Scott Adams – of Dilbert fame – owns and operates a restaurant. He also writes a blog. In a recent post, he outlines a number of initiatives he has introduced to increase his competitive edge, to some extent borrowed from Internet marketing techniques. In summary, these are:
- The lunch menu has been rearranged to rank dishes by popularity.
- Monday night (normally the slowest night) is now Game Night. Bring your own board game, use one of theirs, or play the Trivia questions on the big screen TV at the bar.
- Sign up online for the Networking Lunch, and have lunch with five randomly-selected strangers.
- For an instant party, bring your own iPod. They provide the private room, food, dance floor and the iPod DJ sound system. They’ll even play your photos on their laptop and big screen TV. (Almost forgot to add this item!)
Neat ideas – where else could you apply this sort of thinking?