The Secret You (Don’t) Want to Share

30 May 2012

You probably have your own favourite restaurant, hotel, holiday resort and so on. If you are talking about an unsung hero – you want to sing their praises and get the artist, chef, hotelier the recognition and rewards they truly deserve. But – what if all of a sudden they get rich and famous? All you did was tell a few friends, ones that you knew would appreciate the great food. And at some point they told their friends, who told their friends. Now you need to book the table that was always yours! And it might just be your imagination, but the portion seems to have got just that tiny bit smaller, and the price seems to have gone up too.

So you go back to the other restaurant that you love almost as much, but when you get there it’s boarded up, and a sign in the cracked windowpane says they have sadly gone out of business. And you never told a soul about this one!

So how do you go about it – keep the secret to yourself and hope they manage to scrape an existence whilst preforming their art for you, or share the wealth and knowledge and hope the benefits will be worthwhile? The scenario laid out above could just as easily read very differently…

A couple of weeks later when you are in the same area, you notice a change – the dusty empty building has been cleaned up, and a sign says that a new restaurant is coming soon – a franchise of the first place, managed by the former owners of the second! Maintaining their values and ensuring the differentiation that made them special in the first place is still there – quality ingredients, great service and putting the customer first. A loyalty scheme means that as the regular you get early booking options, so your table is always there when you want it. The recommend a friend scheme means you are rewarded for sharing the secret with your nearest and dearest.

It’s probably wiser to share the wealth and gain the satisfaction of seeing someone or something you endorse making a success of it, than it is seeing your secret pleasure slowly die away!