Franchise Pr | No Limit

Pretend you’ve just gotten home from a long day at work. Exhausted, your one goal in life is to microwave whatever is hiding in the back of your freezer and collapse on the couch. After fishing out a passable frozen dinner and waiting five minutes while cosmic rays bombard it, you make a sad discovery. Inside the black plastic tray is not the sesame chicken with noodles you expected but a greenish-gray mass of indistinguishable origin. What do you do? Many would curse their luck and reach for the peanut butter, but for some it’s the start of a guest service encounter.

Guest service is one of the most important duties of any venture, no matter if it’s a $15 billion corporation or a mom and pop down the street. Although it’s impossible to keep everyone happy all the time, doing your best to keep guests content with your service and products helps create and maintain a positive brand image and increases word-of- mouth traffic.

In decades past, guest service has been handled over the phone, by mail or in person. Television not working? Call Sears. Chocolate malt milkshake not malty enough? Write a letter. Steak too bloody? Ask to speak with the chef.

The problems plaguing these methods are painfully familiar. They’re slow, unpleasant and, more often that not, rather inefficient. So why is it that so many companies still adhere to these tired and outdated forms of guest service?

Great guest service has always been a key part of the mission at Lenny’s Sub Shops, but recently they’ve taken the concept to the next level by using social media (handled by No Limit Media Consulting) as another point of connection between the franchise and its loyal guests. By addressing guest service issues through Facebook, Lenny’s can solve problems more quickly and in a format many consumers are more comfortable with.

Take Robert, a Lenny’s guest from Arkansas. On a trip to his local Lenny’s, Robert was unsatisfied with a particular element of his trip and, instead of writing an email or calling corporate, he sent a message to Lenny’s Facebook page. Within 24 hours, he had a response from the Facebook page, apologizing for his bad experience and explaining the process by which the local manager would be informed of the situation. In addition, Lenny’s was able to send Robert some swag as an additional form of apology. The exchange clearly impressed Robert, who left a message saying, “I was thinking that I was never going to hear from somebody at Lenny’s again.”

Social media has many applications, but one of the newest and most promising is guest service. Lenny’s Sub Shops has blazed a trail by responding to guest complaints and questions through it’s Facebook page, transforming a traditionally slow and tedious process into a quick, efficient way to maximize guest satisfaction and build positive brand image.

A Blog Post By: Brian Diggelmann (@bdiggelmann)
Brian is a new intern at No Limit and is currently going through intense training to become the Swagmaster!

This goes out to all of the “traditional” business owners out there. For years, the thought of giving away FREE product was an absolutely unheard of practice. Especially in the current economic climate, people need all the incentives they can get when choosing when to indulge and when to save. Thus, it becomes more critical for businesses to think of innovative ways to entice consumers to come rushing into your business location even if it is just for a day. By providing your local customers with a few great promotional days a year, you can build a clientele of loyal consumers who will choose your business over any of the competition.

National Parents Day

The best example that I have of offering a great promotion would be of Ritter’s Frozen Custard. The company decided to thank all of you parents out there for the hard work that it takes to be… well, parents. So many holidays pick and choose between mothers, fathers, veterans and so many other options that Ritter’s Frozen Custard wanted to thank both moms and dads together, by creating one National Parents Day. At all of the 30 Ritter’s locations across the country, parents who brought their children into the locations would be given a FREE scoop of ice cream, just to say thank you for being a parent. At first it seems like a lot of money flying out of the door in product costs, however if you really think about it… parents who bring their children in will ALWAYS indulge their children before they buy for themselves. This creates a method to entice business to come through the door, because face it, who doesn’t like FREE ice cream? Then later, when children remember how tasty that frozen custard was, they will undoubtedly return for more, and this time the parents will too buy a tasty treat for themselves as well. It really is just building a reciprocal model.

Celebrating parents and giving back to the community while increasing foot traffic and generating franchisee leads. Ah, the power of FREE promotions!

Free Media Attention

One of the easiest ways to get any media attention is to be giving away free product at any location, especially if you can tie in a great community event… such as celebrating parents. The best thing for businesses to do is to come up with an innovative holiday, even if it doesn’t actually exist. In Ritter’s case, there is such a thing as a National Parents Day but is it celebrated in the middle of July and not at the beginning of June. What reporters love is a simple story, with a great community hook. When I was pitching newspapers at all of the Ritter’s locations, it was almost guaranteed that if someone answered the phone, there would be an article placement. Most importantly however, is the free press that this is giving store locations and franchisees. Yes, of course it looks great for the brand but what is better than making a bunch of franchisees happy is the free press this attracts to the stores. The benefits undoubtedly outweigh the costs. With free press and advertising, as well as making the community remember all the great things you do, you create a larger base of loyal fans. That is truly irreplaceable.

A Blog Post By: Jordy Patano (@jordypatano)
Jordy works with the PR team at No Limit. She is a recent graduate of Emory University, and is currently checking into rehab for her Quad-Shot, Non-Fat, Vanilla Latte addiction.