Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell

"Throw this man a roll and we need some molasses over here"

Category: Customer Experience | Submitted by: Clay Campbell on 10/29/2006 7:24:00 AM

"Our first T.V. appearance was in May 1979, on Channel 9 in St. Louis, Missouri. Since that time the "Going on" at Lambert's "Throwed Roll Cafe" has been on every local T.V. channel, all of the National T.V. Network's, the Armed Forces Network, as well as a German T.V. station. Yep, we probably were the one you saw on T. V."

"Our ovens turn out rolls from 9:15 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. usually without stopping. With this in mind we thought you might be interested in the following: last year (2005) we averaged baking 520 dozen rolls per day, for a grand total of 2,246,400 individual rolls."

I live about an hour from Lamberts original Café in Sikeston Missouri. It's the best example of gaining fabulous free "word of mouth" advertising that I know of. We first went there with our three sons when they were young. They always begged to go back. They bring you all you can eat and then some. On my very first visit there I met Ben Lambert. He was wearing an apron carrying a big pot of goulash. He stopped by my table and said, "You folk's get enough to eat?"

I said, "We're stuffed."

He said, " Ya ever had any uh mah goulash? You gotta try mah goulash. If you don't you'll hurt mah feelings."

I said, "Well, I could try a little"

He plopped TWO huge dippers of goulash on my plate and said, "We don't want nobody to go away hungry. You wanna a roll to go with that?"

I said, "Really I an soooo full."

He said, "You ever had a roll with molasses on it?"

Then he turned to the kid a wats away and said "Throw this man a roll and we need some molasses over here"

Then He said, "Hows the Goulash?" before I could answer a guy throwed me a roll and another kid was holding the molasses jar. Ben grabbed it and plopped a big spoonful on my roll and said, Try it."

Then he turned to the next table and said in a big voice, "You ever had any a mah goulash?"

It was an experience I'll never forget. Is there something you could do at your business to develop kinetic word of mouth?

#2 Kinetic — "Relating to or product of motion. It goes far beyond "good service". To be a word of mouth trigger it must be constantly observable by management and the customer. Customer service is delivered privately one on one. Seattle Pike Place market, or tableside restaurant chefs twirling knives at Benihana, or kissing the cod and being "screeched in" upon 1st arrival in Newfoundland." Roy H. Williams

A CUSTOMER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN OUR BUSINESS

This is a story posted on the American Small Business site http://www.americansmallbusiness.com by on of my Partners Steve Rae. I thought it well worth passing along as I feel the same way about our customers. I would like to encourage all of you who want to get "more bang for your marketing buck" to read "You want it Now?" post there by yours truly. If you like it; please vote and give me a "thumbs up." Please don't give anyone a thumbs down. :-)

Here it is;
A CUSTOMER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN OUR BUSINESS… He is not an interruption of our work, but rather the purpose of it…we are not doing him a favor by serving him, he is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so…A customer is not dependent upon us - we are dependent upon him…he is not an outsider to our business, but a part of it…A customer is not a cold statistic: he is a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions, biases and prejudices…he is not someone to argue or match wits with (nobody ever won an argument with a customer)…A customer is a person who brings us his wants and it is our job to handle them profitably, both to him and to ourselves. L.L. Bean

Do You Have a Guarantee?

My wife and I took a trip to Tennessee a week ago and pulled off at an exit with several motels. We agreed to get a cheap room because it was late and we had to get up early. We just needed a bed for a few hours sleep. We pulled into the Hampton Inn and I asked the clerk, "What's the best rate on a room?" She said, "$89 sir." I said to my wife, "You wanna go check out the prices at a couple other places?" Before Barbie could answer the clerk said, "You may get a cheaper room, but you won't get our guarantee." I said, "What guarantee?"

The clerk said, "If you aren't totally satisfied and happy with your room, it's free." Then she gave me a big smile.

We got the room. We came down later to go eat, the clerk saw us and said, "How's your room sir, is everything OK?" I said, "It's really nice." She gave me the biggest most beautiful smile you have ever seen and said, "I knew you'd like it."

Invest your money in giving Lagniappe… something extra and unexpected. I guarantee you it will give you More Bang for Your Buck and great word of mouth advertising.

Great Customer Service

These posts are for small business owners who want to make better use of their ad dollars. I’ll be sharing a few ideas and suggestions that have worked miracles for my clients and friends. I hope their stories are helpful and that you would forward this article on to a friend.

Thanks

Great Customer Service
While conducting an Uncovery (the mission a Wizard goes on to discover the advertiser’s untold story) I discovered a nugget of truth. Everyone at the business mentioned the fact that they had great customer service. Employees and management thought customers kept coming back because of it. But they never mentioned their service in any ads. The company had been very successful, yet had a smaller ad budget than their competitors. Any business can provide great customer service but most don’t. Many brag about their customer service when in actuality it’s non-existent. But I came to the conclusion that my client concentrates on - works diligently on - giving fabulous customer service well beyond what the customer expects. They provide what Cajun’s call Lagniappe, “something extra.” The fact that service isn’t advertised gives it amazing impact.

If you advertise that you have fabulous customer service, consumers come into your place of business with extremely high expectations. If you don’t meet their unrealistic expectations, they may leave unhappy, disappointed, disgruntled and sometimes really mad. If you don’t advertise service and the customer gets it unexpectedly then they are very happy campers and may even tell others about your business.

Overcoming Obstacles

To be a success, in my opinion, you must achieve a goal after overcoming some kind of obstacle. If you have no obstacles to overcome; what can you say you have accomplished?
You're never going to have a time in your life when there will be a guarantee that you'll have no problems. Except when you're dead. Even then you may have problems depending on where you spend eternity…
No one respects a person that has been handed everything, and has never had any adversity of any kind.
As I counsel with business owners about their advertising, I have found those that are doing well are those who are able to overcoming obstacles and keep on going.
Go out today and find some obstacle or problem and overcome it! Subdue it. Wrestle it to the ground.
Clay

Pray and Row...

As I was talking to a client I realized they needed a miracle to get their business back on track. I told them of the two boys fishing on a lake in a small boat. A fierce looking storm started brewing and came on them all of a sudden. They were very afraid. One said, "What will we do?" They other said, "Why don't we pray?" The first one said, "Why don't you pray while I row toward shore?"

Some times in life we feel like we need a miracle for our problem. Someone needs to pray and someone needs to row really hard. My own family is probably like yours; there are some problems from time to time. We encountered some problems these last few years; raising three teenage boys… as you can probably imagine. Thanks to a tremendous wife we were able to overcome those obsticles. While she prayed, I rowed toward shore. Today we celebrated 27 years of praying together and weathering the storms of life that came our way.
If you're faced with some major problem today and your a bit afraid….. pray and row.

Pray and Row...

As I was talking to a client I realized they needed a miracle to get their business back on track. I told them of the two boys fishing on a lake in a small boat. A fierce looking storm started brewing and came on them all of a sudden. They were very afraid. One said, "What will we do?" They other said, "Why don't we pray?" The first one said, "Why don't you pray while I row toward shore?"

Some times in life we feel like we need a miracle for our problem. Someone needs to pray and someone needs to row really hard. My own family is probably like yours; there are some problems from time to time. We encountered some problems these last few years; raising three teenage boys… as you can probably imagine. Thanks to a tremendous wife we were able to overcome those obsticles. While she prayed, I rowed toward shore. Today we celebrated 27 years of praying together and weathering the storms of life that came our way.
If you're faced with some major problem today and your a bit afraid….. pray and row.