Six Flags pretty much sucks.
(If you are outside the U.S., Six Flags is an amusement park chain.)
The employees are almost all teenagers and, quite frankly, customer service is not high on their list of priorities. Let me give you just one scenario:
There was a concert there that my kids wanted to see. A guy by the name of "Drake Bell." (He is an actor on a show for kids called "Drake and Josh." And, just as an aside, the concert was much better than I ever would have expected.)
Obviously, it's hot as heck here in Atlanta so I go to get the kids and I a drink and some food. I get in line which is fairly long but not massively long. Two windows are open but one of them is only for "free refills" on soda. There is almost no one in this line. For most of the time the "teenage girl with attitude" is just standing behind the counter with nothing to do. Meanwhile, the line I'm in is not moving but is growing in length.
A number of people suggest that the girl in the "refill only" window help out. Nope. She emphatically states that the window is, indeed, for "refills only."
I kid you not that I am in line for 35 minutes before making it up to the window. (I also kid you not that there were only about ten people in front of me when I got in line.) I can see why: It takes the teen employees about 5 minutes to pour a coke and hand it to the customer because they move so slowly.
Anyhoo, I get up to the window and order, a coke, a hot dog, a pretzel and popcorn - which is clearly on the menu. I am informed that they do not have any hot dogs, pretzels or popcorn but they do have melted cookies and nachos with luke warm, bording on cool, cheese. Yum!
I wait. I wait. And finally ask where my Coke is. "Oh yeah", is the reply. The Coke is poured. I wait. I wait. And then ask where my nachos and cookie are. The nachos come but without a cookie. "Oh, you ordered a cookie too?", I'm asked. "Actually, this will be the third time I ordered the cookie", I reply.
I trudge back to my seat just in time for the concert to start.
If you contrast the experience I just had at Six Flags with the almost anyone's experience at a Disney theme park, you will instantly see why Disney is so wildly successful. Disney actually cares about their customer's experience and makes sure the management and the employees care as well.
What kind of experience are you giving to your customers. Are they writing blogs like this about you?
Hmm, something to think about. I know I am asking myself that question and coming up with a list of things that I need to improve.
How 'bout you?
Kick butt, make mucho dee-nero!
~Dave Dee
P.S. Finally, finally, finally, my "How To Turn Your Passion Into Profits" mega course is going to be ready on Friday. (I had to re-record over six hours of material.) More details are coming up soon!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
A huge, e-z to apply, moneymaker
Yesterday I told you about the dismal dining experience I had last week. Today, I'm going to tell you a story that's the complete opposite.
Pay close attention because this story contains an easy to apply, moneymaking strategy.
I was in Richmond and was looking for a good seafood restaurant. The person at the hotel recommended that I go to a place called "Crab Louies." So off in my rental car I went.
I had a little trouble finding it because the restaurant was actually in what looked like an older home.
As I walked in, I was greeted by a very attractive hostess. (Her age reminded me about how old I am!) I was seated and immediately a friendly waitress came to take my drink order.
She came back with three bowls of the restaurant's homemade relishes...which I did not order. Every table got these after they sat down. The relishes were all delicious. I then ordered half a dozen raw oysters and the broiled fish combination. One of the fish was salmon, which literally makes me gag. She said this was no problem and that the chef would be happy to substitute a different fish.
After I ate the deliciously fresh oysters, the waitress comes by with a basket full of three different types of fresh made bread. I could choose to have one or try all three I decline because it's not my "cheat day" and I am on a low carb diet. Believe me, this took a lot of willpower!
My main course arrives. Of course, salmon is nowhere to be found! The fish combo is delicious. I notice also on my plate is a tiny crab cake. This was not on the menu as part of the dinner I ordered. It was an unexpected and tasty surprise.
My very reasonable bill arrives and with it are two chocolate mints.
I leave very satisfied and happy. In fact, guess where I went to eat the next night?
I'm sure you enjoyed reading about my culinary adventures but there is a super important lesson in this story. Namely, give your customers MORE than they expect or are promised.
For example, if you are selling an information product, include an extra report, CD, book etc. as an unadvertised bonus. This will dramatically increase customer satisfaction and reduce refunds.
It does not matter what business you are in. Make a list of value added things you can give to your customers in a systematized way. That's a really simple way to increase your bottom line.
Kick butt, make much DEEnero!
~Dave Dee
Pay close attention because this story contains an easy to apply, moneymaking strategy.
I was in Richmond and was looking for a good seafood restaurant. The person at the hotel recommended that I go to a place called "Crab Louies." So off in my rental car I went.
I had a little trouble finding it because the restaurant was actually in what looked like an older home.
As I walked in, I was greeted by a very attractive hostess. (Her age reminded me about how old I am!) I was seated and immediately a friendly waitress came to take my drink order.
She came back with three bowls of the restaurant's homemade relishes...which I did not order. Every table got these after they sat down. The relishes were all delicious. I then ordered half a dozen raw oysters and the broiled fish combination. One of the fish was salmon, which literally makes me gag. She said this was no problem and that the chef would be happy to substitute a different fish.
After I ate the deliciously fresh oysters, the waitress comes by with a basket full of three different types of fresh made bread. I could choose to have one or try all three I decline because it's not my "cheat day" and I am on a low carb diet. Believe me, this took a lot of willpower!
My main course arrives. Of course, salmon is nowhere to be found! The fish combo is delicious. I notice also on my plate is a tiny crab cake. This was not on the menu as part of the dinner I ordered. It was an unexpected and tasty surprise.
My very reasonable bill arrives and with it are two chocolate mints.
I leave very satisfied and happy. In fact, guess where I went to eat the next night?
I'm sure you enjoyed reading about my culinary adventures but there is a super important lesson in this story. Namely, give your customers MORE than they expect or are promised.
For example, if you are selling an information product, include an extra report, CD, book etc. as an unadvertised bonus. This will dramatically increase customer satisfaction and reduce refunds.
It does not matter what business you are in. Make a list of value added things you can give to your customers in a systematized way. That's a really simple way to increase your bottom line.
Kick butt, make much DEEnero!
~Dave Dee
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The worst hotel and restaurant ever...
As you can imagine, with my crazy schedule, I stay at a lot of hotels. Well, I just stayed at a doozy - a truly horrible Embassy Suites (a chain that's usually okay).
Now, I won't even talk about the two false fire alarms that made everyone evacuate the hotel or the angry front desk clerk. Rather, let me describe my experience in the restaurant:
There is only one other couple eating. Not a good sign. I order a glass of Pinot. They are out. I order good sounding burger. (Angus beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, roasted red peppers, and pickles.) I say that I'd like the burger cooked medium rare and did not want the fries.
Here it comes...yum...uh, oh.
There are a lot of fries. No problem. But the only thing the burger has on it is onions and a lettuce leaf. Hmm. I ask where all the other stuff is.. I ask the server, who barely speaks English, for the menu to show her. She races off to the kitchen to fix the problem.
I wait and wait and wait. A manager comes by and asks me how everything is. I tell him my tale of woe and he rushes into the kitchen. Soon he emerges with a small plate. On it is a pickle spear and -not roasted red peppers - but a small pile of very dried out sun dried tomatoes.
I point out this fact to the manager, he picks up a sun dried tomato, examines it and agrees
it is what it is. I also point out the pickle spear is really not meant to be put on a burger.
Off he scurries back into the kitchen. I wait... He comes back...but this time empty handed. The "chef", and I use that word very lightly, needs to make the roasted peppers. Well, there is no way in hell t a chef who doesn't know the difference between a sun dried tomato and a roasted red pepper is going to know how to actually MAKE roasted red peppers.
I tell the manager that by the time the peppers are roasted, my burger will be cold. It has already had a lonely existence on my plate. He says that he'll have the chef start the whole procedure over. I politely decline and tell him I will just eat my onion and lettuce burger. What the hell, it smells good. (Wait, I just remembered I ordered it with Swiss Cheese and it came cheeseless!)
Anyway, I take a big bite into my medium rare burger only to discover it is one of the most well done burgers in the history of burger making. I choke down a couple of very dry mouthfuls, longing for a sip of the would be Pinot.
I ask for my bill and the manager, apologizes and comps me "meal."
This experience, and the other similar experiences I had at this hotel, are NOT the fault of the employees but the fault of the OWNER. I can guarantee that the owner doesn't give a crap about his guests experiences. If he did, he would TRAIN his employees and train them hard. If they did not fall into line, he would fire them fast.
Tomorrow, I'm going to tell you a story about a restaurant on the other side of the spectrum.
Kick butt, make mucho dee-nero!
Dave Dee
P.S. Didja know you can get a free copy of my FREE copy of my "Profit Generator, Market Dominator" program that I used to sell for $97? You can! Go to: http://www.davedee.com/ic
Now, I won't even talk about the two false fire alarms that made everyone evacuate the hotel or the angry front desk clerk. Rather, let me describe my experience in the restaurant:
There is only one other couple eating. Not a good sign. I order a glass of Pinot. They are out. I order good sounding burger. (Angus beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, roasted red peppers, and pickles.) I say that I'd like the burger cooked medium rare and did not want the fries.
Here it comes...yum...uh, oh.
There are a lot of fries. No problem. But the only thing the burger has on it is onions and a lettuce leaf. Hmm. I ask where all the other stuff is.. I ask the server, who barely speaks English, for the menu to show her. She races off to the kitchen to fix the problem.
I wait and wait and wait. A manager comes by and asks me how everything is. I tell him my tale of woe and he rushes into the kitchen. Soon he emerges with a small plate. On it is a pickle spear and -not roasted red peppers - but a small pile of very dried out sun dried tomatoes.
I point out this fact to the manager, he picks up a sun dried tomato, examines it and agrees
it is what it is. I also point out the pickle spear is really not meant to be put on a burger.
Off he scurries back into the kitchen. I wait... He comes back...but this time empty handed. The "chef", and I use that word very lightly, needs to make the roasted peppers. Well, there is no way in hell t a chef who doesn't know the difference between a sun dried tomato and a roasted red pepper is going to know how to actually MAKE roasted red peppers.
I tell the manager that by the time the peppers are roasted, my burger will be cold. It has already had a lonely existence on my plate. He says that he'll have the chef start the whole procedure over. I politely decline and tell him I will just eat my onion and lettuce burger. What the hell, it smells good. (Wait, I just remembered I ordered it with Swiss Cheese and it came cheeseless!)
Anyway, I take a big bite into my medium rare burger only to discover it is one of the most well done burgers in the history of burger making. I choke down a couple of very dry mouthfuls, longing for a sip of the would be Pinot.
I ask for my bill and the manager, apologizes and comps me "meal."
This experience, and the other similar experiences I had at this hotel, are NOT the fault of the employees but the fault of the OWNER. I can guarantee that the owner doesn't give a crap about his guests experiences. If he did, he would TRAIN his employees and train them hard. If they did not fall into line, he would fire them fast.
Tomorrow, I'm going to tell you a story about a restaurant on the other side of the spectrum.
Kick butt, make mucho dee-nero!
Dave Dee
P.S. Didja know you can get a free copy of my FREE copy of my "Profit Generator, Market Dominator" program that I used to sell for $97? You can! Go to: http://www.davedee.com/ic
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sex In The City and Rambo 2008
This past weekend, I saw the movie Sex In The City, the biggest chick flick of all time. I was literally the only guy in the entire theater. Although it was painful to sit through, I did get "super great boyfriend" status which is always good.
As payback, I rented Rambo (2008) which is on the complete opposite end of the movie spectrum. It was the most violent movie I have ever seen. It was great fun!
These two movies illustrate a very important the very important marketing concepts of having a good "message to market match" and "niching."
In any type of marketing you do, you need to make sure that the message you are presenting resonates with your prospect and often the best way to do this is to niching.
Niching means targeting your market to a specific group. For example, at my Elite Infomarketing Mastermind Group meeting I held this past weekend, I told one of my members to niche her business to sell only to dentists.
This advice is counter-intuitive because most people believe that there is more dee-nero marketing to the masses instead of targeting a smaller niche market. The truth is, you will almost always make more dee-nero targeting a smaller niche market because you can craft your message specifically to the people in the niche. And, because of this, your message will be a more perfect match to your target audience.
If you don't have a perfect message to market match your results will suffer.
Going back to the movie example, after Rambo, Alexis said, "I didn't like the ending. Rambo and the girl should have fallen in love." Holy crap, that ending would have ruined the whole movie because it would have been incongruent with the target audience.
Think about how you can niche what you are doing and then target your marketing to that niche. You'll like the results!
Kick butt, make mucho dee-nero!
~Dave Dee
P.S. On Tuesday, June 10th at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm PT), I am going to be conducting a teleseminar/webcast entitled: "Your Blogging Profit System: How To Turn Your Message Into Money In The Next 31 Days. " For complete details and to register, go to:
https://davedee.infusionsoft.com/saleform/nifruhnat
As payback, I rented Rambo (2008) which is on the complete opposite end of the movie spectrum. It was the most violent movie I have ever seen. It was great fun!
These two movies illustrate a very important the very important marketing concepts of having a good "message to market match" and "niching."
In any type of marketing you do, you need to make sure that the message you are presenting resonates with your prospect and often the best way to do this is to niching.
Niching means targeting your market to a specific group. For example, at my Elite Infomarketing Mastermind Group meeting I held this past weekend, I told one of my members to niche her business to sell only to dentists.
This advice is counter-intuitive because most people believe that there is more dee-nero marketing to the masses instead of targeting a smaller niche market. The truth is, you will almost always make more dee-nero targeting a smaller niche market because you can craft your message specifically to the people in the niche. And, because of this, your message will be a more perfect match to your target audience.
If you don't have a perfect message to market match your results will suffer.
Going back to the movie example, after Rambo, Alexis said, "I didn't like the ending. Rambo and the girl should have fallen in love." Holy crap, that ending would have ruined the whole movie because it would have been incongruent with the target audience.
Think about how you can niche what you are doing and then target your marketing to that niche. You'll like the results!
Kick butt, make mucho dee-nero!
~Dave Dee
P.S. On Tuesday, June 10th at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm PT), I am going to be conducting a teleseminar/webcast entitled: "Your Blogging Profit System: How To Turn Your Message Into Money In The Next 31 Days. " For complete details and to register, go to:
https://davedee.infusionsoft.com/saleform/nifruhnat
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