In “The paradox of Choice” Barry Schwartz argues that whilst choice represents freedom and autonomy and is essential to human wellbeing having too much creates huge anxiety to our customers.
What Schwartz is suggesting is that to feel happy we as humans measure our success against the outcome of our goals therefore every decision we make is measured against the actual outcome compared to the perception of the possible other outcomes…the grass is always greener.
So, when we make choices we worry that it is the ‘wrong’ one and that our choice was a mistake, happiness was with the ‘right’ choice.
Now for big decisions, we can see that this a valuable process but, when we do it for seemingly small decisions, then we are placing ourselves into a nearly impossible situation.
Of course, there is not a ‘right’ decision about what you have to drink in a bar or what you eat at a restaurant but I know from experience that I am not the only one who finds making these seemingly small decisions almost impossible.
Whilst I am great at making all the important strategic decisions in my life and business ask me what I want to eat or drink and I can fall apart, it is not unlike me to ask someone else to make the decision for me. I guess you will know someone like that yourself.
Humans have an instinct to crave variety possibly related to our need for a varied diet so put us in front of a buffet and there will be no one who doesn’t find it difficult to not have a bit of everything. Making a choice and limiting our options is hard work!
So sometimes as operators, it is OK to limit the choices we offer to our customers, and more often than not our customers will be thankful to you.
I am certainly grateful when there is a smaller wine list or a shorter menu. When you didn’t have much choice in the first place I feel much less like I am missing out.
In hospitality, we need to remember that our customers are not visiting us for food and drink.
The pub, bar, restaurant, coffee shop exists for customers to have a space where they feel comfortable, sometimes more so than at home, to come and meet with others and form relationships and bond, share ideas and be part of a community.
So whilst you need to make sure that you do stock something your customers like, unless you are making a name for yourself as a stockist of a huge range of gin, or specialty coffee or fine dining food then whilst you need some choice, you are not doing your customers any favours by stocking too much variety.
We have to remember that this should be a simple business.
Less choice is easier for you to manage, your stock ordering is easier, storage is easier, staff training is easier, achieving perfect serve is easier, achieving quality is easier and above all, you are reducing the anxiety of and helping your customers.
We will always have customers that come in and ask for something different and whilst of course it is right to try to accommodate a customer, we are in the business of customer care and kindness after all, but to bend your business to suit everyone would be foolish.
We will never please everyone the world is full of an infinite combination of tastes, we could never keep up, and in any case, as they say, “if you try to attract everyone you will end up attracting no one.”
You need to decide what limited products you sell according to your understanding of your target customers.
Your understanding of your customers needs to be on an emotional level so that you can really understand what they actually want and need and understand the limited choices they are craving.
For example, in my last city centre bar, we kept away from cocktails. Though our customers may have asked for them our customers happily substituted their first choice to the second option of other drinks we stocked, good wines, prosecco, quality spirits and mixers all perfectly served. We did not lose customers because we did not serve cocktails.
But not having cocktails helped us to keep our business simple.
Our business was based on exceptional levels of customer care, service, quality products, and perfect serve. For those who know, making cocktails challenges all those objectives.
A perfect cocktail is a fine thing and well worth the wait and expense but you need intense and consistent staff training, an extensive ingredients list, additional quality glassware (and the storage space that comes with that) and even then, there is always the risk that the staff may occasionally get it wrong. In a busy city centre bar where this was not going to be a specialty, it was a complexity that just was not necessary nor important to our customers who valued us for other things.
Instead, we had a great selection of premium products and trained our staff on the perfect serve getting it spot on every time. Simple!
This is even more true in venues that serve food. Storage, wastage, prep time, and the skill level of your staff really need to be considerations when deciding what you put on your menu.
But fundamentally the thing that makes all this easy, your choices and those of your customer is your ability to be able to emotionally connect with and understand your customers. You need to know what they want and need better than they do.
