In the E-Myth, by Michael Gerber, which is perhaps one of the most famous business books of all time. He recounts the story of going to the new barbershop, where he's offered a coffee and therefore returns a few weeks later to have his hair cut again, only to find the shop is now busier and he didn't get a coffee. He was disappointed, not because he didn't get a coffee, but because the promise that was given to him at the previous visit was broken.
This is the essence of being ‘on brand’; branding is consistency, it is the ability to produce a wonderful experience and then produce it again and again so that people talk about it and recommend others, and so that when the others come, they're not disappointed.
Up until about this week, my absolute favourite place in the world to go to a restaurant was Bar Iberico in Nottingham. I think I've probably been there now 50 times, and when anyone comes to town for work, for business, someone that we take out, we take them to Bar Iberico.
We don't do the course meals there because you can't really book, but when people come from the industry or special guests or friends, we go there. It's tapas, it's walk-in. If you can't get a table (and you often can't), they give you a buzzer so you can go up and down the road to get a pint somewhere else, and then they buzz you when the table's free. Service is amazing, the bar is huge, and you can sit there and watch people cook or sit at one of the tables or sit downstairs, our family have been there for special events. Alison and I have been there together as a couple, and we've taken friends; it's magic.
I went on Thursday night with a new old friend, and Callum, my son, and my new old friend's son.
Callum, my older friend and I have been there several times or many times before, but the new son hadn't been, and so I bigged it up and told him how good it was, but they broke the promise.
We got the food to start with, it was fine, and we got a drink. We got a table really quick, but then they never came back, and we sat for 40 minutes after we'd finished our meals with plates on the table in front of us and no chance of getting a dessert or another drink or any service while everybody who was working in the restaurant stood behind the bar, cleaning glasses, cleaning cutlery and chatting to each other.
In the end, I had to go up to someone and ask them for a dessert menu, so they came over quite nonchalantly and gave us 2 (not 4) and said they'd be back in 2 minutes. They never came back again, so I had to go and ask again. I felt compelled to tell them what was going on so that they noticed, and so they very magnanimously decided to waive the service charge (despite the fact that we had s**t service).
The question is what to do next.
I love it there, I don't want it to be like that, maybe it was just a bad night.
I'm talking about it here. I would want someone to tell me that that was happening at my place, and I would want to fix it.
I'll go again, at least one more time. It'll be a test.
God knows how much money we've spent there.
Reputation is so difficult to build, so easy to break.
Blog Post Number - 4422
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