Thursday is Get to Know Your Customers Day, which got us to thinking: Why one day a year? If the theory holds that customers like to know the owners/operators, like to feel as though they’re part of the family, shouldn’t this be a year-round occurrence? Wouldn’t it help to increase frequency of visit?

“But I have tons of regulars and we talk all the time. I’m on a first name basis with a lot of them.”

Before you make the above statement, stop and think about how many you actually know. You have somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 unique customers. How many are you friendly with? What percentage of your customers do you really know? Be honest now: you only really know the outgoing customers, don’t you?

Here are some tips to getting to know your customers better:

• Walk the tables and talk to them. “How was everything?” doesn’t count as a conversation. It’s a start, but only a start. Where were they before they came in (awards banquet, soccer practice, dentist, park, work – where do they work)? Time of day will tell you a lot, but start the conversation.
• Note: the first bullet will give you ideas as to where you should be doing your local store marketing. Get more customers who are just like your existing customers.
• Use social media (Facebook, Twitter) to give behind-the-scenes updates on the store and your staff (“new ice machine” or “Manager Bill is going to be a daddy!”).
• Ever have someone ask you to purchase an ad in a program for a school event? Ever buy tickets to that event and attend, or give them to employees for a job well done? You’d be surprised at how appreciative all of those influencers are of your support.
• Surprise guests with a little lagniappe (a “little something extra”). A koozie, coupon, or dessert at the table gets them thinking about their next visit before their current one is even finished. That’s where word of mouth comes from.
• Think of the amazing experiences (not just mediocre, or adequate) you’ve had at other restaurants, hotels, dry cleaners, or other retail places. What made it amazing? How can you replicate that feeling?

Marketing-wise, these tactics will build frequency, and create word of mouth which will bring in new customers. They’ll also open doors for catering, marketing events, and other influencers. Plus, it makes your job more fun. Beats cleaning toilets, eh?

Great article about decency as an ad medium.

Some things as this relates to your business:

• People want to buy from someone they know, like, and trust
• Love me, love my product
• Care about what your customers care about, they’ll care about you
• They’ll promote you if you support them

Everyone says that word of mouth is the best form of advertising, so how come we spend money on lesser forms? Why not spend the money on our product quality? On putting food into people’s mouths? On putting the words into our customers’ mouths so that they can spread them?

The sidelines of the local soccer field are the new mass media. Better get used to it.

A couple of examples of how to surely piss your customers off and guarantee that, if you do make it through the financial slump, you won’t have any customers left when you reach the other side.

Wachovia has apparently started taking payments for lines of credit (unsecured lines of credit), and presumably for credit cards, out of savings or checking accounts without customer approval. If the payment is late, they just reach in and help themselves. Hopefully that won’t mess your automatic payments up too badly.

Not sure I would allow those foxes to be in charge of my chickens.

Example number two: blaming the customer, calling them thieves, liars, or idiots, won’t win friends or influence people.

A local franchisee of a regional chain has posted signs that he will not accept BOGO coupons in his unit. Apparently the coups were distributed by another franchisee and a few of them have made their way south. Customers who try to redeem the coupons, which expired earlier this week, are confronted with angry counter staff.

When you turn away a coupon, you’re effectively telling the customer you think they’re either too stupid to read (wrong unit, expired coup) or you think they’re a cheat (‘you’re trying to pull a fast one on me!’).

You want to engender negative word of mouth, the easiest way is to call your customers cheating idiots.

Behold! The power of word of mouth!

I was watching Speed Racer with my little boy (the original series, not the movie) and one of the episodes made me chuckle.

Speed’s dad opened an auto repair store and business was slow. Speed came in with this advice: “Why don’t you give away the first repair for free? Then that person will tell of his friends how great you are, and what a good job you do. Then you’ll have so much business you won’t know what to do.”

His dad took him up on the advice and soon had so much Model T business he couldn’t handle it all. Got me to thinking about a couple of things:

- Doing something nice for someone usually creates a stronger relationship with customers than simply advertising.

- Especially for restaurant marketing, giving away a sample at an event (or better yet, giving someone a free sandwich/app/dessert so that they have to find your location) has always been a great way to show your product in action.

- This type of marketing was the norm back in the day. What makes you think it doesn’t work now? Because we’re more sophisticated and can reach 100,000 people in one message? Try that, let me know how it works for you.

- Word of mouth spreads faster in small groups (in this case, Model T owners – then do it for Corvette owners, then for Cadillac owners, and so on). Maybe the objective of your marketing should be to spread word of mouth, instead of create awareness.

- “But if I give it away, I’ll have too much business and people will be mad.” For the love of Pete, would you listen to yourself? First you don’t have enough business, then you have too much. Be smart about it and this is never a concern. If you can’t handle it, you should probably return to middle management.

- “But if I give it away, it will cheapen my product.” Hogwash. Plain and simple. $1 off and BOGO w/purchase of a drink cheapen your product. Give someone free food, or support their event with discounted catering, and chances are they’ll be grateful instead of taking you for granted.

All of this from a leisurely evening with my seven year old. Some things were just easier back in the day. You go, Speed Racer.

When customers have been WOWed they are more likely to express their delight (read: word of mouth).

They’re more likely to come back to your restaurant more often in the hopes of being WOWed again (hint: make the WOW special, it needs to be out of the ordinary, not expected).

They’re likely to bring friends with them (“I know the owner. He’s a great guy, you’ll love him.”).

And, over the course of a year or their lifetime (as a local resident or someone who works in the area), they’re likely to spend more money with you because they are loyal to you and you have a higher share of wallet.

WOW one person per day, you have 365 WOWed customers per year. Sadly, most of us are too busy managing from the back door to the front door to notice. We’re like prairie chickens, pecking in the dirt for scraps, instead of like eagles, flying overhead looking for opportunity.

So I ask you: Who have you WOWed today? Tell us at the restaurant marketing forum, The CommonMan Group.