Show you care

Many years back I had to spend a week out at a hotel near Heathrow airport. Without transport and a long way from other restaurants I opted to eat in the hotel dining room.

The first night I ventured down to the dining room with a colleague and we asked what their “soup of the day” was.

“Turkey soup,” was the response.

Ok, we decided, options were limited – so turkey soup it was…

The second night we again headed to the dining room and enquired as to their soup of the day.

“Turkey soup,” was the response.

A raised eyebrow towards my colleague and a wry smile saw us order the turkey soup again. We figured perhaps it wasn’t quite as popular as they’d hoped and they still had some to use up.

On our third night, to be told that the soup of the day was indeed, again, “Turkey soup” was, in equal doses, funny and depressing all at the same time.

In stark contrast, a quality restaurant close to our offices advertises its menu on a board immediately outside. What makes this interesting is that the board is headed “Monday’s specials” or “Wednesday’s specials” and never “Today’s specials”.

Now I walk past every day and I can see that the specials do indeed change every single day, which is great. But what if I didn’t walk past every day? What if I were a casual customer, or a visitor just browsing, looking for somewhere to eat? What does this say about the business?

Quite simply, it says “we care”. It says “we care enough about you, the casual visitor to offer a different dining experience every day based on the best ingredients we have at the time. Come back another day and receive something completely different, but equally good. And if we take as much care over thinking about our menu as this, imagine how much care we’ll take of you and your dining experience.”

What a simple way of saying all of that – two words, no effort … quality statement.

So imagine if this wasn’t a restaurant, but a website, and what if it were yours? What ways can you say to your customers, “we care about you and we’re going to give you a great experience”?

And yes, for the rest of the week, turkey soup was indeed the ‘soup of the day’.