So, I went out for a lunch the other day to my local Jason’s Deli. Pretty big chain – good, thick Dagwood-style sandwiches, great salad bar, etc. And no, I’m not getting free coupons for plugging them here. Just giving credit where it’s due, since I’m about to do the opposite as well…
Anyway, so while they have all these specialty sandwiches listed on their boards and in their printed menus, at the heart of their offering is a “build-your-own-sandwich” feature. You pick your meat (~ a dozen) and your bread (ditto) and then choose from a bunch of trimmings and condiments.
That’s what I want, so I grab a menu to review my options. Just as I have done successfully every other time I’ve come here for a sandwich. I open the menu, and look, and look and look some more. I see all the specialty sandwiches, paninis, subs, salads, desserts, etc. I see the section for the Build Your Own Sandwich, which reads:
BUILD YOUR OWN SANDWICH
Served with: Chips or baked chips with a pickle.
Substitute fresh fruit for chips & pickle. 1.59
Pick your meat, name your bread, select your spreads and dress it up.
You also decide the size. whole/5.99 • half/4.99 • *slim/4.99
.60 extra: hot corned beef hot pastrami natural, grilled chicken breast
*slim = half-portion meat between two whole slices of bread
That’s it. Where’s the list of the meats and breads and trimmings and condiments you get to choose from? AWOL. They were always there before, but I don’t see them now. Am I missing something? They’ve even included the three meats that cost extra, but not the 12 that are offered as part of the regular sandwich price. What gives?
So, I walk up to the counter, menu in hand, and ask the guy, “Where’s the list of meats I can choose from? And breads? And trimmings and condiments?” And just so you know, they don’t have a big menu board mounted that provides all that info.
“They’re not in there?” he asks? Nope. “Let me take a look,” he says, and here’s the clincher: “These are brand-new menus we just got in.” He looks. And looks and looks some more. “Hunh. That’s strange.” Yeah, tell me about it.
So, get the big picture here. Here’s a national sandwich shop chain – 225 stores strong. Ranked #1 in annual sales in QSR Magazine’s Top Ten list of restaurant groups with under 300 locations. Just named “Best Restaurant in America” by Parents magazine.
And as an experienced commercial writer, I know how projects like these unfold and get produced, and know this menu revamp probably went through at least a ten sets of eyes (conservatively). Yet, somehow, some way, almost inconceivably, the menu got printed, minus, arguably, THE core, central menu information – one of their signature features.
And each location no doubt got a few hundred copies of the new menu, which means close to 50,000 printed in all. Truly amazing.
And until it’s replaced with a corrected one, it’s going to make the counter staff’s job a LOT more complicated. Not to mention far longer wait times at lunch time, as everyone who wants a custom sandwich is going to have to ask for all the choices, listen and try to remember all they heard, and THEN decide. As opposed to knowing exactly what they want by the time they get up to the counter (i.e., like it should work). A freakin’ nightmare. This is the proverbial Menu Designed by Committee.
Oh, and get this: the SAME meatless/breadless menu was loaded up on their web site, to boot! So, until they fix it (and I haven’t checked it since), when people call to order takeout, they’ll be putting the counter staff through the same ordeal! Or if they’re trying to order online, they’ll likely just say, the heck with it and go somewhere else.
Now, obviously, Jason’s has done a lot of things right or they wouldn’t be as successful as they are. And while this screw-up won’t really hurt them in the long run, it’s just one more example – and they’re all around us – of BIG companies who don’t have their act together. Now, don’t get the idea that all companies are full of morons – obviously not the case. And this screw-up doesn’t prove that Jason’s is a bush-league operation. Again, not so. But this stuff happens more than you might imagine.
So, as you build your freelance copywriting business, don’t canonize these corporate entities as all-knowing, all-intelligent, all-savvy, all-buttoned-up entities. Ain’t necessarily so…
So, how do you think stuff like this happens?
Can you share some similar stories of major screw-ups in a big company’s literature?
Or similar snafus that show the Big Boys aren’t so smart, and maybe human, just like the rest of us?
Have you made the mistake of thinking you don’t have what it takes to make a difference for a business, since, “they’re SO much smarter than me”?
Yep, the owners, executives, middle management etc… all still put their socks on before their shoes…just like I do 🙂
It proves that we are human, we make mistakes, and also demonstrates that putting these businesses (and the people that run them) up on a pedestal can have a negative effect on how you present your services to them. In fact, I’ve found that most of the owners in larger volume companies actually respect the fact that you speak to them on their level.
I guess my point is (I know I’m rambling a little), they make mistakes, and when they can simply call up a trusted professional to pick up the slack when they do…it’s a good thing.
We all have to ask ourselves… “Will I be that trusted professional?” 🙂
Great post PB.
New marketing slogan for Jason’s: “Taking Mystery Meat to a Whole New Level.”
But seriously, folks…. Jason’s might actually employ a bit of humor to milk the situation instead of just ignoring or quietly fixing it. How about a contest for loyal customers? Name all the available meats, breads and condiments from memory and win a free sandwich. Turn a glitch into a gain, I say!
A contrary note, if you please. The generalization “big companies don’t always have their act together” is 1. too sweeping and 2. too loose. (If you omit “always,” we can skip expecting any human endeavor to be perfect.)
My sense of large organizations, once they take on something like a menu makeover, is they are groups of specialized “small companies” on an organizational chart. Also, if ten sets of eyes saw it before printing, perhaps the root of the screw up is they never had all ten people in one room together. Sitting in their cubicles, checking their iPhone and tablets at the airport, initialing approval from a corner office, perhaps they focus on not doing anything to look foolish and/or they assume (or hope) someone else, whose job it is, will catch what’s missing.
I do not assume Peter does or does not write better than I do just because he uses “better than me” instead of you-know-what.
In Journalism school they admonished us to get all our facts right, especially names, lest readers doubt our credibility. That’s great for training young writers to be careful, but if I write Smith instead of Smythe, that may be the only error in the whole story. Let’s not assume TOO much from limited information.
Even GM pulls whoppers. Some years ago I read that Chevrolet offered its Nova model in Latin America, where no va (I am told) means “does not go.”
They can fix the web site pretty quickly. And they could put an insert into the menu. Maybe put up a placard in the stores. They can use the excuse that the available choices change over time and from store to store.
The trouble is you develop blind spots and you can look at for days or weeks and never see the mistakes. You have to give it to somebody completely divorced from the process to find the mistakes.
Assembly instructions are my peeve. You need to give it to a complete klutz to put together to find out if the instructions work. Get it somebody in marketing.
After spending 30+ years in Corporate America, my guess is that this wasn’t an example of oversight, but someone’s idea to eliminate the listing – for whatever reason. Depending on the culture, others who thought it was a bad idea may not have felt they could (or should) speak up. The ol’ Emperor’s New Clothes syndrome. Or, as Dennis said, they felt someone else would say so.
Just a thought.
Another long-time corporate vet here, and I tend to agree with Cathy…in all likelihood, somewhere along the line someone decided to eliminate the listing and everyone else just went along with it. And if it causes them some short-term grief, they’ll simply add it back in next time they re-do the menus…and I highly doubt they’ll hire a professional writer to help them with those few lines. This isn’t necessarily an example of poor writing or the need for a professional writer, but instead just the typical perils of corporate group think.
I would assume this made the menu shorter and cheaper–in today’s environment. An unexpected result? Not as useful. I am sure the parent company thinks people know the options by now or individual restaurants will post the options. I never heard of a sandy place with a printed menu–this is a carryout?
I’m going to go along with Cathy and guess that the listing was left out on purpose. Perhaps not all locations are going to have all the usual meat selections all the time — while the extra-cost ones will always cost extra. Perhaps in-store signage can tell customers what choices are available on any given day. I realize this is of no use to people who phone in their orders. And it’s all just conjecture on my part. And I don’t necessarily agree with the decision.
The closest I have experienced anything like this is with a wireless Internet provider who shall remain nameless for whom I worked on several versions of its pricing brochure, which has evolved as the service rolls out. At one point, they had the idea that the service was too complicated for most consumers to understand, so they wanted to keep technical information out of the plans and pricing brochure and emphasize what you can do with the service. OK. While several of the plans were bundles in which it was easy — even without technical info — to see what you were getting at different prices, the absence of technical information (mainly speed) did result in the two lowest price plans offering service for a single device at two different prices, one $10 more than the other with absolutely no explanation or hint as to what you were getting for $10 more, or why the lowest priced one cost $10 less. The difference was speed. My attempt to add that to the copy was rebuffed. I’m pretty sure only one version ever went out like that. Their literature is now explicit as to what you get at each price point.
Instead of wondering what happened, why not ask?
From looking at the online deli menu from Atlanta-Buckhead, (see the screen shot), I wonder if someone in charge said, “People can pretty easily see our meats are chicken, turkey, and roast beef plus the extras: hot pastrami, corned beef and grilled chicken breast.”
(No excuse for leaving off the breads. Way too many possibilities there.)
Interesting comments all… thanks for weighing in!
And FYI, I just called the store by me, told them I was looking at their menu online (which still isn’t fixed) and wondering where the list of meats, breads and condiments were. She said the same thing the guy at the store said the other day: “They’re not in there?” And then looked for herself, and again, said the same thing, “Hunh. That’s strange.” (Is there an echo in here?)
Found out there are 9 meats – 6 regular ones and the three specialty ones that cost more and are noted on the menu (so the excuse, “People can see we offer chicken, turkey roast beef..” doesn’t work). Plus 7 different kinds of bread and a whole ton of things you can add to them (including various kinds of mustard, salad dressing, etc).
So, not to burst any bubbles (and I know, we all apparently have too much time on our hands to be spending as much time on this), but I’m having a REALLY hard time believing this was an intentional decision. After all, two counter folk were like, “Huh?” To save money? When with as much white space as there is on the menu, they could easily have accommodated a few lists in 6-7 point type? Not buying that.
And if by chance it WAS intentional, that’s even worse! It shows a level of cluelessness far worse than just a unintentional snafu.
And again, my point in this post wasn’t to say, this company is a bunch of bozos (though they do appear to have had a “Bozo Moment”…), but rather, to simply point out that big, successful companies are made up of humans just like the rest of us, and to view them as such, not out-of-reach entities. I know most of you already realize that, but never hurts to remind ourselves. Plus, it was a fun story… 🙂
PB
I don’t doubt at all that a decision could have been made at a higher level and never trickled down to the front-line who deal with it. Internal communication is one of biggest problems with companies of all size.
When I was in Corporate, communications jobs were often considered “fluff” and one of the 1st to be downsized. Totally agree with you, Peter, it was a dumb idea-intentional or otherwise.
Okay, promise-I’m done. 🙂
Points well taken, Peter. Fun to chew over. Maybe another take away lesson is use this example with another large client to say, “Sometimes you are better off spending the extra money for a pair of outside eyes, like mine, who will catch what you think nobody will overlook.”
Also, shows that we are highly sensitive and attuned to the companies we use ourselves. Our heightened awareness adds more value to what we already bring.
Learning all the time.
Great point, Dennis. Definitely makes sense to offer to clients that “last pass” on a project, as I have found (and I’m sure plenty of you all have as well…) what can happen when you don’t… I mean, I’ve seen some pretty boneheaded changes that’ve come down after they say, “We’ll take it from here; just bill us!” Talk about mixed emotions…;)
PB
Two theories:
1) Whoever reviewed the menu focused on things they could render a quick, brainless verdict on (which would make them feel productive), such as: “I like/don’t like the fonts/graphics/colors.” Then they assumed someone else would take on the task of actually reading all those pesky words.
2) Nobody involved in the project thought, for even one minute, like a customer. They thought they included all the vital info (even without looking at it), but didn’t t consider the practical use of the menu and what customers would need to see on it.
Consequently, they have created an ordering bottleneck as Peter described, and their stores will probably start sprouting all sorts of ugly, tacky, makeshift signs that HQ will HATE (and ultimately ban), because HQ itself has put all the field employees in the position of being forced to parrot the options ad nauseum.
It’s classic.
“I like it” and “I don’t like it” comments (no matter who makes them) make me grind my teeth. (Even in book discussion groups they are like teats on a bull.) You can always find things to like or dislike.
The top question has to be: “Will it produce the desired response in the target audience?” (Probabilities, of course, not certainties.)
“Thinking like a customer” (or a reader or a viewer or a user) is exactly what’s often missing. A lot of the money I have made over the years has come from engineers and others who cannot see another point of view beyond their own. Other than my ability to compose text, my top contribution is the empathy in my personality, which enables me to ask, “How will this look or feel to the person(s) whom you want to influence?” I don’t always know the answer, but that’s where I aim. (The people who are best at this we call “manipulative.” Dialed back 50 percent, let’s call it “persuasive.”)
My opinion? They hired someone who has little knowledge of their business and not even a temporary investment in said business. When I work with a company, I get to know their products, their business model, and their differentiators. To me, that’s essential. You can’t do the job if you don’t know the customer.
I handled a large proofreading/edit job for a prestigious university. It’s amazing how many professors and administrators work there who don’t understand the rules of grammar. Then there are the typos. One in particular that I’d caught saved them tons of embarrassment – for what college-aged student wouldn’t notice that they had to choose “course erections”? LOL
My local diner is no better. My daughter refuses to hand me the menu when we go there. That’s because I can have eggs with home “fires”, vegetable “soap”, or my personal favorite – a Chirly Temple.
A beach restaurant we used to love made it difficult to understand if there was any value in calling ahead for a table, since its chalkboard read: Reservations Excepted.
I thought of you guys last nite when I looked at a tag on a kitty litter scooper–I was REALLY bored. Anyhow, in case you thought it might be for hippos or dogs, it had a picture of a cat lounging innocently. Then it described the unique features–a “sifting grid.” That would be holes. Then it said NOT FOR CHILDREN (I guess they meant as a plaything). It had little scratchies on the back to scratch at hardened…well, you know. Then it had the brand name: SENSIBLES. There was probably an 800 number for the poopularly ignorant…my vision is bad and I only had glasses not my magnifier. Anyhow, I guess I was pretty set up to scoop–except my daughter happened by, saw it, and remarked, “Those holes are way too big.” Everyone’s a critic. Hey, kids, it used to be a living!
I think they’ve cut back on copywriters / marketing professionals. Their blog (always the first thing to be neglected) was updated regularly until last December; since then, nothing.
One of my clients is a menu design company, so I look at a lot of restaurant menus and I have to say this issue happens all the time. In the case of Jason’s Deli, I’m not sure this was an oversight. Check out their catering menu – under the deli box selection. They list the breads and cheeses – but no meats! They do list the meat selection under the assorted sandwich tray, but still.
The bottom line here is that their menu is their number one marketing tool. Why are they diminishing their brand with consumers by keeping this menu in the restaurants?
An upscale Arby’s in town replaced the huge overhead menu behind the registers with a mural. Printed menus are in an easily-overlooked stand on the floor, and there are small cards showing a few combo meals in front of each register.
HUGE MISTAKE and ANNOYING AS HELL.
Works OK if there’s a long line and people have a chance to read the menu. But at non-peak times when you can walk right up and order, it’s, “Oops! I don’t know what I want and I can’t see what you have.”
They probably get a lot of default orders for single roast beef while their more exotic selections, which are numerous and pricey, probably never get considered.
You have to wonder about the brilliant suit who decided to replace the whole menu with a freaking useless mural.
Hey Amanda,
I checked out their catering menu, and actually, on the one I’m looking at, in the Deli Box section, they DO list meats. But, the first one doesn’t (Deluxe Traditional Box), which is weird (you’re going to pay $8 for a sandwich with just cheese?). But then the other ones DO list meat selections, making it even more likely that the first one was an error. Sloppy stuff…
And interesting about Arby’s, Karen. Just makes no sense. Doesn’t anyone stop to think about the customer experience and what that customer is used to seeing? Unless they realized there was some major glitch/bottleneck in their counter-ordering process that necessitated the change, why much with something that works, and only risk unsettling and perhaps alienating their regular customers. A true head-scratcher…
PB
Our spa entered into one of those Beelzebub 50% contracts and I was taking an appointment and asked the woman what coupon she had. She said it didn’t have a name on it – just ours. Turns out, it was Half-Off Depot. Not a shred of identifying evidence on it! Only their super-annoying 9 letter code that take forever with a dodgy cell phone connection. (Is that P for Papa or T for Tango?)
Then we were approached by QuarterOff and their web page had so many errors on it it was just a disaster. It sounded like it had been written by a denizen of Delhi — S’s where they weren’t needed — no S where they were called for. You know, par for the Chinese restaurant course.
I’m looking at that hot mess and thinking (as I do in many restaurants and on many websites) — Don’t they have a single friend who can proof this for them?
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of an “upscale Arby’s.”
Ken, believe it. The dining area of this Arby’s has living-room ambiance, with carpet, a massive stone fireplace, large TV screens mounted in all the corners, polished wood tables, WiFi. It looks like there should be wait staff, but they give you a vibrating thing to let you know when your order is ready at the counter. As fast food joints go, it’s definitely an anomaly.
Hi Peter,
I was cold calling some local businesses yesterday using brochures and business cards recently picked up from the Chamber of Commerce. One of the businesses was for a printing and graphics company. I thought, “Wow! Wonderful networking opportunity!” I called the number on their brochure and got a private residence. The man who answered explained that the number on the printer’s brochure has been his personal home phone number for over 5 years! He used to get 2 or 3 calls per day for printing services. But now it only happens occasionally. Over the years he has succeeded in getting the printing company to change their number in some places but obviously not all 😉 Pretty amazing that a printing company doesn’t have proofreading for their own brochure.