Retromarketing for the Restaurant Business

I once read a marketing paper titled Torment Your Customers.  It talks about successful marketing is done based on playing hard to get to the customers, which goes against modern marketing thinking that customers are always right.  In modern marketing, businesses must do everything they can to fulfill customer needs.

Here in Hong Kong, some of the most popular restaurants have non-appealing store fronts.  Take a look at this restaurant Fai Kee:

It doesn't look good, in fact it looks pretty bad compared with the norm.  However, this restaurant is the most successful restaurant on the island of Ma Wan.

So you ask what the secret formula of success is.  Let's take a look at what it does:

1. It is located in a hidden alley.
2. It closes on Wednesdays.
3. One can hardly get a table reservation on the weekends.  Tables are available at around 6:00pm or after 8:30pm.
4. Customers mostly serve themselves inside the restaurant, like getting hot water or tea.

As you can see, this restaurant is almost practicing retromarketing with great success.  It is playing hard to get, but people still enjoy dining there without any customer service.  I don't think a restaurant like this can survive in a country such as the USA.  On the contrary, I often see foreigners patronizing this restaurant happily.

In the Chinese culture, restaurant customers are accustomed to poor customer service.  Most restaurants often advertise themselves as serving the best food and that is all that matters.  Most customers believe that customer service is less important than the food itself.

A restaurant owner must put things into the proper perspective.  Most dishes in most restaurants are similar and there is actually little differentiation between the restaurants.  The differentiation has to come from other factors besides the product itself.  Customer service is one factor.  The location is another.

If a restaurant has awesome dishes, can it practice retromarketing and be successful?  Let's put it this way.  Providing good customer service may not guarantee success, but not having customer service increases the chance of failure.  I think it is obvious that in today's competitive restaurant business, if doing one thing can increase the chance of success and decrease the chance of failure, you will do it.