The Atrium Chef Café

The Atrium Chef Café, 110 110th AVE NE, Bellevue WA

Background: Atrium Chef Café, the small restaurant cum café, was in business for a long time now at the 3rd floor of our Bellevue office building. The name Atrium Chef Café comes from the name of our building, which is Atrium Place. To all the old and new Bellevue office folks, this café was known as a place to go to only when,

o its raining (which is very usual over here :)) and you can’t go out
o It’s a lazy day and you don’t want to go out.
o You were in a meeting until 12:15 and have to be in another at 1:00, which gives a very little time window to go out for lunch.

And sometimes even if there is a reason, people used to avoid going to 3rd floor cafe. An obvious assumption here, of course, is that the reason you go out for lunch is because you don’t bring lunch box to office.

Having a sufficient amount of background now, let’s look at some trivial and non-trivial facts about the Atrium Chef Café.

What lacked with the old vendor?
The main problem, as I think, was the variety of food items on the menu. There weren’t too many options to choose from. This was the main turn off if you aren’t the kind of person who eats the same menu daily, without fail. And even if you are, the food used to be too ‘boring’ to try every other day. Also the service provided by the café was just bare minimum from a running café point of view. There was no service provided in terms of heating the food, customizing based on your eating preferences or providing service as little as a glass of water on your table. If we now start talking about taking customer feedback and stuff, that would definitely be too much to ask for.

Things that the new vendor tapped on:
In the early stages, the new vendor didn’t seem to be a guy who was serious about business. But as time passed by, he showed how determined he was to prove himself up. He tried and more importantly tried successfully all the must to-do items for a business to flourish - Almost anything and everything that one would learn in a business school.

To name a few of them -


1. Mould your products to the market needs:
The new management tried a lot of different menus in order to understand what exactly brings customers. The very thing that old café owner didn’t bother to think about.

2. Not all the customers are same:
At the initial stages he realized that the building Atrium place has a mix of people as far as their eating preferences are concerned. You just cannot serve one kind of sandwiches to attract the full range of customers.

There are some people who would like to go for a take-away lunch that they would prefer to have at their desk later, at their ease, without affecting the work at hand. Then there are a few who believe in having their concentration on one thing at a time. And that implies when they eat, they want to be out of their work place, gossiping with friends.

The range of customers is not only limited to their eating styles but also to the amount and variety of food. Some people who, for some reason, have to skip their breakfast, want to cover it up with a heavy lunch and hence need a buffet kind of place where they can ‘eat all they can’ whereas some like to have variety of items in their plate.

3. Acquire proper tools and skill sets: the current vendor, at the start, was good with only the Greek food recipes. He tried them at the initial stage but people didn’t like it much. He then realized (or may be someone suggested him) to try some Asian recipes, which primarily were Indian recipes. The guy did not know much about the Indian food but he had the thing in him that took him places – willingness to learn. He talked to another chef who works in another Indian restaurant in Bellevue and also to a few folks in the building. They got him a few recipes and the basic concept about Indian spices and condiments. But the actual learning was up to him and he tried and tried until he succeeded.

4. Regular feedback from customers: one important thing with business is that even if your customers are happy; you must know what they want next. In that way you not only know how to prepare to take your business to the next level but also rule out the possibility of any competitor taking them away by showing them what you lack and they have.


5. Prompt address of the issues: Once you have the feedback, putting serious efforts to provide what customer actually wants goes a long way. There are twofold advantages by doing so. Primarily, nothing makes a customer happier, if today he notices the change he suggested the day before. Secondary, when he sees the things getting implemented the way he wanted, it gives him a sense of belonging, which ultimately makes him want to come more often. One ultimate advantage, of course, is that your business improves and is more likeable now.

6. Support existing line of product along with the new ones: I read it somewhere that it costs 10 times lesser to retain an old customer than to go for a new one. Little did I know that the café guy too has read it? Even after adding so many new items on the menu, this café still has its old delicacies. I don’t know how he manages to do so, but he is doing so and that makes his old customers to still give him business.


7. Make a customer come back again: the café guy has a new punch card which has some 11 slots. He punches a slot every visit you visit his café and that makes you eligible to have one free meal after every 10 meals.


The café guy has certainly done a great job in managing the café and I have no doubt in my mind that amid all the recession and bad market scene, he is one guy who is here to stay.

There is a saying in Sansakrita, the ancient Indian language of pundits. And it goes like, उद्यमेन ही सिध्यन्ति, कर्यानी न मनोराठे, नहीं सुप्तस्य सिंघस्य, प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृगः

Those who put efforts achieve the success at the end. A sleeping lion can never catch the prey.

Gyaan

Read one bullet point at a time and ponder about it before moving to another,

• The most efficient way to learn is to learn from others’ mistakes. That’s learning with minimum stakes involved.
• The most common symptom among all the losers is that they want to excel in everything they do. Do not be one of them; try to pick your calling.
• If people crib before you about things around them, there has to be some reason behind it. Find the real cause. And even if you can’t solve it for them, avoid being in that situation yourself.
• The world is full of diversities and that makes it so interesting. Respect it that way.
• The only common thing among everyone is that everyone is different. So learn to live with all the differences.
• No one has ever been able to make everyone happy, so there is no point in even attempting to do so.
• People possess their own inherent nature by birth and ‘usually’ that CANNOT be changed. It applies to you too. So be happy with what you are.
• You are never too old or too young to learn. So keep on learning. Learning never goes waste.
• Keep yourself surrounded by frank and straight forward people.
• Never forget people you met your way up. You will miss them up there and would need them your way down.
• No one keeps winning the whole life. Everyone loses. So be a good sport: accept when defeated. Remember the old saying? “lose the fight but don’t lose the lesson”
• If something consumes way too much time and energy of yours. Shun it ASAP.
• Some people find pleasure in music, some in peace, some with crowd, and some in solidarity – find out what best suits you.
• You are never too occupied to remember others’ special days, and too busy to wish them on those days.



... To Be Continued