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valuable… You want to make sure you take care of them, especially
in smaller towns and places like that. You really need to pay
attention to your regulars and your loyal customers. You’ve got
to protect them and almost be obsessed about it. I think a lot of
people get off track about that, and there are a lot of things we can
do to make sure we’re taking care of those people.

Nick:
Right. So for anybody listening or reading the transcript of the
interview, how do you go into somebody’s restaurant or bar and start
working with their team to focus on the customer experience? What
would your words of wisdom be to a restaurant owner right now to
say, “These are the steps you need to take, and here’s what you need
to do to provide the best customer experience. This is also how you
implant this into your servers’ brains.”?

Donald:
The first thing is we have to define: what is our service? I’m also a
big believer in the power of words. And I always like to say there’s
that there was a pattern and there were things that they did. And I a big distinction between service and hospitality. Service, to me, is
started studying NLP, Neuro-linguistic programming, and I started pretty much the mechanics: serve from the left, clear from the right.
using what they call modelling. I started using the same tools and It’s very much the mechanics, the technical skills, of service, and
techniques they did, I turned my restaurant around, and now I had those things can be pretty much taught by anybody. Anybody can
a system. I actually sold my first restaurant and opened up a bigger be taught to serve from the left, clear from the right, and all that
restaurant. But now, I had a really good, solid system. I used that to kind of stuff. But hospitality is the human connection, and that’s the
build my sales up to 2.2 million, and then I sold that. part where a lot of people miss. They think: I’m giving good service.
And you could have. You could have been on top of your table. You
Then I got recruited by Wolfgang Puck, and I worked for Wolf for could have cleared the plates. You could have refilled the water. If
five years helping him expand his catering and restaurant empire you don’t have that hospitality and human connection, … to compel
across the country. Then I decided to go into consulting for myself, them to come back, especially if the food is just so-so.
and so since 2005, I’ve been doing consulting. And I actually just
started doing the coaching stuff. I started offering coaching back in So the first thing I always do is you’ve got to define what is service
2009, and it’s been huge. It’s and hospitality, and what
been great, and people really is our standard. You’ve got
like the model. to have a standard. Most
To be successful you have restaurants I go into, I can

Nick: to be lucky, or a little mad, tell people right off the bat,
Awesome! So today’s topic, “If you want to have a better
again, is how to double or very talented, or find restaurant right now, today,
your loyal regulars without raise your standards.” You’ve
marketing. And the way this is yourself in a rapid growth got to have higher standards,
possible is by giving customers field. and you’ve got to have team
a great experience. Make them members that have standards
feel special and make them feel Edward de Bono just as high as yours, or even
welcomed, so they choose you higher. So the first thing you
over any other restaurant or bar. do – I call it a service cycle.
Before we jump into that, why What’s our standard for
don’t we talk about why our when a guest comes in the
loyal customers are so important to us and why it’s so important to door, how long do we have to greet them? When a guest sits at
focus on building the size of our loyal customers each and every day? the bar, how long, how many seconds or minutes, is the standard
for a bartender to at least acknowledge them? How long is the
Donald: standard to get a drink made? What’s the standard for when they
Marketing gets tougher and tougher every year. With more and sit at a table for a waiter or server to come over? What’s our timing
more restaurants opening, it seems like a lot of restaurants get a for appetizers? What’s our timing for entrees? If you don’t have
smaller piece of the pie... So the people that do come in, they’re standards, there’s nothing to hold people accountable to.

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