Learn to anticipate your customers’ needs, and you'll be in business.

The town I live in is in a slump like everywhere else in the country. The merchants here have been running a radio campaign asking the residents to please shop in Payson instead of running to Phoenix or Flagstaff for the lower prices. It costs money to get stuff up here. Frankly, I don’t understand why someone would drive 160 miles to save a few dollars, but Paysonites do it every day. To me, it’s the same thing as driving all over town to save two cents on a gallon of gas. But, they do this too.

Anyway, I think our merchants should add another layer to this campaign and start taking real care of the customer. And that got me to thinking. As members of the restaurant industry, we need to get inside our customers’ heads and start taking care of their needs and desires, even the questionable or unspoken ones.

Let’s assume you are handling the food, service, clean, and value ends of the business because those are the reasons you might hear, “I’ll never go there again.” The worst example I have of not solving the basics happened at a McDonald’s in Wisconsin back in the real early days. I was visiting stores with a new field-service manager, and we were in line behind a customer who was carrying a bag of food.

When he got to the head of the line, he asked to see the manager. This could be interesting, I thought. The owner happened to be there. This was usual in those days when the owner had his life savings in that building. The customer opened the bag and brought out a cheeseburger. He hit the counter with that burger and practically cracked it. You could have driven nails with that sandwich. He asked for a new one, one that was cooked today. The owner’s response? “If you don’t like my cheeseburgers, go somewhere else.” That was not handling the basics.

So what is the customer looking for in a perfect world, besides the basics? Here’s my list:

* He wants you to really Care and be Concerned about his business. He wants to be the Center of your attention at that moment. And he wants Convenience and Courtesy. He wants the experience to be Carefree.

* Understand his problems. Be Uniform but Unique in solving them. Always be User-friendly and certainly Uplifting.

* Be Sensitive and Sensible in how you approach him and Serve him. He expects you to Satisfy him but do it Simply. And keep him Safe.

* Say Thanks in a Thoughtful way. Give him a Treat. Give him every reason to Trust you.

* Even in the worst of rushes keep the place Orderly. And the Owner should be On site.

* Make sure your Menuboard is totally readable. Motivate your people so Morale is at its highest.

I am in the planning phase of starting my own restaurant. I am researching on deep frying oil. Can anyone please explain what oil is normally used for deep frying, and how it is reused and how often the oil is changed?

I am currently keeping my burgers in a warmer after I precook them and take them out to re-grill when the lunch crow hits. The water the burger in is just gravy. Is this the best option for Mall goers that don't want to wait long for their burger?

Finally, a moment to think or share thoughts. After the article came out on Aug. 2, our business tripled. It was hell for a week but we handled better than one would think and the following week was great too but now it's toilet time. We are doing less than the time before the article ran. Just started RepeatRewards last week so nothing from that yet (couldn't do it before because we were just too busy to do anything but take care of the customers).