Improving performance: The sacrificial turkey

Do you have too many customers?

It never fails to amaze me that some businesses apparently have too many customers, and so they do their very best to encourage some to stop coming.

A friend gave me a gift card to a local restaurant about nine months ago. It’s a restaurant I used to frequent, but they played rock ’n’ roll music loudly. When they first opened, they would turn it down when we asked them, but they eventually became so prosperous, they couldn’t be bothered accommodating customers who actually wanted to hear each other.

So, I probably hadn’t been there since before COVID. I kept the gift card in a prominent place so I wouldn’t forget about it. I got sick of looking at it one day and went to the restaurant.

It was a Thursday at lunch, and I was amazed that the place was probably only 25% full. I sat at the snack bar, and there was only one other person there. The music wasn’t blaring like it used to; I wondered what was going on.

As I examined the menu, their prices seemed to have doubled from what I remembered. They had a picture of a delicious-looking turkey dinner, so I ordered it. When it arrived, I was amazed at how much there was until I started cutting into it. There were a couple of thin slices of turkey over a giant pile of stuffing. There was plenty of potatoes and corn, but not a whole lot of turkey. It was delicious, but I couldn’t help feeling I’d been had.

Now, everything started to make sense.

With all the inflation, their costs, like everybody else’s, must have gone up. So, they may have had little choice but to raise their prices, but did they have to raise them that much and overwhelm us with the cheaper foods while providing so little of what we really wanted?

This place used to have people waiting in line at lunch, even outside in the nice weather. It appears that I’m far from being the only one less than satisfied.

I don’t know for sure, but they probably wanted to maintain their profit margins. They probably raised their prices a bit and lost some customers. They realized they still weren’t making what they used to make, so they probably raised their prices again losing even more customers.

I don’t know how many times they may have done this, but I had never seen the place so empty before. If something isn’t working, why would they keep doing it?

Don’t they realize that their customers are also suffering from inflation? Do they think they can make more money selling expensive food to a few people than they could selling food less expensively to lots of people?

Margins are important, but so is volume.

Loading people with cheap carbs and little protein is another losing strategy. America has an obesity problem largely from what we put in the food supply. This combination is a definite non-starter for anyone watching their weight. They may sit quietly and eat their meal, but they’re probably not coming back.

In my case, rather than come back to use the rest of the gift card, I left a large tip for mediocre service, but they probably won’t see me again anytime soon.

Many religions espouse the ancient maxim, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” In addition to being religious and a great human thing to do, it’s also very lucrative business advice.

We can succeed only by giving customers what they want. That’s what this place was doing a few years ago when the place was full. Since their customers have to make sacrifices in tough times, is it just possible they could become far more successful making a few sacrifices themselves?

It doesn’t take a college degree to figure this out. Would my turkey dinner have been different if it was ordered by the owner or one of the managers, perhaps more turkey and fewer carbs? If so, why wouldn’t they know their customers want the same thing?

Back when they were crowded, they were known for providing great food and meals. It seems when that stopped, so did the crowds.

Ronald J. Bourque, a consultant and speaker from Salem, has had engagements throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He can be reached at 603-898-1871 or ronbourque3@gmail.com.