Nobody forgot about you

They just haven't got a reason to come back

Picture a new starter on their first Saturday, before they carry a single plate you’ve told them which table has the wobbly leg and which regular takes their coffee with 4 sugars and hates a chat! You’ve told them what to say when the kitchen is running behind and if they mixed up their drink order. None of it came from a manual, it all came straight out of your head, because that’s where it lives.

Now think about everything else that speaks for your hospitality or tourism business without ever being inducted, like the booking confirmation, the follow-up email, the reply to an enquiry at 10pm and the AI tool you've been dabbling with. None of them has been told about the wobbly table, so they all say what every business says.

Customers often drift away from a business they liked because nothing gave them a reason to return, not because they forgot about it. 'How we do things around here' lives inside your business: who you’re for, what great means and the small things you know about the people walking in. When all of this lives in your head, nobody else can act on it, not your staff or your favourite AI tool.

You've been running the induction for years, ad hoc!

The induction in your head is brilliant. It’s also private, a new team member absorbs some of it before the Saturday rush swallows them and the rest stays with you, which makes your business only as good as your memory on a busy day. I have strong feelings about “you’ll pick it up as you go along”. They’ll make it up as they go along, if they don't have your rules and that won’t help your brand.

It works for a while, but your business keeps talking when you’re not there: a confirmation email that could belong to any venue in town, 15 different phone greetings that don’t match your brand, a reply written by whoever happened to be on shift. Each one is a chance to give someone a reason to return, each one was also delivered by somebody who isn't living inside your head.

AI is your newest employee and the only one who never asks

A new human employee will at least ask where the cold room is. AI tends to fill the gap with the most average answer it can find and sound delightfully confident doing it. Hand it your follow-up emails with no induction and you'll end up with something polite and tidy that could belong to the café three doors down.

Teach AI your business before you ask it to work for your business. It sounds like a tech job, but it's mostly a hospitality one, because nobody can induct anyone into knowledge they've never put into words. AI can't help you create a better customer experience if it doesn't know what "better" means in your business.

Getting it out of your head is the uncomfortable bit

Writing down what you already know feels pointless until you try it. Ask yourself what you'd tell someone on day one about the customers you most want back. Not the opening hours, they're on your website already. The stuff that makes a customer feel recognised: what they're celebrating, what they can't stand, what made them pick you over somewhere easier to park.

Write down the first five things you’d tell a new starter about those customers. Then check if you've articulated this to your AI tool. No? This is why you need an AI Induction!

A reason to return is an inside job

Reasons to return don’t have to come from a discount, they come from a business that knows its customers. A follow-up that mentions what they came for, an invitation that suits the season they last visited, a 'we haven't seen you in a while' email. Somebody has to know what to say first, that’s The Relationship in my Repeat Business Formula, giving customers reasons and opportunities to come back. It runs on exactly the knowledge you’ve been carrying around.

Day one for your AI doesn’t have to be a guess, the final module of the Repeat Business Foundation takes you through your AI induction, so what’s in your head ends up somewhere your business can use. Doors open Tuesday 27th Oct 26.

Join the Repeat Business Foundation HERE