I enjoy watching Gordon Ramsay. So does the rest of the world it seems, judging by the popularity and variety of television programs he hosts including Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen. But while some people turn into his shows to see him yelling and dropping the F bomb, not to mention educating us Americans with off-color British slang , I enjoy watching his programs for his business sense.
Running a business, any business, is a lot like running a restaurant. I’ve blogged about it here a few times, and tonight I came across another instance of brilliance from the TV chef.
“The golden rule of a restaurateur – you serve your customers, not yourself.”
That truism was uttered in Season 2 of the U.S. version of his Kitchen Nightmares program.
Ramsay could write a book by simply applying the lessons of running a restaurant with those of any other kind of business. But the line above rings true for many reasons.
Too often I see publicists, social media consultants, Internet marketers, and other “wanna-be’s” tooting their own horn for what they have done for a client. They issue press releases for this-and-that, which include their name and/or company for the majority of the release, and then their client for only a small portion.
Isn’t that reversed?
When you take on a new client, there is always this small sense of “this could be great for my portfolio” or “this could be great for my image” – but in the end it is truly the customer that is important. When was the last time you asked yourself – “Am I serving the customer, or serving myself.” Some would argue “both” would be the best answer, but I’m not so sure.
In a world of social media consultants who are trying to leverage THEIR name and THEIR brand, are they forgetting the customer?
What do you think?
