Are you too confusing for your customers? (Food for thought)

Here’s a little story which perhaps will explain what customers may perhaps feel if you don’t clearly explain what you’re about, give clear and obvious options, and show them how to do business with you.

So. Rebecca and I recently went up to a business conference in London.

At lunchtime, we had to decide what restaurant to go to for our lunch (that’s a story for another Friday!).

We went with Jimmy’s. I’d heard good things about it.

Our first problem was that once we’d committed, Rebecca realised it was a buffet restaurant and was horrified…

Apparently it goes against everything she stands for and was scared about sleeve fluff falling into the silver serving trays (think they’re called chafers?).

Anyway… we were told by the waitress to go and take a seat. That was it. No other instruction at all. And we’d never been there before.

So we gathered from looking that we were to go and help ourselves.

We ended up very confused. We spent at least 15 minutes walking around aimlessly; and finally settled on curry.

Followed by Pizza and Desserts on the same plate (don’t ask!).

So here’s my over-riding summary of the experience:

1. The staff member assumed that we knew all about Jimmy’s and left us to it. They could have asked some simple questions and managed our experience in a much better way.
2. There was sooooooo much choice (which is great) but it was not particularly well placed into it’s country’s ‘department’ and therefore, was hard to make decisions over which queue to choose and what you were queuing for.
3. The whole experience was not made easy. Where and who do we get our drinks from? Who shows us which table we should sit at? Can I go up for more…. Is it all you can eat?

Questions. Questions. Questions. Unanswered.

It has made Rebecca and I challenge ourselves this week, and here’s some questions to share that perhaps you can answer for your business:

1. Do you tell our story adequately to your customers, i.e. why are you there, and how do you help them with their needs?
2. Do you make it really clear as to the options they have available to work with you, rather than a whole ‘restaurant’ of confusion to choose from?
3. Do you make it really easy to do business with you? Is the call to action crystal clear.

Some ‘food’ for thought.

Victoria ????