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How Listening to a Waiter can Jack your Profits up 33%

Posted By Darren Rowse 3rd of June 2009 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

waiter.pngImage by marie-ll

Guest Post by Michael Alex Wasylik from perpetualbeta.com.

A Persuasive Profession

When you think of people who know you to use words to persuade, you might think of salesmen, writers, lawyers, or politicians. Few people realize that good waiters (and of course, waitresses) also know how to use the power of words to influence the buying behavior of their customers. After all, the bigger the check and the happier the customer, the larger the tip. So take a look at some of the things this waiter did to juice up his persuasiveness and boost his bottom line.

Invocation of a Higher Power

Our waiter did not, of course, come out and try to convert us to any particular faith. But he did invoke a higher power than himself before rolling out the list of lunch specials. Remember the last time you heard about the daily specials? Odds are, it started something like this: “And today’s specials are…”

Flat. Boring. Weak. Not working, unless the specials themselves are made to sounds tantalizing with vivid language. But our server did something different – he opened up with:

Our chef recommends…

See why that’s different? These aren’t just specials… these are entrées the chef himself would eat if he were at our table. Before he’s even finished his sentence, he’s opened us up psychologically to whatever follows – because what he’s about to say doesn’t come from him, but from an authority. And research shows, humans respond more frequently to requests from a figure of authority. Your readers will, too.

Everyone Else Is Doing It

So let’s say you didn’t want to get the special. Or were torn between two. If you asked this waiter for his suggestion, what’s he likely to say? Another waiter might say, “The fried scallops are my favorite.” Again, weak. Who cares what the waiter thinks? My waiter would have said:

Everyone who orders the glazed grouper loves it.

Why is this better? It invokes the power of “social proof” – the deep-down human need to be part of the herd, to seek safety in numbers. After all, if “everyone” else liked it, odds are pretty good you’ll like it too. Sold!

The Feel-Good Event of the Year

Everyone who’s ever waited table or been waited on knows that the server will check on the table a couple of times to make sure everyone at the table has what they need. When they do, they’ll often use the language of deprivation: “Can I get anything else for you?” In other words… what’s missing? What did I forget?

A better approach, but still not the best one, is the server who comes up to you and says, “How is everything?” The hope is, of course, that you’ll respond positively. But why hope? Why not just come right out and demand a positive response? Here’s what our waiter asked:

So, gentlemen… is everything delicious?

Well, heck yes! Most people, unless specifically unhappy about some aspect of their meal, will answer that question with one word: “Yes!” There are two main reasons for this, and two main effects. First, the reasons.

We want to be liked and likable. Most of us don’t like to go stirring up conflict. So was it delicious? If it’s even close, we’re prone to agree rather than disagree, and then have to explain why – that would be a huge hassle. (Especially if we ordered the “chef’s recommendation!”) But also, if we picked the restaurant, and picked the menu item, and it was delicious, well, that makes us geniuses, right? We pick delicious food at outstanding restaurants with chefs who give the best recommendations. And our friend across the table can go out and say, “Hey, you should go to lunch with Mike! He picks the best lunch places.”

So we’re inclined to agree that our meal was not just edible, not merely good, but delicious. And by extension, so are we. Now that we’re geniuses of selecting lunch cuisine, what impact does that have on this waiter’s bottom line?

When we get the check, and we’re calculating the tip, we’re more likely to tip 20% instead of just 15% because, hey, the meal was delicious. That’s a 33% jump in pure profit.

And before we ask for the check, maybe we want to look over a dessert menu, because that cheesecake is almost certainly going to be even more delicious than the grouper. (Much to the chagrin of my waistline – cheesecake almost always beats out grouper in the “delicious” category.) So the total bill, the one we use to start calculating a tip, will be bigger as well. And that means the tip is bigger.

But there’s one other important effect. We’ve committed ourselves, in public, and in front of our friends, that the meal was delicious. They probably did the same. And when we feel good about the dining experience, we’re more likely to come back, and bring our friends. And our friends are more likely to do that, too. And for restaurants as well as most businesses, repeat customers are the best kind of customers to have… just like repeat vistors are the ones that will sustain your blog over time. Everyone prospers.

What’s In the Doggy Bag?

“Well, Mike…” you’re thinking “That’s all great, but I’m not a waiter. How do I bring this home to my site?”

Simple. Next time you’re trying to persuade your audience to do something – subscribe to your feed, download a report, even buy a product, try at least one of these three things:

1. Invoke the power of a higher authority to influence decisions. Get a testimonial from someone famous. Quote a rating from an industry watchdog. Earn and use the Better Business Bureau logo on your website. Partner with someone well-known in your niche. Or become the authority yourself: write a book, set a record, win a contest. Get creative and you’ll see opportunities to invoke authority in every post.

2. Promote safety in numbers. What’s your best-read article? Your most popular post? Your most-downloaded report? Get specific – offer numbers, names, references, or testimonials. If someone else likes what you do, then the next reader is more willing to take the chance on you.

3. Make your readers feel fantastic about their decision tospend their time with you. If you’ve provided legitimate value to your readers, they should feel fantastic. Gently remind them of this in your follow up: “Thanks for subscribing to my email feed! I hope you find every post as exciting as the one that madeyou subscribe.”

Our chef recommends that you try all three, and watch how they impact your bottom line.

About the Author

Michael Alex Wasylik is a Florida lawyer who first started blogging in 1999. He currently writes for the Florida Foreclosure Fraud weblog and his personal site, perpetualbeta.com – which he’s sure you’ll find absolutely delicious.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Great article using waiter as an example, and by reading it, it reminds me what Joe Surgarman said once in his seminar, “The Desire To Belong” which in terms we people want to belong to the special group of people which means the “chef recommends…” are for good quality group of people…..

  2. Great tips, excellent approaches – all highly recommended by Problogger himself! lol

    This is great, one of the best ways to teach is to give examples and then show how the skills and knowledge can be generalized to different circumstances or disciplines. I will definitely be using some of these! Thanks again.

  3. Love it! I love the feeling of hearing that I’ve genuinely helped or inspired someone from something I wrote. I’ve been thinking about trying to actively get more feedback here for this reason: to make sure I’m providing value in some form. These are some great take-home points I’m sure we can all use.

  4. These are basics of customer service. Making sure the customer feels comfortable and safe is basically what this is all about. Also listening to what their problem is instead of trying to predict it is also a huge thing when it comes to the difference of $5 and $10.

  5. That is an excellent post, I really like the drawing of parallels between the ‘real world’ and the ‘online world’ to illustrate the point – which is especially important for any online business as it can be really easy to forget we’re still dealing with real people sometimes!

  6. Being a fellow waiter/bartender/restaurant manager myself, I love this post completely! Although it’s an analogy, it most certainly makes some of the great tips available to everyone to get more traffic/people/profits.

    I never thought about using what I learned in the restuarant biz, in a blog, but after reading this, it’s clear that business is business is business.

  7. Great article on how social proof influences people’s buying decisions.

    I’ve implemented the some of these on my blog such as putting a “Others Who Read This Article Also Enjoyed” section linking to other popular posts.

    Social proof is a huge emotional factor in getting people to take the actions you want them to take.

  8. This is like the complete opposite of my waitress analogy about Adapting for Your Audience. Your waiter did everything right. Our waitress didn’t even manage the weak alternatives you provided, and managed instead to offend us.

    Your waiter’s got it going on. Thanks for the tips on we can learn from him and boost our own business.

  9. Wonderful article! I would like to translate it to Spanish and post it on my personal blog… of course, if Michael agrees (I would give him the credit)… Excellent examples with a waiter.

  10. Selling by persuausion is a skill taught by marketers. We can learn a lot from these people and of course, from our waiter friend.

  11. Excellent tips as always Darren . I would try to incorporate the suggestion on my blog .
    The fascinating part is simple words can change the blog from a bad to a good blog .
    And I am sure I owe that for you ..
    Regards
    Sudeep

  12. One points I got out of it is that there is always something you can learn from other people no matter who it is.

    Traded Option For the First Time in My life Today

  13. Great post. Definitely something to think on and work into everyday dealings.

  14. Great article. I used to apply those same techniques.
    One example I remember clearly was asking if a couple would like to cleanse their palate with a glass of champagne before trying a new wine.

  15. Oh! Brilliant post – I love it and I will definitely be adding these “turn-of-phrases” in posts to come. Really I was convinced and surely my readers will be convinced to return again!

  16. This is timely. I am just starting to write sales copy for a product I am developing – this advice will come in handy!!

  17. Persuasive copy is gold to anyone that knows what they are doing.

  18. Mark O. says: 06/03/2009 at 10:51 am

    Darren,

    I’m cool with most of what you suggest. However, I really have to disagree with the “So, gentlemen… is everything delicious?” comment when checking on the table. You’re taking a chance here. You’re biasing your question right from the start. You’d better hope that the meal was incredible, because if it’s anything less, your guests are going to feel duped. And you can be pretty sure they’re not going to want to recommend you to a friend – you’d be taking a real chance on getting negative feedback.

  19. Very nice … I like it. I’m going to make an effort to use the power of the group in the future.

    On the tangent of waiters … a waiter who says “I’ll be right back with your change” is probably going to get a bigger tip from me than one who says “Do you need change?”. The second one is assuming that the change is his tip, which is not always true (and can rub a lot of people the wrong way).

    /rant

  20. Worthwhile post. Thanks Darren.

  21. Honestly I did not realize this. But I think it’s a bit easier for waiter to persuade customers because it’s face-to-face interactions. It’s the ancient kind of interactions. Now that we use blog, which is mainly writings, it’s much more difficult. Also, face to face interaction include some kind of obligation to be nice even if you don’t like the product. So people have some more time for more persuasion. But on the web, people don’t have to be nice. Anything can make them exit the browser. So the tight frame for persuasion shrinks. My blog is still new but I’m trying to add my personalities into my writing to stir up interactions. It’s difficult but well, almost everything is in the beginning.

  22. Loved the post. I’ll make sure to implement some of your suggestions in my next post!

  23. great articles, im gonna subscribe to him soon

  24. Absolutely Brilliant Post! It’s amazing where inspiration will turn up. These are things that I will be trying on my tech blog in the near future. Well written and informative. I was thinking to myself “How can I apply these” as I was reading and then….BAM!! There it is at the end of the post…..suggestions on how to implement. Another reason why I’m a subscriber and daily reader of ProBlogger.

  25. Great transition from the story line to the actual application of what you learned from the waiter Mike. I liked this post, I might suggest some of those tips to a friend of mind that owns a restaurant.

    Perhaps then he’ll finally become my client. Dont worry I’ll give you full credit, lol..

    Nice piece!

  26. Well, that was delicious food for thought. Excellent advice wrapped inside personalized story with a clever angle. Come to think of it, that’s the formula for an outstanding article and Michael, you sure delivered one and thanks for Darren for delivering this.

  27. I added a “Featured Posts” widget on the sidebar of my blog, and I find that it gets way more traffic to some of the posts of which I’m most proud.

  28. you have got an excellent writing style

  29. Salman says: 06/03/2009 at 6:13 pm

    Hi Darren
    Superb article But how does this help bloggers in making money?

    Regards
    Salman
    http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc for blogging tips and hacks.

  30. An eloquent expantion of :

    “Feel, Felt, Found, Find” technique of sales.

    Giving the client the feeling of ownership of the experience, and collective knowledge.

    “I know how you feel”
    Understanding, precedent, empathy.

    “Others have felt the same way”
    Precedent, strength of argument/conviction, group experience

    “On further investigation, we/clients have found this to be XYZ”
    Strengthening of precedent – leading to solution

    “I am sure that you will find this to be the same”
    Present with positive dialogue insinuating that the experience is accepted as a future enterprise.

    I like the way that this post reads…
    …because it tends toward a multiple responsibility –
    That of the blogger to own up to the site they run, and really look at and be responsible for the way it is portrayed.

    AND it offers a level of trust and resposibility to the reader, thus enabling them to engage more with the product.

    Excellent post.

    Thanks.

  31. What a treat to check my mailbox this morning and see that this post was up, and already generating feedback. For everyone who found it useful, helpful, interesting, or just plain fun – I’m glad that we had the chance to share that.

    @myddnetwork – My deal with Darren was that this post would be exclusive to Problogger, but if he doesn’t mind, I certainly don’t.

    @Mark O: Some people may react that way. When it happened to me, I thought that the question was likely to escalate good feelings into great feelings, rather than turn merely good feelings into a negative. So how do we know whether it’s a good idea? Test it and see if it works. My feeling was that this waiter had used it to great success before, and found it worked for him. Your mileage may vary. (If it does, please come back and let us know!)

    Thanks again for the great feedback, everyone!

  32. Few people realize that Good waiters also know how to use the power of words to influence the buying behavior of their customers. After all, the bigger the check and the happier the customer, the larger the tip. So take a look at some of the things this waiter did to juice up his persuasiveness and boost his bottom line.

  33. great post, taking a waiter as an example is good, it hing this can be helpful for me

    buy the way Darren,

    for example in ukraine almost nobody post the guest posts, can you give some tips to make it right, because i am a newbie in blogging but i have a great expirience in seo, and i want to make my blog good for my readers very popular

  34. You sound just like a detective lol.

  35. Nice article. I like that you used an example everyone can relate to. Such obvious ways to strengthen your marketing, but I bet most of us have missed this one a thousand times at the same time it was working on us! Thanks for the ideas.

  36. It truly is amazing how scenarios as simple as being a waiter can be applied to blogging. I really am amazed with how a simple adjustment to the way words are composed makes a huge difference. By doing this, it allows for better engagement with people and provides a strong relationship. For me, this was very insightful and now I can use this methodology when engage readers and have them wanting to come back. I appreciate this very useful guest post and it continues to show me how useful content around the web truly can be.

  37. It truly is amazing how scenarios as simple as being a waiter can be applied to blogging. I really am amazed with how a simple adjustment to the way words are composed makes a huge difference. By doing this, it allows for better engagement with people and provides a strong relationship. For me, this was very insightful and now I can use this methodology when I engage with readers and have them wanting to come back. I appreciate this very useful guest post and it continues to show me how useful content around the web truly can be.

  38. Joan Vermette says: 06/04/2009 at 1:44 am

    Hmm, I’m not feeling the effectiveness of the “chef recommends” bit — didn’t the chef create EVERYTHING on the menu? Why would a chef create something that s/he didn’t recommend? As a diner, I’d doubt the authenticity of the waiter, if I were to hear him cite the specials as a “recommendation.”

    So while I get the point about appealing to an expert, I wonder if it might be more impactful if the expert in question were more objective.

  39. Great post. I freelance as a waiter during the summer months to keep myself busy. Since I have been doing that my personal and persuasive skills have improved quite a bit. I’ve always thought everyone should be a waiter for this reason, also to experience that kind of humbling service, and to know what people in the service industry experience from customers; both the good and the bad. Every waiter has their own style that they are always manicuring to extract the best results; in terms of customer satisfaction, job happiness, and of course monetary.

  40. Wow. Just realized that I am not selling at all on my commerce site. I would need to make some changes now. Thanks

  41. Great advice! I just started my own blog (mommygaga.blogspot.com) and I think it is a good idea to appeal to your readers. Persuasion can go a long way!

  42. Superb! I read this article twice!

    Sometimes we could learn from the environment even from a small kid.

    Yeah, I absolutely agree with all the points. Next time I’ll take a serious look on how waiters doing their jobs because there might something benefit for us!

  43. Hey, everyone, thanks for the great feedback! What a treat it was to see this go live this morning.

    Regarding a Spanish version, that’s up to Darren. My deal with him was to have this post exclusive tp Problogger.

    Mark O: certainly possible, but there’s only one way to find out: split test. Got any data?

    Thanks again to Darren for the opportunity to post here.

  44. Robert Cialdini wrote the bible of marketing – Influence! Now it is everywhere.

  45. I love this article. While it may be effective because it is in person, many people don’t realize that the same principles and strategies also work online in sales letters, and networking.

    Putting something that may be complicated for some to understand into the context of a normal every day event is smart. It makes it easy to understand and gives a visual and connection to the article as the reader remembers their last meal out.

    Great job.

  46. Everyone one I sent this post to absolutely loved it. I’ll incorporate the suggestions in my blogs and my offline activities. Thanks!

  47. Hi,

    Great article. I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 12 years now. Back in 2002 I took a course by Bob Brown called The Seven Ways Successful Servers Sell and some of what you mentioned was in the course. After taking his course, I developed my own style and instead of approaching tables with the standard “Hi, can I get you something to drink?” I would instead say “Hi, did you know that more people are killed every year by coconuts than by sharks? and that the number one killer of beavers is trees and a beaver cuts down 200 trees a year because if he doesn’t his teeth will grow into his brain and kill him and its actually illegal to throw a live moose out of a flying airplane over Alaska?” This usually got a laugh out of people in which I would thank them for coming in and then introduce myself. I would then say “By the way, our Bartender Shane is featuring an Twisted Rocket which is one of our slush sensations made with Blue Curacoe and Smirnoff Raspberry Vodka, everyone who orders them, luvs them. Through the meal I would come out with the appropriate “did you know fact” based on something that they ordered. While working at one “tourist” restaurant my fellow waiters/waitress made anywhere from 7%-10% in gratuities while I made anywhere from 12%-15% or more. This lead to my starting my didyouknowguy profile on twitter, to entertain people and funnel any contacts to other more targeted twitter profiles. Words are very persuasive, learn to use them powerfully and you will prosper. Again, great post, thanks for sharing.

  48. I worked as a waitress at an upscale restaurant while I was in graduate school. We used to delight our customers who requested “doggy bags” by creating whimsical animals out of tinfoil and nestling the leftovers inside. So customers, who might have felt embarrassed at asking to take food home got special treatment instead and left happy, toting their original creations (which of course other customers didn’t know were doggy bags unless they asked for one themselves!)
    Of course, we soon got a new manager who “cut costs” by prohibiting us from wasting tinfoil like that.

  49. I am happy to read your post and not more to say about anything. the tips you have provided will certainly works but I don’t know how it work with various category. I am a personal finance blogger and I have started practice of adding post schedule calendar in each week and thus found my subscriber base increasing gradually. Yes, not at a single shot bug gradually.

    I have already adapted some of the tips here and certainly this is helpful. As a regular visitor, I have learned a lot from you and taking this moment to say at least a thanks to you, that I have not said earlier. Best wishes

  50. I had forgotten all about quoting an authority in my writing. This served as a good reminder.

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