#69 : The 5% Fix: Ewan Thompson on Unlocking Six Figures in Guest Loyalty

And I went to work with, um, uh, a, a guy in my hometown and he ran a restaurant and I just fell in love with it then. And, um, I've kind of never looked back since, really? But, uh, yeah, it's right in my blood from, from like, really, you know, where we go 30, 30 odd years.

You fall out your makeup, you fall out your makeup, someone absolutely screws something up. You hide it, you make. It's all that, it's, it's like really all that. And I miss, miss those bits. But, you know, um, I suppose the other thing as well is the, the guest, it's always been about the guest. Surprising the guest, you know, doing the things that, where you get a reaction. That's just that, that's, that's just giving me a buzz for years. And, uh, and I kind of take that into this day.

Really nice.

So it's really about phenomenal guest experience and emotional connections with guests and, you know, make, allowing restaurants to understand that, you know, they've got a real challenge in retaining guests already in their business while they. I constantly go out looking for new, acquire new guests. So that's what we do. That's what we do now. That's what I do now it, I started the company in the wake of COVID. Um, okay. And it was.

All about profitability, sales maximization, labor efficiency, all that, you know, operational excellence, people development and management. And it, and it really still is. Um, you know, and those things really do make a difference. And, you know, some people you can help exponentially and some people, you know, no one's perfect, but there's never not a return on investment on.

I kept coming back to the same thing and got re obsessed with cement from that I've had for 25, 30 years, and that's guest retention and, and how we can look after guests and all those things that I was doing in profitability, in margin work, in labor efficiency. You know, the numbers kept, I kept looking at these numbers of how many guests are actually coming back. Fixes all those problems if you get more guests who already use your business to come back.

And when you start drilling down on the numbers and you know, and it's, and I do all the time, and, uh, it's frightening that you think you are running this restaurant. You think you're seeing regulars, and of course you are because perhaps the same, but it's the same few people you'll see time and time again. 95% of them and I see are not coming back, and it's about that. People in this, every business outside hospitality will have a pipeline.

It's a pipeline of sales and revenue that's coming in and in hospitality, we don't have it. We don't see it, and we've got it in our, you know, everybody now has an electronic reservation system. You know, they've got it in their, in their buildings. And a, you know, if you are running a restaurant. Hundred percent of your revenues coming through this machine. Yeah. And it's about unpicking the data out of there and looking at it in a way going, holy god, these people aren't coming back. What?

Why are these people coming back? And, and working it through as like, as a, as thinking it. Yeah. Thinking it as a, as a business, a pipeline. How can we influence the top of this pipeline right down to the people who are coming back, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 times a year? Plus, you know, you go out of a regular who's in every week, you know, that's the holy grail. Yeah. Really. So, yeah. Um, yeah. So that's what we do. I,

Um. When you start to look at, you know, people's feeling and perception of value, like, is that chicken dish overpriced? And that's why like chicken is everything in so many markets, right? But yet only a few people order it. Are we overpriced? Is it not that good? But it's, it's just all those little data points. Um, I I, that's the first thing, right? Like I just, I love that like you can see this huge set of data and nowadays it's like, it's all there.

Everybody, everybody's creating these sets of data, and I think that more slowly, ever so slowly, the, the hospitality industry as a whole, the restaurants and and whatnot are finding, like they're finding that data and it's been there for a long time, but it's like there's so few that are truly utilizing what they have in front of the.

And, and you know, you talked a minute ago about, um, about what you do in terms of like a chicken dish and profitability and, and, and you know, perhaps how that dish is plated up and the margin work on that. You know, and I look at that going, how's that? How is that emotionally making that guest feel? Are they, are they just not gonna say something or are they gonna go, that's really, you know, are they just gonna, you know, probably eat it. Go. That was lovely. Don't come back.

You know, that was, you know, how do we find out as an operator how that, you know, what can we do in service to make sure that it isn't, how go, how's everything with your food, guys? You know it, that is the worst question ever. It just, yeah, it's okay. You know, that's the, you know, we need to find, how's your chicken? Is that, is that how you wanted it? You know, it's just those changing, like little steps like that make a huge, huge difference and you, and, and are very scalable.

And it's just how we look at, you know, how we look at a service, um, from a guest experience point of view. As opposed to a are we just, do we wanna, do we actually wanna know the answer? Do we wanna know the answer to the question? And, and ultimately that's what I do. We just weaponize it and we just put it into a, you know, to a scalable point, and we push back and we question the entire guest journey. So the guest journey isn't when they walk through the door, it's how do they find you?

How do they book? How did that experience go? How did they. 2003. I'm just thinking of the, I think 2004. Yeah, 2003 open. So open. Don't anyone else around. We were on paper reservation, um, you know, paper reservations. We were in a busy restaurant. We had three people answering the phones, you know, throughout the day. It was just manic ring reservations. That created a, a customer journey.

So how that person was on the phone created emotional connection because you could differentiate yourself to anybody else that they phoned off. So you have this like already this connection nowadays. I mean, I do the, I run the analysis. It's, you know, depending on where you are in the, in the uk, but it's gonna be the same worldwide, really. Probably about. You know, somewhere between 80 and 90% are booking online. And, and so you are losing that. That's, that's one connection you are losing.

So how do you make that experience phenomenal? How do you make it easy for them to, to do what they, they want? Do you know the Amazon effect? You know, sometimes you order off Amazon so quickly you realize you use the wrong bloody card and you know, but it'd be late. That's what, that's what restaurant, that's what booking a restaurant should be.

Even if, you know, sometimes you take credit card details off people and it's, you know, so you've gotta go, you know, we do that in the uk, you know, to hold the reservations, but how to make that so easy. And then also how to cancel it really easily. How is this experience, you know, because people, you know, how do we make that really easy? Rather than they've gotta call the restaurant, they've gotta go through 20 hoops to do that.

We, you know, it's everything make, you know, it needs to be primed to think, God, God, they're really good. They're really good and I dunno why, but they're just really good. Yeah. And then you can take that guest journey, you know, and we, and we look, everyone's a bit different. Everyone's got different, you, you know, resources and labor resources. They can sort of, you know, host and reception managers or not, or they just owner operated.

But how can I make that guest experience like even better, you know? And, and that's not about boiling the ocean. We're not trying to, I can't say to a restaurant. We're gonna hit everybody who comes through the door and what you need, you know, you don't need that. You know, I've, I, I look at the numbers in guest retention and 5% we're talking one or two bookings. Retaining guests is, is six figure numbers, you know, a day. It's not, it's, it just compounds and compounds.

When you, when you get this pipeline kind of really focused on, you know, turning this one time visits to two. You know, I mean, it's like you, you know, you can see it, you can already think you, you know, because they come back two times, three times, four times, because 95% of them are only coming once. So let's get 'em in this, in this process. But, you know, you can, you can, you, you know, the get that, that, that, that guest journey is so influenced at so many stages.

And now imagine I sent you a imagine, I, you know, your first time in my restaurant. And I sent you a text and go, hi Simon, it's Wan, um, we've got the best table for you tonight outta the blue. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. I'm gonna be on shift. So I've sent that to you. Fact, what a point of difference, Alice. Just, something's so simple. It's free, it's completely, and we do that for, you know, we, we, we do something different for somebody else. It's like, do you know? Hi Simon.

You know, there's, uh, there's this event going on in, in, uh, in Seattle tonight. Do you know about it? I see you are not from, I see your book from somewhere else, but, but after your dinner, you know, there's, uh, there's this going on. Have you thought about it? It's free, it's nothing. It's just, and there's hundreds of those that you can do that. Yeah. You have to everybody.

It's just like, that is a point of difference to me and my emotional connection with you starts and I haven't even walked in your restaurant. I love that. Make sense?

Um, I think that for me, like from being the guy in the back of the house and it's really about like producing the same food over and over and over, I don't think that for a lot of my career I ever really thought about the full guest journey. But now it's just, yeah. It's, it's so fascinating to, to say. How many touch points are there in that guest journey, and what does that look like? Right? Uh, what is it? Um, Airbnb, they talk about like, what is a 10, like five star is the standard, right?

Like that's the big end of the scale. We're gonna create a five star experience. Well, they start talking about what is a, what is a 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 9, 10 star experience, right? And they, they kind of scale it up to be like, these are all the things that you could expect from an eight star experience from us that are, that really are the, become those point, those differentiating points. So I think that. I, I love that out, sort of outside thinking right to, to an inside problem, you know?

Yeah. Like it's, it's, it's as, it's as old as time, right? Like, how do I get more people to come and Yeah. For a lot of folks, it's. It's, oh, I'm gonna give them good food, great food, great service. And I think that, that for me is, you know, the, the term in poker, right? That's table stakes. Like, that's the beginning. You know, so finding all these other ways to really influence and, and I think as you said. Connect emotionally with the guest. Those,

And when you look at the numbers in that, you know, when I talk about sort of like say your let's, let's give it an actual kind of financial, say you've got you running a, a, say a 1.5 million, so that's a $2 million restaurant, you know, so what's that? 40, $40,000 a week? Something like that might be. Bookings. So not covers, but individual bookings. 10,000 are, you know. So how many of them do you think are coming back Twice?

I'm telling you it's somewhere between five, 600 are coming back for a second visit outta 10,000. Yeah, so, so that's where you are losing 95%. So yeah. So when we talk about getting new guests in, we are on this constant treadmill. Of, of, you know, maintaining a status quo while food inflation goes up, labor prices go up, you know, all these things are going up and you are trying to stay, you know, with your head above water by, by getting your new guests.

But you, you've either gotta do two things, get more new guests in, or put your prices up, and I don't think we can put our prices up anymore globally. I think everybody's done that. I mean, it's. In the UK today, they're talking about food inflation going up again this month. You know, I mean, I, I can't remember a month where it didn't, you know, it's been, it's absolutely, it's absolutely insane. So, so to, to maintain this position, we've gotta get new people and new people in.

And what I'm saying is you do not, you do, you keep doing that, keep doing that as a, obviously that's what your model. Let's just then keep doing that while we focus on the, you know, the 95% or 90% who are walking out the back door who aren't coming back. And we've done nothing about it, apart from send them a, a 30 day re-engagement email, um, to an experience that we didn't attach any emotional kind of connection to in the first right. So, good service, good food, good drink is.

The platform that allows you to emotionally connect with your guest, but it doesn't facilitate that return. You need to add someone else to that. And you need to make someone actually, you know, be top of mind when they go. Next time, where are we going? Oh, we've got 30 places, 20 places, 10 places in our head. We've got this place in head because I actually know, I know Simon, uh, I met the, you know, they really did this, they did this for me.

They got, he, he sent me a text message afterwards. He, he gave me like a, a perceived way of like booking by just messaging or something, you know, just something, whatever that is, that emotionally connected me to that restaurant. Um, and as you say, it is not a new concept. It is not a new, it is not a new thing. It's just a, you know, sometimes I think we just, with all this kind of brands and reopenings and everything. Actually, what are we here for? Why, why are we open? What we do?

We here for the rest. Why are we here? We to look after people? Let's just fucking do that really, really well. Um, and yeah, that's, that's, that's it.

Um, you know, I, I definitely look at execution in the restaurants and, and like you and I are really saying the same thing. It's like food and beverage is a food or food and beverage and service there. The very basic operating things. And so, so many times we think that that's gonna be the thing, right? Yeah. And I, I, I, I, there's so many other pieces that, that have to be, like, cranked up just a bit, you know?

And, and I, I just like, I like the fact that you're taking a look at the things that a lot of folks aren't, right? Yeah. I think that's such a valuable piece.

Now, actually, so there's those four, four things and, and there's a say we, like, we've always done that. We've, we all know that we want more guests. We all hear the things about guest retention and, you know, and 5%. You know, increasing retention can lead to problems of 25 to 95%. Thank you. Harvard Business School. You know, we all, you know, we all know these are the right things to do, right? But, but it deemed too hard almost. Or we think, how do we do it?

So how do we look at the numbers and how do we do that? And sometimes, you know, imagine needing, imagine we didn't have the numbers. Imagine we didn't have the reservations. It was all on paper. We didn't want contact anybody. You could still do something. Like to make the, to make this work without the numbers. The numbers just drive the accountability. They just, they just put it front and center. But it's what we've always done at the heart of a, of, of a restaurant operator.

When you really care, how do we really look after that person? But then how, you know, but how do we then make that scalable? It isn't reinventing certain things or reinventing it. What it is doing is, is making it into a process and a system, um, so that we can kind of week in, week out, make it a business as usual practice.

But, um, but yeah, it's uh, certainly, it's certainly, I see these KPIs and I go, all of them, all of those KPIs get better a lot better very quickly when more people are coming back in. Because more people, the people coming back in and these are numbers before we've even done anything. So you look at that pipeline again, the second visit, third visit, fourth visit. They are average spending between 18 and 25% more before we've done anything.

So people coming back into your restaurant, who are who? Well, the people who aren't coming first time when they do come back. They're, they're, they're more comfortable. They know the menu, they know the people a little bit. They spend more naturally. So all this driving, how do we get our spend head up? How do we get our spend head up? You know, how do we sell there? How do we do that? You know, you know, someone wants a bottle of Prosecco, so we're trying to sell 'em a bottle of crystal.

You know, how do we just like, you know, it's horrible service in it Organically goes up by getting a second visit, a third visit. So that solves that. You know, your margins get better, your labor percentages get better. It's easy to serve those people, and we don't have to move the dial that much. We don't have to move it that much. We not talking about like 50, you know, percent growth in this area.

We talk, we're talking about 5% n of the dial compounds through those second time, third time, fifth time. How much better is it to serve somebody when you know them, when you got, how much easier is it? How much do they enjoy it? More? How much then you can play? So, yeah, it's, it's it with our teams that we don't just kind of celebrate these movements when we're tracking it. We celebrate it with the guests as well.

If we can, you know, without it being weird, you know, that, that they've come back, this is the third time back in. It's like, really go to fucking town on those guys. 'cause, 'cause, uh, three visits in a year, they are right for four, five or six. Come back to already three times then. By the other way, another thing they do is they bring back more people. So, so they start off, you know, first time DERs. I looked at a restaurant today, 3.2. Second, 2, 3, 4. They're at 3.7 15% increase.

They haven't even done anything yet. So naturally people who are, who already liked you first time, you didn't engineer that return, but they're coming back already, are already bringing about 15% more. Yeah. In the, in the covers people, people love to share something that they feel is special. That's the thing. That's the thing. That's the thing about the market. So one of the other myths is like, this is a marketing problem. Guest retention is a marketing problem. Massive, massive myth.

Yeah. Marketing and operations historically for, you know, I can go about years of, of being like battling with each other. If you're in a big company, potentially it's like marketing. Do this job operations, screw it up. Put this menu in operations Screw Don't Change because what, what operations need to do is facilitate. And this personalization profiling you, you, you know, understanding who the guests are, this kind of your ideal guest avatar, where they live, the local locality.

You know, this should support the next, the, the post visit where you can reach out to them with personalization and, you know, understand who you are. And I, I, I was talking to a guy. Last week who works for Amazon, um, in the uk, works for Amazon. Quite a, quite a high profile job with them. And he was out at a Wellknown restaurant group and they're pretty good.

And he said, he goes, these are really, he was telling me they have meetings there once a month and he goes back in there and the restaurant, he sits down in the restaurant and they go, um. Ah, uh, Mr. Thompson, um, your, you, you have the, the, the nine ounce sirloin cooked this with this sauce last time. Is that what you wanted? And he goes, that's amazing. And uh, and I go, that's good. Amazing. Is, uh, hi Mr. Thompson. How's Francesca? How's Annabel? Hey, you know, how's my daughter?

How's my wife? How's it, you know? That's amazing. Yeah. That might make me go, that's shit. You know, that, and, and it's the same process, but it's just, you know, it's just about positioning. Pushing back. What does good look? That's good to them. And that's what this, this is what I do, you know, with, with, um, with operators is, is they've got a thing, they've got a platform, they've got a reservation. If they've got whatever they're doing, I push back. Can we do it better?

Can we do it better? Can we do it? Can, is that good enough? Can we do that better? Can we do that better? And it's just, that's what, you just go through that kind of process with people and it's amazing what happens when. You know, we, we, one of the steps that, like the framework steps that we have is, um, it's no grow echo with this. So no is about, is about diagnosing the gaps, understanding the guest, defining the upside, building the plan.

But that's a real, really inward looking at what you are doing in terms of guest retention. And what comes outta that is like, is when they, when I get, you know, when I work with. And get to really inwardly, inwardly look at what they're doing and their people. So it's not just about the guests there, it's about the people. Um, it's about their, you know, perhaps their platform set as well.

But yes, and also about the guests that it's like, it's amazing what, what else you fix while you are doing this, you know, in terms of development and engagement and actual managers who, who are like on the fence about their job going, oh shit, we got so. And we've got this common goal. And, and by the way, it's, uh, as a byproduct, it's developing you into a serious professional restaurant manager.

You know, and before it was about compliance and this and all tick boxes stuff, but, but this is like, you could take this anywhere, you know, because this is looking after guests. This is like, this is like top, top, quality restaurant management, professional restaurant management, in whatever situation you are. Don't get me wrong on this as well. You don't have to be a, the Ritz or Highend, you know, or anything like that.

Some of the greatest experiences are when the guy surprises you and it's five, you know, you that end someone does something. That is for, you know, that to me is like, that's the absolute goal when that happens.

He addresses me by name. By the time I like to sit on the far back, spot away from the door, I don't really wanna be talked to when I'm sitting at the bar. And so I walk all the way and by the time I'm all the way back there, he's got a glass of water, he's got my beer, he's got my whiskey. And then he goes around to the other side of the bar and he grabs the newspaper and it, the newspaper is there.

And by the time I've sat down, he's delivering that newspaper and when we talk earlier, we were talking about the basics. It's like the fundamentals of great customer management are, have always been there, but we've forgotten so much about that. I haven't seen a bartender do that in so many years, man.

Yeah. Like, it just, it makes me go, oh, where, where, how do we, he does that, how do we go back and teach that from the operations level right before we You ever get to like the data, right, because it's the fundamentals, you know, it's, it's. It is the cook who looks at the ticket that comes up and it says Mr. Thompson on it. And you know that Mr. Thompson likes his steak. So rare. It's still mooing, right? Yeah. It's that, it's it's taking the time to, to remember the

You know, where would you like to sit? Just where would you like to sit? I know, you know, it's three o'clock in the afternoon. You're not coming, no one else is coming in. Where would you like to sit? And I pick my favorite table. And on that reservation platform, they can put, he picked that table. That's his favorite table. You know, that is a really simple thing to start with you when you, that's the simplest right.

People, uh, operators, you know, want a quick fix, jump to tactics, and they, and they jump to tactics very quickly and it's generally marketing stuff. And maybe a better service criteria, but, um, it is, yeah, it's so important that, that we understand what is happening our, in our businesses. And that's, you know, that, that's first and foremost. But I think I'll give you two, I'll give you two, um, one's.

You'll, you should, or, or most people do have some kind of order of service or service criteria in their restaurants. We are gonna hit X, Y, and Z. Yeah. We are gonna, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna set a table either x amount of time, we're gonna serve it. This, that, in this sort of time. Time, and it's all transactional time. That doesn't need to change. You can still do your steps, but you've gotta transform it into emotional intelligence.

So I, I put this into, into four stages within your service criteria. It's welcome. So create this sense of belonging. Like guests when they come in are like, people are nervous about coming, especially if you're busy restaurant. They're not like, they might pretend to be like, fine about it, but we wanna make people feel as easy, easy as possible when they come into your restaurant.

That could be done well before they come in, as we talked about, you know, but, but, but, but that, but top tip by somebody who's gonna be there on the night that you are coming in. So that might be a host if you kind of. You and I'm gonna can't wait to see you tomorrow or on Tuesday or whatever it is. Um, uh, we've got a really good table for you. I'll see you at the front door. I'm gonna be there, or something like that.

And then that, so that welcome suddenly is an extension of, you know, not just coming through the door. It's like, it happened like two days ago. And then I recognize that person. How good do I feel when I come in there? They recognize me. You know, I mean, you're getting really shit hot. Then if you kind of social media. But you can get to that end n degree on this if you want to.

But, but, so that welcome is, you know, people talk, put a welcome in a service criteria, and it's like smiled and we sat you down and maybe we asked where, where you wanna start, something like that. But that is not that, that's, that's a, a welcome or as a. Welcome. Well, you know what I mean? It's not there, so that's good. The next thing is, you know, from, you know, from within this emotional journey, is, is, is guide. I call it guide.

So this is about, um, great, if you're gonna segment, if you can segment your guests. That's a really good thing to do. So you might have first time in infrequent diners, you might have second visitors if you can tag them on a, onto a reservation system. So, so you know, and then more frequent users and then like, it might be like bronze, silver, gold, platinum, or whatever you wanna, whatever you wanna call it. But there's a little bit of work involved in doing that. But everyone can do that.

But then you change your service a little bit to guide, to guide people. So first time in diet, first time diet. I'm gonna talk 'em through the menu. I'm gonna give them the provenance of the, of the, you know, the restaurant. I'm gonna tell 'em what I like and what they, you know, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna sell to them. I'm not gonna sell anything to them. I'm gonna show them, you know? Right. That's a, that's a, that's an emotional connection.

And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a point of not trying to, you know, this, this is why spend Head is a metric is, is a, is a little bit of a, you know, dicey one. Just driving spend head means pushy sales and it means trying to get someone to, you know, rewarding, pushy sales is very damaging to guest retention. You know, 'cause some people don't do it very well, but guiding someone.

But let's understand you on your first visit, you know, all my entire agenda here is about bringing you back into the restaurant.

It's about showing you what we do give, showing you the offer, showing you the menu, you know, allowing you to pick, giving you, making you look good in front of other people by not, you know, by not trying to, you know, talk about a wine that no one's ever heard about or like, or, or correcting your pronunciation because you couldn't say the, the long word or whatever. It's, it's about, it's about preempting that so you feel good. In front people and everyone, and that adjusting.

Someone's come in once or twice to somebody who's come in three or four. They need a different level of service. And if I could say to you on, on my pre-shift, you know, you've got four tables, two of them are bronze, three of them are silver. This is what we're gonna do, you know, this is what you do. You know, it's, it's there. It's like, it's like we're gonna adjust it slightly and, uh, more safe for the bronze and the guidance stuff up front.

Uh, and it also allows your service criteria to be adapted a. You know, we regimented, don't. He don't, he don't care. He knows, he knows he's all doing that, that and that, and that, that we don't care any of it. So it just kind of, you know, empowers the team a little bit more. Um, and then

I mean, we've got, because it is just, you know what I mean? It's one of those things where you are, you are preempting those guys as much as you can do, but it's, yeah, you've got, you get that with, you know, you're gonna get that with confidence, aren't you, with knowing somebody. And it's like, like I was saying, if you know people that coming to the restaurant, how much easier is that? So, yeah. So, so guide is that sort of section then personalize.

Um, and this is, this is about profiling and or setting up being able to profile. So like we talked about before. It's that, um, how to make each experience feel uniquely tailored. That's, that's the best way to put it there. So, um, and, and I can't, I can't necessarily do that with a first time diner with someone's coming, but, but I could set it up for the next time really well. I can have a manager talk to that table and I could have reached out to them potentially.

So I'm not talking about you got a hundred covers. I'm not talking about reaching out to a hundred bookings at night. I'm not talking about reaching out to a hundred cover hundred bookings. It's like you might pick five or six that you do it and you follow this process because we're all talking about is 5%. Remember? To get six figure returns components. So, so you want people perhaps on locality, so you're not a tourist, so you are gonna, you can get 'em back.

So you need to find out this information. Um, and it might be that, you know, the person that reached out to them, hands over the manager to them and say, oh, this is, this is, you know, Steve, our manager, um, uh, just wanted to introduce you. You know, they've got a connection. Then they're back at the table, they're leaving a. If when you book again, just, just, just message me, I'll put it in for you.

Now that, that doesn't have to be a, that doesn't have to be a, you know, his own phone number. That could be a, a cell phone or mobile phone number that's, that's assigned to the restaurant or whatever. It's, make it feel personalized. I, that's work for anybody. The point is the emotional connections are have Oh, that'll

You know, can we, that's how I was running a restaurant, you know, it's like, call, yeah, just message me. Just message me. And then you'd know, you'd leave perhaps your busiest nights of the week. You know, you'd have two tables because you know, somebody who was a massive regular was gonna message your last minute and you're gonna be able to get 'em in.

And you know, that's the kind of mentality of the thought process that, you know, that that sort of inspires this, these sort of conversations. Yeah. It's just doing, it's just doing what, you know, what, what a phenomenal kind of experience would look like to, to a manager trying to, you know, look after these regulars. So yeah, that's, and what does six stars look like, right? Yeah, totally. And the, and the last thing is this is kind of like, appreciate is like the foresight.

So welcome, guide, personalized, appreciate, and appreciate is leaving this lasting impression. A last impression is not a goodbye. It starts at main course. It starts at main course down. That impression is from when that main course goes down all the way till when they leave. It, it is not like a, a friendly goodbye and everyone, you know, a couple of people say goodbye. It's like, it's that emotional connection there.

It's making sure that everything's absolutely spot on and actually caring about that. It's perhaps a little, you know, you might have a toolkit in the restaurant that you use like a. Wine or a little food taster or something like that. Perhaps using on that table or, you know, something, something that you, you know, you thought, you thought you thought through, and it's having a conversation so personal that that, that perhaps you can then use in a communication later on.

And I don't mean that being creepy. I mean just, you know, I hope you enjoyed the show after, I hope you enjoyed gonna see that, you know, whatever they were gonna do or whatever, perhaps football team or, you know, they were visiting their family or whatever that was. It's just something you can say, hope that went well. Um, you know, you know, great to see you. You know, and, and that's the, that's the follow up with them. And then that makes that, you know, that.

You know, perhaps out your system. Suddenly then they look at that or the 60 day one, it's like, are they really, they cared. You know, suddenly that means something, doesn't it? And you, and actually you can get really serious. You can adapt those kind of. I'm sure AI will be able to really like systemize that at some point as well, where it takes your reservation data at some point and it puts it into your, your marketing and that's gonna be happening soon, but you don't need to do that.

But did all that make sense that, uh, that's, that's six, that's it totally makes sense to me.

It, it really reinforces to me how this can be a very basic part of your, uh, of a restaurant strategy to continue to build their sales and to, to grow their business. Right. It is, it is. The basics just kind turned up a notch, right? Yeah. It's, it's so much of the fundamentals of hospitality, but really take into a, you said it earlier too. Um. It's almost the weaponization of great questions. Using those questions to really hone in on, on amplifying touch points. Yeah.

And I'm not talking about necessarily working with me, I'm talking about working with your own teams, you know, to, you know, but, but just understanding where, what good looks like, what you are doing now and where you want to get to and how we gonna get there. You know, that's not a one person job in any anyway. You could do it, but, but it's, it's, you gotta get everybody involved. And, and, and that's where it's like.

And I've got a really neat conversation to have with 'em tomorrow. I guarantee you, you know, just starting to reformulate a little bit of what we've been talking about, but I think it's like, let's map that. Like start with what are the touch points in your standard journey? 'cause it's, there aren't reservations in this place, right? Yeah. Um, but that doesn't mean that there's really any less data because. It's there. Yeah. Know from the credit cards

And as you say, you can track things these days, like credit cards and you know that, that kind of spend to see guess frequency. So there are other ways, but. But there's, there's also a whole world out there that doesn't involve the numbers, that just amplifies and makes the business better. So, yeah, don't, don't, I mean, from a day-today

Yeah, the, obviously the server and the service team, they are, you know, the absolutely Inspira, you know, and they're, you know, they're a really important role to obviously to get that right and have that relationship and, you know, but a manager has, has, has so much impact. You know, people wanna know the manager.

People want to, you know, be connected to the manager and if the managers like can get involved at a level that, that emotional, that's gonna be, that's gonna be another level powerful, you know, to the server. So, um, so yeah, it's important that they know as well. So the connection that I find, depending on the size of the business is that. Is that the above site manager? How are they commun, how are they drilling this down with their team?

And then how the general manager kind of filters it in. But listen, that's, that's a bigger business. Not everyone's got above site managers and all that. It's it. It might just be three of you working in a bar. How can we make this, how can we make this like this experience quite better? You know, you can just, yeah. It's fun, isn't it? It's fun. Even talking about it, it's even better doing it. Absolutely. It's even better. It's even better seeing the results of it.

Like that's gotta compound because you have so many guests coming in. If you just change the number of repeats, that's phenomenal. I love it. Yeah. But such, such a small amount

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