and mention the “super play” of different team members or groups that resulted in the win. As you start thinking about creating your plan for “peak times”, just remember that “at times it is better to be inefficient by choice, to make sure that your brand experience does not get diluted.” Arjun Sen...

Dear All, The ZenMango blog is back.  Had to take time off to finish the book Marperations®, which is finally completed.  Also have been planning to blog in a way that will be more relevant today and have some cool ideas that will launch in the next month. As I restart the blog, I want to start with the basic fundamental element that defines and measures every businesses success.  Most businesses have numerous KPI's (Key Performance Indicators). They are trended and measured against benchmarks. But what is the one thing that is most critical to measure?   TRAFFIC DEFINES BUSINESS SUCCESS When I look at a brand’s success, it is all about transactions or traffic. That is the one number measure that is real. Think, even for a single store operator, success is defined by how many times they open the cash register and how much they put in every time. If they are opening the cash register fewer times every day, they should be worried right away.   WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TRAFFIC STARTS TO DECLINE I have seen that there is a lag between traffic starting to decline and the realization that “something is really wrong.” In many a case, when traffic starts to decline, there is a dial that marketers have easy access to, called “price.” Often they will increase price to offset the traffic decline. As a result sales remain flat and it appears there is no imminent danger or challenges to the brand. Now think from the consumers’ point of view, what is going on. Of course the brand is not operating at its best and because of that a group of customers are not coming back causing the traffic decline. The remaining customer groups, who are loyal through the tough times, are “taxed” with a price increase to maintain sales levels. The higher price may push a sizable group of the loyalists to stop coming in, and that will cause further decrease in traffic. At that point there is no price increase that will help sustain sales.   WHAT ACTIONS SHOULD YOU CONSIDER TO FIX  DECLINING TRANSACTIONS First and foremost detect it when it is in its early stage. Find where it is concentrated: if it is happening in a few specific markets, newer brands, or some other focused area. Once you have a clear idea where the problem is stemming from, the most important thing you can do is to decide what NOT to do. I always advise marketers to stop putting marketing dollars in a down market. The reason is very simple: putting money in a down market is similar to inviting customers to come and experience the brand when there are service challenges. You will create rejecters at a higher rate if you do so. So pause marketing, invest in learning why customers are not coming back, and fix that. Then, and only then, should you invest in marketing to ask customers to come back and experience the brand again.   [caption id="attachment_241" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Traffic Lifecycle[/caption] Again, I am excited to return to blogging and I thank you for reading the blog.  Please share with me how measuring traffic count has defined your business’s success. Arjun Sen...