Customer Communication

Customer Communication

If you've gone into the hospitality industry it's a pretty strong bet that you know how to 'talk the talk'! However, communicating your message to your customers effectively is a very different skill from just chatting about day to day stuff with the people using your services.

Communication should be a two way process that a) Helps you understand customer requirements and b) Convey how you can satisfy those customer needs.

The hospitality industry has many advantages over other businesses in that your customer base is very often on site. If you run a pub or a bar it is much easier for you to obtain peoples opinions than, say, a on line publishing company. Start by setting up something like a customer feedback form. Keep it short but relevant and make it easy for customers to fill in - leave them on tables, provide pens etc. You can also increase responses by offering an incentive for completing the form, a chance to win a monthly free meal, a bar tab, a free nights accommodation. These forms are also an excellent way of obtaining the starts of a customer database, so make sure you get names, addresses and e-mails, be sure to add a mail 'opt out' check box though - not everyone will want to get mail from you.

Another good way understanding customer requirements is to install a suggestions box. You'll probably get quite a few silly ideas like free beer but you'll be surprised how many good ideas come back as well. Just as BARventure helps provide a second pair of eyes, your customers can provide a third, fourth, fifth.....

Once you've got all this information and decided upon your idea you need to develop your marketing. To be effective, your marketing message should follow the principles of the AIDA acronym:

A - Awareness
I - Interest
D - Desire
A - Action

Whether a poster, an article or an advert your marketing should make your potential customers aware of what you are offering and stimulate an interest. The interest should be generated because you have listened to what you customers want by following the advice in the above paragraphs. If you've done your research well and provide a good service, product or offer you should have created a desire to want what you're offering and then the final stage is to motivate them to action that desire; by purchasing your product etc. Remember these principles with whatever you are promoting to your customers, ask yourself what your objective is, will it build awareness? Is it clear and memorable? Does it tell them how to action their interest, name of premises, phone number, opening times? Is it consistent with the rest of your marketing plan?

Research has shown that customers respond best to simple, clear repeated message. Make it too complicated and they will loose interest and your marketing will fail. Remember that other well known acronym: KISS - keep it simple, stupid!

Whatever your marketing activity its very important that you evaluate its success. Failure to do so is like throwing money away. You need to record what works and what didn't so that you can repeat successful ideas in the future and avoid ones that didn't work so well. Try to find a correlation between your marketing idea and your sales figures. Look for increases that you can attribute to your idea as well as asking for first hand feedback from your customers. Make sure you record all of this information, maybe in a diary so that you can look back on it in the future.

If your marketing activity incorporates a voucher or a return slip you can keep these and use them to quantify the responses you get. It can also be used to add to your customer database.

There are many ways of marketing other than adverts or posters and you should try different ideas depending on your target market and your ultimate marketing goals.

Try incorporating some of these:
Banners
Road Signs (Rural pubs, restaurants etc. Can often have road signs made and erected. Contacted your local council for more info.)
Menus & Wine Lists
Staff Uniforms
Direct Mail (Using your previous marketing database)
Newsletters
A Boards
Bar Displays
Websites
Internet Advertising (Try something like Google Adwords)
Chalkboards
Tasting Nights
Samples

Stick to these simple rules, be adaptive and don't run marketing 'just for the sake of it' or because you always have. Make sure its effective by evaluating responses and remember that the ultimate goal should be to increase your profitability!

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