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Spain’s El Bulli was considered the world’s best restaurant, once receiving two million requests in a single day for reservations. A very successful business owner procured one such reservation – and told me of an important lesson for advisors.
Originally a beach bar, El Bulli operated from 1964 until July of last year in a small town 100 miles outside of Barcelona. Open from June to December, its total annual capacity was 8,000 diners. On one day each October, it took reservations for the following year – and on that day had the remarkable two million requests.
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In the decade leading to its closing last year, El Bulli was ranked as the world’s top restaurant an unprecedented five times by industry standard-maker Restaurant Magazine. Despite that, it never made money as a restaurant – and was only able to stay open due to revenue from sale of cookbooks and lectures by its owner. One reason it lost money was that it employed 40 chefs –to prepare meals for 70 diners!
The lesson from El Bulli does not relate to why it ultimately failed, but to how its owners reinforced their image and brand awareness.
A unique invitation
The conversation about El Bulli emerged from my discussion with a highly successful entrepreneur (let’s call him Mark) about how to engage customers.
Due to his extensive travel, Mark is a member of the exclusive club who hold an American Express “Centurian” charge card, also known as the “black card.” With an initiation fee of several thousand dollars and a $2,500 annual fee, the black card (supposedly made of titanium) is clearly not for everyone, but for very frequent travelers its personal concierge and range of exclusive services merit the investment. As an aside, Amex doesn’t give a black card to just anyone – there are minimum spending requirements and the average cardholder has income and net worth of $1 million and $10 million respectively.
In early 2010, Mark got an email from American Express. Amex had been able to secure an evening at El Bulli later that year for black card holders. For a mere $1,800 per person, provided that he acted quickly, he and his wife could be part of this group. By coincidence, they were scheduled to be in Barcelona on holiday on the date of the dinner. One hurried phone consultation and email later – and their reservation was confirmed.
The El Bulli experience
What kind of dining experience do you get for $1800? The answer: An unforgettable one.
From the moment they were greeted at the door after the limo ride from Barcelona, it was a truly extraordinary evening. Over several hours, the guests (some of whom had flown in from around the world for just this one evening) were served 30 courses, most of which consisted of just a few bites. And along with dinner came numerous wines carefully paired with the courses with which they were served.
For several days after the dinner, Mark and his wife talked about little except their dinner at El Bulli and compared it to other dinners they were having. As time passed, however, their recollection of that dinner began to recede. By the time they returned to Canada, many of the details had faded and it became less and less top-of-mind.
And then something interesting happened.
A couple of weeks after their return, a couriered package arrived, containing a picture book chronicling their dinner at El Bulli. Page after page showed each course being prepared and served to guests – and there were photos of each guest in attendance. That picture book took a place of prominence in their living room – whenever they had company, guests would spend a few minutes flipping through the book and they’d talk about their experience. As a result, the memory of that extraordinary dinner has stayed vivid.
Staying top-of-mind with your clients
There are some direct parallels here with many businesses, including financial advisors. When meeting to develop financial plans or conduct reviews, for example, you do everything you can to ensure clients have a positive experience.
Depending on markets, clients may be more or less appreciative at the time – but similar to El Bulli, those memories fade over time. The challenge is how to maintain positive recollections of the experience between meetings – and that’s particularly true for your most important clients.
Here are some things I’ve seen advisors do to achieve this:
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I recently exchanged emails with an advisor with a unique approach.
When she begins working with clients, she spends a great deal of time probing beneath the surface to get at the specifics of what they want to achieve with their lives. Earlier this year, she brought on three client couples with very different goals. One talked about retiring to an exclusive gated community in Florida, the second about doing volunteer work in South America, the third about helping their academically gifted grandchildren attend the very best US universities.
After the financial plans had been finalized, she sent each of the clients a note expressing her appreciation for the opportunity to work together. With that note she included a framed photograph that captured the essence of what those clients were saving towards – and made the comment that she hoped the photo would help keep their dreams fresh. (What she didn’t say was that she hoped that every time clients looked at those photos, they’d be reminded of the role she was playing in achieving their goals.)
- I’ve talked to advisors who hosted clients at special events with high-profile guest speakers. The advisors almost always got a good response at the time – but really got mileage when afterwards they sent attendees framed photos of them chatting to the special guest. In fact, in some cases they got more of a response to the photo than to the event … the El Bulli principle at work.
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One of my favorite strategies to stay top-of-mind comes from an advisor whose assistant clips birth announcements out of the paper when clients become parents or grandparents. These birth announcements are enlarged, laminated, put in a sterling silver frame and then sent to clients with a note of congratulations.
Along similar lines, I spoke to one advisor whose client had a notice of a significant achievement appear in the local paper. He arranged to get a print from the paper, had it blown up and framed and then made a five-minute appointment to get some papers signed – and delivered this in person. Both advisors have commented that the response from clients is completely out of the proportion to the cost – they’ve spent much more taking clients to lunch without nearly the impact.
- Sending framed photos isn’t the only way to stay top-of-mind. One advisor invites top clients to an invitation-only quarterly lunch to discuss markets. By design, he keeps the luncheon small – he always chooses a top-end venue and goes to great pains to ensure that the food and ambience are outstanding.
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Activities to stay top-of-mind don’t necessarily have to relate to clients’ finances.
On two consecutive evenings in May, I attended events in my home market of Toronto where I encountered advisors hosting clients. The first was a q-and-a session with award-winning novelist John Irving (his books include The World according to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany and Cider House Rules) sponsored by the local library and Random House Publishing. I ran into an advisor who had invited a small group of top clients who were the author’s fans. The clients were thrilled to get up close and personal with Irving – and as a bonus, the all-in cost was $40 per person, including a glass of wine and a copy of Irving’s new book.
The next evening, I chatted briefly with an advisor and his wife who had invited two couples to hear a debate on the future of Europe, between Harvard historian Niall Ferguson and former British cabinet minister and European Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson. Again the tickets were inexpensive, but the results in staying top-of-mind substantial. And while these events happened to be in Toronto, most large cities have similar opportunities to engage clients.
Ask yourself if you’re doing a good enough job of staying top-of-mind with your best clients. If the answer is no, determine how to apply El Bulli’s strategy or some of these other techniques to your business.
conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries, go to www.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
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