Page 184 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

88 UNDERSTAND HOW YOU
ARE JUDGED

In service industries it is easy to imagine that we are being judged
on our core product. Hairdressers think they are being judged on
the hairstyle, restaurants think they are being judged on the food,
and so on. Often the customers have a different viewpoint, however,
and as with everything else in marketing we need to consider our
customers’ viewpoint ahead of our own.

Finding out how people judge us is not always straightforward, but
sometimes we can get a very good idea from reading the kind of
advice people are being given.

The idea

Restaurant critic The Artful Diner suggests that people examine the
restrooms of the restaurant. If the restrooms are dirty, it is extremely
unlikely that the kitchens will be clean—after all, the restrooms are
the part of the restaurant you are allowed to see, so how much worse
will be the parts they are not allowing you to see?

A survey carried out by London Eats found that 29.4 percent of
Londoners thought that the cuisine was the most important factor in
choosing a restaurant; 20.8 percent thought that recommendation
was the most important, 18.3 percent thought price, 10.7 percent
thought ambience, 10.7 percent thought service was most important,
and only 10.2 percent thought location was most important.

In practice

• Read newspapers and magazines that carry reports about your

industry, for an idea of what your customers are being advised.

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