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Health & Fitness

What Small Businesses Can Learn From Oysters

A lesson for small business owners...in the form of oysters.

As owners and executives of small businesses, we're constantly learning and growing.  

Every experience with a customer is an opportunity to become a better leader. Every challenge we face is a chance to learn.

My lesson this weekend came in the form of oysters on the half shell.

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My fiancee and I try and escape to Newport, RI every couple of months.  This past Saturday we took a day trip to celebrate our one year engagement anniversary. We cashed in our various "rewards" points to we could go eat our way through Newport.

Location #1: Castle Hill. This unbelieveable restaurant is located in a high-end Inn. While they prepared our table for lunch, we sat in the lounge and ordered a bottle of wine and a dozen oysters. The delicate and sweet oysters came out garnished with fresh lemon and a side of a mignonette sauce.  

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About halfway through our oysters, our table was ready in the main dining room - home to an absolutely stunning view of the bay.  The staff took our coats, brought our wine and oysters in, and gave us a magnificant seat right next to the wrap-around windows overlooking the water. Service was impeccable, with different servers topping off our water and wine and paying the utmost attention to detail. The lunch was second to none, and every single member of the staff went out of their way to make us feel like a King and Queen.  

Total cost of the dozen oysters: $28 (not including tax or gratuity).

Location #2: Scales and Shells. Newport's only "only fish" restaurant, the staff boasts of having nothing but the freshest seafood here. This no-frills dining is cash-only. Food comes out in the very pans used to cook it.  The oysters were, in fact, delicious. There was no mignonette - but rather a small plastic side dish of mediocre cocktail sauce.  

Total cost of the dozen oysters: $30 (not including tax or gratuity).

Location #3: Sardellas. Sardellas has become a restaurant that we love to hate.  Every time we go to Newport, we end up going there - including after we got engaged - because there's one particular dish we are in love with.  The service is, without fail, always utterly attrocious and all of the other food - with the exception of that one dish we are in love with - has always been insanely disappointing at best.

This visit was no exception.  It's a big pet peeve of mine when a server drops off the dishes - then believes that his or her job is done.  After my second trip up to the bar to get refills of our water, I had basically had it.

The last time we visited, we had a bad oyster.  We told the server.  It was not taken off the bill.  

Total cost of the dozen oysters: $36 (not including tax or gratuity).

So how does this translate into a lesson for YOUR business?  It's quite simple.  We need to each ask ourselves what kind of business we operate.  Ironically, the most posh and luxurious restaurant served the least expensive oysters with the absolute best presentation ... and the worst restaurant served the most expensive.  

Service and presentation can make or break you. Do you take the time to make sure the "presentation" of you, your staff, and your establishment are the best they could be? Do you offer a fair price and a strong value for your product?  

What's your competition doing? Are they beating you on price ... or are they beating you on value? I would have gladly paid the $36 for oysters at Castle Hill - because there was so much more value in the experience than there was in the other restaurants.

The bottom line: before you open the doors every day, ask yourself, "How are we going to serve our oysters today?"

By Kyle S. Reyes, Director of Marketing for Carter Chevrolet and Mazda of Manchester

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