3rd Street Grill scores high points

Dear 3rd Street Grill,

The other day, I ordered simply a "hamburger and fries," and you delivered a mouthful of heaven. It was a memorable experience and worth appreciating in some detail because it took subtle work on your part. 

Delivering a memorable hamburger is not easy. I didn't have to eat one of your hamburgers; there were a range of substitutes. I could have ordered your California Crunchy salad, which I like, or I could have eaten somewhere else entirely. Perhaps the stars were aligned, but I think it would be appropriate to give you much more credit than that metaphor implies.

I suspect that you know that  you make a good hamburger. But you're not a burger joint, which is actually why I started eating at your restaurant. I was looking for a good yet simple salad place with a relaxed atmosphere and fairly speedy service. You filled this niche for me. And you consistently delivered. 

Yet much like a well-laid trap, you snapped into action when triggered with the words "hamburger." Suddenly you had the opportunity to surprise and over-deliver. This was the ripe moment for capitalizing on your strengths to guarantee a word-of-mouth experience.

And you did. You said, "Would you like avocado, grilled onions, or cheese?" I suddenly imagined a hamburger with avocado, grilled onions, and cheese. It looked really good in my head so I had my hamburger with all three. 

This was the moment. You could have limited your sights on simply an up-sell, much like an endcap or a "You might also like..."-type offering. You could have vaguely asked, "Would you like anything else?" or even "How about cheese with that?" You could have told me that you just baked a pie. Instead, you spoke about relevant accoutrements in concrete terms: avocado, grilled onions, cheese. You even wondered if I wanted some "hand-squeezed lemonade" to go with that. 

You understood that customers aren't very good at imagination. That takes work, and we're on our lunch break. Plus, you want to direct that imagination to ensure it ends up where you can deliver on it. It's a subtle but active process. 

Here's where I happily ended up:

You're actually not a trap. This metaphor is too focused on the immediate event. You're really much more like a pinball machine, and the servers are the flippers that keep the ball in play to earn points. Sometimes, the ball affords fewer points (like when I order the California Crunchy). Other times, it comes in perfectly to produce a lot of points (like when I want a "hamburger and fries").

The key is delivering on the former to get you to the those high score moments, and then responding appropriately. 

-joanie