THE BARKING GECKO

A decade ago, I was a part-owner in a bistro restaurant. It was a funky little place called The Barking Gecko. (Cool name, huh? And yes, geckos really do bark.)

The food was awesome. Ten years later, I’ve yet to experience a gorgonzola pasta, shrimp scampi, lemonade, or pumpkin pie that could rival those that chef Sean prepared. Not every one of his dishes hit (I absolutely could not tolerate the polenta) but everything he created was edgy, innovative, and expertly prepared.

In the early days, service was a little dicey because the servers were still learning their way. Sometimes they got a little too caught up in conversation with each other, but the meal more than made up for any service shortcomings.

The bar had an incredible collection of single malts that was the envy of every other establishment in town.

Sounds like a great place, doesn’t it. It was, but it closed within a year, and I think the biggest reason was lack of communication.

In mid-December, I arrived at the front door to find a sign on it informing me the place would be closed for the next 2 weeks while the chef was on vacation. This was unexpected. Not only from an owner standpoint, but also from a customer’s.

If you drove by and didn’t get close enough to see the sign, all you saw was another restaurant that had closed it’s doors. There was no advertising on radio or in the newspaper. Regular customers had no advance warning from the chef that, “hey, I’m taking a break in December, but we’ll be back in January, so come back and see us then.”

The problem with The Barking Gecko was that it didn’t. Bark, I mean. It didn’t tell it’s customers what was going on, what to expect, and, most importantly, why customers should come back. So, they didn’t.

If you want your customers to keep being customers, constantly inform them about things that affect them, like upcoming sales, new product launches, changes in hours, revised procedures, and when you will be on vacation.

Don’t bark just for the sake of making noise. But if you fail to bark when there is reason to do so, it might come back to bite you.