Get Real with Customers: 4 lessons from Eataly on managing expectations

Commerce is witnessing an unprecedented transition of power from the company to the customer. 
Armed with tools to research, compare, and share, customers are starting to think and act like they own the place.  But be careful.  Left unchecked, customer expectations will quickly spiral to superhuman levels attainable only by Apple, Amazon, and USAA.

Witness Saturday Night Live's recent Tech Talk spoof on iOS 5's glitches.  When faced with the actual Chinese peasent laborers who make the devices,  the complaints of immature maps and load times seem downright silly.

In these times of seemingly unrestrained customer power, its nice to go to a place where passion still rules.   If you ever have a chance to go to Eataly in NYC, go.  And not just for the food.  Mario Botali & Oscar Farinetti's Italian maketplace exhibit how a passion for food drives the business and defines the customer experience as a consequence. 

Here are 4 lessons lessons from these culinary craft masters on how to stay true to the ideals behind a brand and provide an experience that trancends the limitations of both the business and its customers. 

1. Craft & Communicate your Vision: The Eataly Manifesto is as clear as any mission statement I've ever seen.  Notice that a love for food is # 0 in a list of 10 items.  Thats no accident.  Upon entering the marketplace the customer immediately recognizes that great food is the reason for Eataly's existance.  All other ingredients of the business are based on this grounding.

2. Build your Business Model accordingly: Eataly grew out of Torino Italy just 5 years ago, but has made landfall in Japan and New York.  Open the doors to the NY marketplace on 24rd street and feel immediately at home among your favorite ingredients.  Each station has the same credo: I'ts about the food/drink.  As an example, should you find your way to the beer garden on the roof, you must order food with your drinks.  This stings like an imposition until the cold cut plate arrives and you couldn't imagine not ordering it yourself. 

3. Engage your customers in the vision: I've worked in customer service and can tell you for a fact that the customer is not always right.  Indeed, customers often hire services because they recognize they aren't an expert and want to work with someone who is.  From portraiture to plumbing,  parmigian to pastries, people are looking for expertise.  In these cases, the reason for patronage is passion.  Companies who are successful in sharing this passion will be successful in attracting and retaining like minded customers.  Eataly hosts classes and tastings to educate and inspire their customers, in the process develop a refined taste that would be difficult to satisfy elsewhere.


4. Keep the Faith: Just because you have passion, doesn't mean you can defy gravity.  Remember those hard to please, hyper-social customers who created viral swings of adoration can also turn quickly with one or two bad experiences. In this case, Eataly's greatest competiton is itself and how to maintain or augment its  standards for quality, selection, and service. 

Loyalty = Shared Passion:   Eataly's passion has built a strong reputation, with 1,524 yelp reviews at an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars. But a red hot reputation is quickly chilled by a few bad words.
It's not personal, rather that customers are committed to the same passion.  Lose the faith and focus in the core love, and customers will lose their sense of loyalty.