Let’s continue with Functional Division and get back to your new restaurant. As you probably recall from last week, Functional Division is used when you carve out specific functions of a product and position them somewhere else. Instead of checking in entirely at the airport, you can do some of that at home.
What are the different functions or tasks that need to be done at your restaurant? Can you list them?
Sure.
Ordering the food
Cooking the food
Serving the food
Eating the food
Paying for the food
Great. Now take one of those tasks and move them somewhere else. You can either put them in a different order at a different time altogether.
How about serving the food? Where would I put that?
I don’t know. Let’s just put it randomly. Imagine if as soon as they came in they were served food, even before they ordered?
Huh! Why would I do that? Let’s say they don’t like the food?
Let me throw that question back at you. What would be an advantage of serving them some food as soon as they come in?
Oh that’s interesting. Imagine if, in my restaurant, as soon as people walked in they were given a free teaser. They would taste it and it would possibly lead them to ordering new or more dishes. We would appear to be a generous restaurant and confident in our food to give it out for free. It would send a strong message in customer service and restaurant quality. Interesting idea. I never would have thought of that.
Wow. Terrific. And what would happen if we moved ordering to the end? So the customers had to pay first and order after?
What? That is crazy! What would they pay for?
Well you tell me? Why might you want that?
Well, I guess I could run a special where people would come for mystery night. They would pay a certain amount of money and receive a surprise dinner. Or based on the amount they paid, they could choose from certain special dishes to order. That might be cool.
Great. And what about if we moved a task to another time altogether? What about if they didn’t pay for the food they ate until the next day?
What!?! I’d never get paid!
Well, what might be an advantage of getting paid the next day?
You mean they wouldn’t pay before they left?
Let’s say you took their card and held it on file but didn’t charge them until the next day?
Oh ok.
What would be an advantage?
Well I could charge them based on how good they thought the experience was. I’d call them the next day and survey them. I’d get a lot of great reviews and feedback that way. The customers would see we really care about their experience – I mean which restaurant calls you the next day to see how you enjoyed? We could ask them to either pay the standard rate or the extremely satisfied rate. If enough people choose the extremely satisfied rate, we’d actually make more money.
Great.
And what if they didn’t order the food when they were in in your restaurant but actually ordered it at a different point?
You mean from home?
Sure, they can do that. Or from work. Or what if…
I think I got it – what if we preempted them and sent out texts and emails during the day encouraging people to get their dinner orders ready early. Then, as soon as they arrived, we’d have their food ready to serve. We can have a much faster turnover rate. Maybe the whole restaurant can be framed as ‘lunch or dinner for those in a hurry?’
Great ideas! I’m really impressed how fast your catching on! Can’t wait to continue next week!
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