Posted by: Troy White
June 3, 2008
Issue #431

The Name Sucks –
Everything Else Was Incredible

Fellow Business Builder,

This past weekend, I spoke at a three-day small business conference in Canmore, Alberta.  A hop, skip and a jump from Calgary where I live, the 45-minute drives takes you into this incredible little mountain resort town called Canmore.

   

The host of the event took out the speakers for dinner on Friday night to this place she had been raving about.

The Trough is an eclectic upstart that has figured this service business out.  I realize last week I wrote about Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant lessons, but this weekend was a sign that the owner has maybe been watching some of the “Kitchen Nightmare” shows and learned a thing or three.

Considering they just opened last year, their two recent awards as one of the top 10 new restaurants in Canada shows how good of a start they got off to.

When you first walk in, it is nothing to oooh and ahhhh about – but that very quickly changes.

It’s unassuming as you enter (classy – but not over the top or trying too hard to be something it’s not) … and quite cozy on the inside (seating ~50 max).

The quirky guy who greeted us was the owner –
and he was a master at schmoozing. 

He remembered Cidnee’s name and treated her like a celebrity when we walked through the doors. (Seriously, people in the restaurant must have wondered who this lady was, with all the coddling going on.)

So we sit down and are handed these paper menus – again, unassuming and nothing to be impressed over.  The choices looking divine – but we didn’t have time to even look at the menu much before the free appetizer samplers started appearing at our tables.

The brochette – to die for.  The breading was not your typical slices - they looked like half a golf ball and were stuffed with the tastiest ingredients I had ever had in brochette.

NOW I was starting to see
what people loved about this place.

Then they brought the free ice wine samples for everyone – again, a very nice touch and very well chosen.

Next, another free pork wrapped appetizer that melted in your mouth … this was a very nice way to start our experience.

Then he educated us all about their incredible wine selection … and did he ever know his stuff.

Side note (and a lesson in itself):   He told us of the young Wine Master he gets his wines from in Calgary.  For $5,000, you can go to his wine store and he will reserve your own wine storage box.  Throughout the year, he will keep it stocked with his best wine choices that suit your tastes.  Anytime you want, you can come in and pick out as many of the bottles chosen for you.  He even has one customer with a $250,000 wine “box.” There is always someone out there looking for the best of the best and is willing to pay for it.

The menu was equally diverse, ranging from jerk carpaccio and chicken tikka to braised lamb shank with mashed peas. I personally had the tenderloin – yum.

Everything about the experience was top notch. 

From the food and wine selection, the appetizers (which we ordered nearly one of everything for the group), to the main course and dessert – every little detail was focused on the customer experience and getting us to tell others about this wonderful little find.

As we were wrapping up dessert (four and a half hours later) – Cidnee got the final surprise of the night … the bill for everything. 

Nice touch: On top of the bill for the night was a stack of business cards so we could all tell our friends and family (which I am gladly doing here).

When it was handed to her at first, she had a weird look on her face.  We all thought it was much higher than expected … not expecting it was the opposite.

Seriously, for an experience like this for eight people, it would usually be a fairly pricey dinner.

Not this time.

Cidnee looked puzzled that is was so low, even checking the bill to make sure that everything was added in. 

Imagine that … your customers thinking the experience was worth TWICE what it cost them …

Actually trying to find ways to pay you more!

Even with the mandatory 18% gratuity added in – the bill was a pleasant surprise.

We all left there happy, a little tipsy from the incredible wine, and raving about what we just experienced.

Now, I have thought a lot about this night as there were some incredible lessons here for every business:

• Work real hard at building word of mouth marketing systems.  Between the eight of us there, I would bet we each tell 50 people about the experience at The Trough – 400 people will know about it from one single dinner.
• Offering high end experiences is not about the flash, glitz or glamor.  This was very unassuming inside and out – it was everything in between that really mattered to us (the food, drinks and service was as good as it gets). Deliver top notch quality where it really matters.
• Personalized attention to each and every customer that walks through your door (or buys your products).
• Be odd.   Find something you can do to stand out from all the others they could be buying from.  In this case it was the owner.  He was very friendly, but seemed quite quirky in a number of ways – even the way he dressed was somewhat different.
• Give them samples and freebies.  Let people try out small samples of your most popular offerings … they WILL order more.
• The packaging and presentation of the actual product or service is critical – pay close attention to this.
• Just when they think you have already over-delivered – throw in another freebie or two (like the dessert samples we got).
• Build the experience up so they honestly think it was worth at least twice as much as what they paid.  I will always remember this place – and the look on Cidnee’s face when she realized how much lower it was than expected.
• Give them a GOOD story to tell others!  Like I said, this little dinner party of eight will undoubtedly tell 400 others.
• Always be thinking about how you can HELP THEM tell your story.  The stack of business cards was a simple little add-on I rarely see used.
• I didn’t like the name – it sounded like a buffet style restaurant – but everything else was exceptional.  If there would be one thing I would recommend they change, it’d be the name.  Then again, maybe that is why this restaurant is doing so well – it, again, is quite odd in a number of ways.
• Limit how many you can serve if you are delivering high-end experiences.
• Last, reward the people that help you deliver. Near the end of the night, the staff was getting a little antsy that we were still there, so the owner gave them each a single glass of their incredible ice wine (which sold for $10 a glass).  The staff was happy to enjoy their refreshments while we got ready to go.

Overall this was an experience to remember.  We will be back, and I will be telling lots of people about this experience. 

And I plan on implementing many of their ideas into my (completely unrelated) business.

Hope you do too.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Troy’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

–Napoleon Hill

Want to share or reprint this article? Feel free. Just give us full attribution and a link to our Home Page when you do.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

Related posts

• How to Write More Effective Technical Product Brochures
• The Heart of a Champion
• The 3 Most Common Blunders Even “A” Level Copywriters Make
• The Power of the Letter – In Copywriting and Life in General
• Ho, Ho, HO!

---

6 Comments »

1. Comment by Glen Kohlenberg — June 3, 2008 @ 2:33 pm

   This place sounds to good to be true Troy! You are right and it is tuff to find this level of service anywhere. I just fired my Books a Million book store that I have bought over 600 books from over the years because of not only bad service but with additude that came along with it. When I handed them my discount card and said I am now an Amazon client that could have cared less. I had to laugh going out the door.

2. Comment by Michael Zipursky — June 3, 2008 @ 2:46 pm

   Great post and analysis of this place. 

   Troy, your last sentence is key. It really is important that business owners look at this case and realize that almost all of the principles (if not all) from this restaurant can be applied to any kind of business, regardless of the industry.

   Thanks again Troy.

   Michael Zipursky
   Profitable Relations

3. Comment by Michael Roach — June 3, 2008 @ 3:14 pm

   Hey Troy,

   Those pictures are in Canmore, not Cochrane.

   Thanks for sharing your review. I’ll have to check that restaurant out next time I’m there… I’ll see if the experience is similar!

4. Comment by James MacGillivray — June 3, 2008 @ 8:21 pm

   Absolutley awesome Troy!

   I used to give away free fluffy’s(frothed milk) to all the children that came into my cafe in Auckland(New Zealand), but I had my barista design a police car on the froth for the boys and a ballerina for the girls.

   Being a parent, like you, I knew that the parents would take their children to the place that gave them the best experience … once you have the child, you’ve got Mum and Dad buying food and drinks aswell. Needless to say my cafe turnover grew over 60% in 4 months.

   If only I had known then about some of those other ideas you shared today about the ‘Trough’.

   Once again - thank you for sharing these ideas. They are easily worth tens of thousands of dollars.

    James MacGillivray

5. Comment by John C. A. Manley — June 3, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

   Troy,

   I can see your marketing antennae never rests.

   I’m been finding more and more that there’s more money in charging less and attracting more.

   I often tell clients to sell their ebooks at lower prices. Sure they can sell it at $47. But for a lead generator, I’d rather sell it $17, end up twice as many customers, which means twice as many repeat sales, and twice as many happy people wanting to spread the word.

   When the sale price is too high, the customer is always judging the product/service severely. If it’s plainly obvious they got a great deal, then their eager tell others.

   Of course, the viral effect is so hard to track. You almost have to have an organic sense of whether it’s happening or not.   

6. Trackback by Catherine — June 27, 2008 @ 1:46 am

   Catherine…

   All I can say is WOW! Extremely nice layouts, awesome graphics and great articles. No matter how many times I come here, I am still impressed by the very professional appearance. Congratulations on a job well done….