Anticipation Will Help You create a Memorable customer experience

Anticipation is the key ingredient to creating a memorable customer experience.  When a customer is met with the surprise and delight of having their unexpressed needs fulfilled, it creates a compelling emotional connection and keeps them coming back for more.

That’s why successful companies such as, Ritz-Carlton, Apple, Nordstrom, Disney, and Zappos make anticipation part of their customer experience commitment.

Anticipation creates a sense of urgency in employees and shifts people into a proactive state. When employees are looking for opportunities to deliver the extraordinary, customer experience is enhanced.
Every single customer interaction is an opportunity to create a defining moment in the relationship and a customer for life.

Andre Plessis
AP Consulting

Should You Provide Health Insurance to Your Employees

Employees newly required to have health insurance under the law may want to get it from their employer, With that in mind, employers may feel encouraged to offer coverage.


Don't forget about the tax benefits of providing healthcare.
The federal government makes tax credits available to most companies with fewer than 25 low-wage employees to help cover the cost of insurance. A tax credit of up to 35% of what a company pays for health benefits is available today, and that increases to 50% in 2014 for businesses that buy insurance through their state's online health insurance market. In California, 80% of small businesses are expected to qualify for a tax break.

Andre Plessis
AP Consulting

What is Great Service at a Restaurant

People will go to a restaurant for the food the first them, then they’ll go back for the service.

''What is great service anyway?''

Great service is not about flamboyant tuxedos, tableside pasta cooking, French service style, or about lifting silver domes off hot food plates in unison or clearing all plates at the same time. Rather, great service occurs when guests leave the restaurant convinced that someone went that extra mile to make them happy. It’s about having our server engage in meaningful conversation with the guests who treat them like royalties and truly care about them.

At restaurants, servers are wine and food consultants, not order takers. They are responsible for controlling the table by setting the pace and by anticipating all guests' needs before they arise. It has been said that anytime a guest needs to ask for something, you've make a mistake.

Andre Plessis
Restaurant & Hospitality Consulting
AP Consulting

Consumers likely to share complaints about restaurant cleanliness

Consumers are likely to share complaints about restaurant cleanliness and decide if they'll come back or not.

The facilities at Disney World are immaculate. It's not a profit center, of course. They don't make them clean because they're going to charge you to use them. They make them clean because if they didn't, you'd have a  very good reason not to come back.

SCA's third annual 2012 Tork Report reveals that 92 percent of U.S. consumers said they will complain about an unfavorable dining-out experience. Of those respondents, nearly 25 percent will bring up issues regarding cleanliness.

The 2012 Tork Report, titled The Sustainability Gap, examined hygiene issues in restaurants and how likely consumers are to share information regarding restaurant cleanliness with others. Ninety-six percent of unhappy restaurant patrons are "likely" to share a complaint with family or friends and, of those, 65 percent are "very likely" to do so.

Notably, many of those unhappy patrons are complaining via social networks.

Additional key findings of the report include:

• 60 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to share that complaint with their social media networks while 65 percent said they are at least somewhat likely to share a complaint on a restaurant review site;
• 32 percent of patrons would bring up issues with poor quality product or food;
• 25 percent of patrons would bring up issues regarding poor service or issues with employees; and
• 50 percent of those surveyed say when selecting products, a business or a restaurant to patronize the topic of sustainability at least sometimes influences their choices.

Your restaurant should be spotless, and you should make your best effort in creating an environment where care and trust are expressed. If you take a lot of time to ask, "how will this pay off," you're probably asking the wrong question. When you are trusted because you care, it's quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.

Andre Plessis

AP Consulting

Restaurant & Hospitality Consualtant

Tel: 310-266-9463