Curiosity rewarded the cat
Good user experience is often found in the most unassuming places. We have a new restaurant opening in my neighborhood this week and I’ve been anticipating their arrival for a few weeks now. They officially open today but two days ago revealed a very important lesson in user experience.
Two days ago I was walking down the street, the same street the new restaurant is on, to get lunch. The lights were on and it looked like people were ordering and eating inside before their scheduled opening. This of course caught my attention. The door said something like, “Pardon us while we get ready for our grand opening. We hope to see you this Friday.” For some reason I ignored the sign and went in anyway where I was greeted by a hostess asking me for my invitation. I had no invitation and said I’d come back Friday. She quickly said, “that’s okay, join us for free lunch tomorrow and bring a friend” and she handed me two invitations.
Reward curiosity. This is something we should keep in the back of our minds when designing an experience. I didn’t walk away from that situation feeling stupid because I ignored the sign that clearly stated they weren’t open yet. Instead I walked away excited to get to try this new restaurant a day early and get a free lunch. It was the kind of first impression any product or service should want to make.
Related tags: curiosity, restaurants, rewards, user experience
Comments
Nathan Borror http://nathanborror.com/posts/2009/nov/20/curiosity-rewarded-cat/
Another tidbit I thought interesting…
This particular restaurant is a franchise in a sea of locally owned businesses with loyal customers. Instead of plopping themselves in the community and flinging their doors open, they’re acting as guests. Two days of free food, welcoming the curious, then they’re hosting two fundraisers with all profits going to the local high schools.
Great way to introduce themselves and appear to have an interest in the community.
kioopi
So there is such a thing as free lunch, after all.
Ben http://benkreeger.com/
Very cool — more business need to follow suit.
Varikin http://www.fictitiousnonsense.com/
Reminds me of when I worked at Culvers in college. It was just opening so a day or two before the opening, they invited all the employees’ family to a free meal. They used this as training for the employees.
I assume it was the same at this restaurant. In a way it is like a beta version. You get to try out the new restaurant and they get train new employees and test out the equipment and policies.
Dana Woodman http://www.danawoodman.com/
Now for me to find those restaurants in my town…
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That’s pretty smart man. If I was the restaurant owner, I might have done the same thing. That sort of thing is what keeps customers coming back.
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Couldn’t agree more…Had a post already written about this too, (good job i checked around first)never mind.It is a really good tune though. Here’s hoping more labels wise up and do this.