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Why you should never listen to your customers

"Sometimes I think the perfect restaurant would say “Mother Nature's Health Food” in big letters on the outside, but inside only serve burgers, cokes and fries."

February 1, 2016 by Jon Smith — Founder, Owner, Jon Smith Subs

Real estate brokers have an expression: "Buyers are liars." This is not — for the record — an implication that their clients are dishonest or unethical. What the expression really suggests is that consumers aren’t always good at articulating their preferences. This can be said of our customers as well. In fact, sometimes I think the perfect restaurant would say “Mother Nature's Health Food” in big letters on the outside, but inside only serve burgers, cokes and fries.

If you consider mainstream media a trusted source for insight into the human psyche, you might be left with the impression that people are overwhelmingly concerned about their diets — eating only pure, clean, reduced -calorie, low-fat, gluten-free, organic foods

But to the stark contrary, many fast casual dining options are offering increasingly larger portions (side note: the original, classic coke bottle held only 6.5 ounces) and preparing fewer foods on the premise, which inevitably requires high levels of salt, sugar and preservatives. This requires them to operate under the pressure of an intensifying price point, forcing them to use lower quality everything as a financial necessity.

As operators of fast casual eateries, our job is to offer foods people really want when hunger or cravings strikes. But what we often discover is that few customers identify with what the media tells them they want or what they find available on fast casual menus. These customers may aspire to adhere to specific nutritional guidelines or philosophies, but how can we possibly continue to offer a menu that fits the preferred dietary restrictions of every one of them? We can’t be everything to everyone, but we can decide to let our customers deal with their dietary restrictions at home, and focus on being the best version of us we can be. If we focus on authenticity and quality, we then truly exist to serve. We’ll succeed by ultimately giving them what they really want…even those that don’t know they want it.

For us, that niche is damn good grilled subs, jam-packed with fresh, quality, house-marinated sirloin steak and real chicken breast, cooked to order and complemented with produce and condiments of the same class of quality. We’re not for the gluten weary. We’re not a dieter’s delight, but we are the best in our class. We are aware that there is a percentage of customers that attempt to adhere to dietary guidelines. We don’t try to meet those, but if our fare is what they crave, we are the ultimate satisfaction.

So how does that translate if you’re not in the business of grilled-to-order subs? To put it simply, if you are in this business because you believe that you are capable of producing the most satisfying product in your consumable category…and more importantly, you can honestly say you have managed to maintain and implement this philosophy in practice…then you are more than halfway there. In the fast casual space, the emphasis on quality is amplified.

Fast, good, affordable — these are the expectations that weigh on us. It’s a lot, but this is the business we’ve chosen, so why should we kill ourselves creating foods that meet the expressed desires of every customer that walks through the door? And even if we could, why appeal to such requests when we know and count on the fact that consumers perceive us as a satisfying way to escape an unsatisfying restriction?

Delivering a greater variety for a larger (not target) market means diluting the quality of your signature product. Operationally, there’s really no way around it. Quality will always be the greatest value you can offer, so trust your gut and don’t forget what you already know about what your customers really want.