Sometimes life takes turns, just a coincidence of yin and yang.
From a full-fledged advertiser to a catering person, he was "pitted" by his partners, and was forced to take over the mess, but he did not expect to insist on it for 13 years, and now he has achieved a small famous hot pot brand.
His name is Zhang Min, an authentic Sichuanese, making fish head hot pot in Shunde, Guangdong, so far opened 26 directly operated stores, although each one is more than a thousand square meters, but it is full of queues every day, and the repurchase rate is as high as 80%.
In his own words, being reborn in adversity, all the roads traveled, the money that drifts in the water are experiences.
Issue 715
Text | Xiao Qian
Forced to take over the mess, yin and yang mistakenly stepped into the catering door
On the day of Christmas just this past, Zhang Min posted pictures and texts in the circle of friends to cheer for the upcoming Opening of the Dongzao Fish Head Hot Pot Shunde Beijiao Store.
After 13 years of deep cultivation in Shunde, which is the 26th direct store he has opened in the local area, Zhang Min obviously has high hopes for the new store, and he hopes that this "year-end masterpiece" can continue the myth of queuing other stores.
The time is pushed back to 1992, but it is a different situation.
After graduating from junior high school, 17-year-old Zhang Min left his hometown of Sichuan to come to Shunde. With 7 yuan in his pocket, he worked as a decorator and sent film (film). In 2001, he opened an advertising studio and started his first business.
Later, the company also grew from husband and wife partners to forty or fifty people, and also included decoration, printing and other businesses. Just when he was full of ambition and ready to gallop on the road of advertising, fate made people, and Zhang Min's life took a turn.
It seems to be the plot of a TV series: two friends work together to open a hot pot restaurant and find Zhang Min to do decoration. As soon as I heard that I was going to open Sichuan hot pot, out of feelings, I picked it up without saying a word.
However, after receiving an advance payment of 400,000 yuan, Zhang Min never received money again until the renovation was completed. Only afterwards did I know that those two people added up to less than 600,000 net worth, and dared to do 3 million restaurants, very bold.
In order not to let the money invested drift, he listened to the advice of the two people and decided to join the shares. Unexpectedly, it fell into a bigger pit: due to poor management, the new store faced closure a month after opening, and the two people withdrew their shares one after another.
Pick up or not?
If you don't pick up, you will have to put in the bottom of your home in Shunde for so many years, and you will have to carry a debt. Once picked up, it can only succeed and cannot fail.
He decided to make a desperate bet and try to make a meal across the line. To this end, he continued to explore, and finally found the crux of the new store: poor management, taste is not suitable for the locals...
A fusion of Sichuan spicy and Shunde fish fresh
"If the product is the ultimate, it is not afraid of their pickiness"
Zhang Min has a deep affection for the spicy hot pot in his hometown, and at that time, Shunde did not have an authentic Sichuan pot, and the market space was very large; Shunde, as the birthplace of Cantonese cuisine, the "land of fish and rice" is not only rich in fish, but also locals like to eat fish.
He had the idea of making a "Sichuan-style fish head hot pot", which combined Sichuan's spicy and Shunde's freshness.
This idea was questioned by friends: "You are a foreigner, opening a fish hot pot in Shunde, it is simply a banmen axe." Because Shunde people can "see fish with their eyes", a fish on the table only needs to look at it to know whether it is a dead fish or a live fish.
"As long as I do a good job, I am not afraid to be picky."
So Zhang Min went to Chengdu to taste the authentic Sichuan pot, can run seven or eight times a month, the mouth is numb, and invited the famous Sichuan cuisine master and Cantonese cuisine master as consultants...
Zhang Min remembers very clearly, on September 12, 2007, at 11:00 p.m., the signboard began to change, an all-nighter, and the next morning, the Dongzao fish head hot pot officially opened.
√ Live fish slimming down for 14 days, and the waiter is responsible for cooking the fish head throughout the process
First of all, the fish choose The guangdong silver carp, after being caught from the fish pond, put it in the other pond for 14 days, do not feed any food, let them surf, in order to eliminate debris, feces, eliminate fishy smell.
"After the skinny fish, the meat is fresh and sweet and delicious. However, there is a price, and about 10% of the fish will be lost in 14 days. ”
In order to ensure "freshness", the fish head must be killed on the same day. Do daily delivery, Nissin, sell out of direct throw away.
Boiling fish is also exquisite, you must make the fish face down, in order to be heated evenly, will not rot, other parts are also cooked just right. After cooking, it must be placed face up in the customer's bowl.
In order to ensure that the fish head is complete and delicious, Zhang Min asked a waiter at each table to control the cooking time and heat. Customers just have to eat.
"The waiter explains to the customer while cooking, and the more it is repeated, the more the customer will naturally remember." According to statistics, last year, the fish head order rate of Dongzao fish head hot pot reached 100%, and the sales volume exceeded 10 million.
√ single pot single stir-fry, creating a sense of ceremony
Zhang Min also improved the butter bottom of the spicy hot pot, switching to vegetable oil to reduce the spiciness and not mask the umami taste of the fish.
The hot pot base prepared by the central kitchen needs to go through a process before being served - on-site stir-frying.
According to the order placed by the customer, the chef will stir-fry it in the back kitchen, giving full play to the characteristics of the spices, so that the bottom of the pot on the table is already fragrant.
During the soft opening period, Zhang Min invited friends to eat almost every day, and the food industry and the advertising industry were all the network resources he accumulated in Shunde.
Once, after trying the improved bottom of the pot, a friend was surprised, did not have the spicy feeling of imagination, and blurted out that "it is really delicious and not on fire."
This sentence woke me up at once! Catchy, simple and easy to remember, the key is to eliminate the Concern of Shunde people about spicy hot pot. ”
Zhang Min was very happy at that time, and he was born as an advertiser, and he played a good role, "Wherever it is different, we will take it out and say it loudly, changing the pattern to say." ”
At the opening, he put some exaggerated, gimmicky posters at the door, "Found that the recycled oil reward is 1 million." ”
At the same time, in the bus and other crowded places to put posters, it is a simple few words "East stove fish head hot pot, delicious but not on fire."
Comparable to Haidilao-style service
Use the experience beyond expectations to make customers repurchase
The unique way to eat, delicious products, coupled with appropriate publicity, let the East Stove Fish Head Hot Pot open fire. Qianping stores can also queue up during peak periods, and the repurchase rate is more than 80%.
This is also due to the "service culture" advocated by Zhang Min, using "super-expected experience" to make customers feel that it is worth the money.
Zhang Min said that she admired another Sichuan compatriot, the founder of Haidilao, Daniel Zhang, and the two had the same surname and the same industry. "Many of Haidilao's characteristics are worth learning and learning from."
For example, customers should smile when they enter the door, must have a snack to drink, and arrange a waiter at each table, which is both nagging and introducing dishes. Including once when the customer ordered too much and did not finish eating, when asked to return, the store manager also agreed.
To sum up, there are two points: one is a good attitude towards customers; the other is to meet customer needs in a timely manner, pay attention to eye color, and officers are numb.
"I myself have done it step by step from the grassroots employees, and I can best understand their mood." As long as you make employees happy and willing to give money, they are naturally willing to listen to you. ”
Zhang Min set up a system, when customers praise an employee, not only have material rewards, but also record a stroke in his personal growth file as a reference standard for future promotion.
This is similar to breaking through the level to fight monsters, each stage in the corresponding task, the higher the points, the greater the possibility of breaking through the level.
Moreover, customer satisfaction is also linked to the salary of employees, and the more guests served every day, the higher the satisfaction, and the higher the salary received by the employees.
The fourth store lost millions of dollars
Hard work, brand upgrading wants to be the first in the category
The first store was a hit, which gave Zhang Min great confidence. In 2009, he opened the second store, the third store the following year, all rooted in Shunde, is a large store above Qianping.
The three stores are Zhang Min's own efforts, although it is hard, but fortunately it is smooth, once let him feel that the catering is actually very simple. But who knows, the fourth store has a problem, and the millions invested have been lost.
A fierce mallet woke up Zhang Min, who later blamed it on his "eagerness to make a mistake" and opened a shop without doing a good job of site selection investigation: there was no parking space, and the surrounding residential areas mostly belonged to the "old and broken", and they were not the target customers of Dongzao.
So he calmed down to reflect, began to learn everywhere, spent money to let the management also go to training, and gradually upgraded and improved.
Build a central kitchen and complete the standardization construction
In 2013, Zhang Min invested in the establishment of a central kitchen covering an area of more than 2,000 square meters, and was also the first one in Shunde to obtain the qualification of a central kitchen distribution center.
"With digital management, each branch only needs to order one day in advance, and the central kitchen will make the ingredients before 7 am and deliver them to the store before 11 am."
At the same time, the kitchen was rectified, requiring "white clothes not to change, picking up things to eat", that is, the chef can sit on the ground, and the food that falls on the place can be picked up and eaten. Behind the seeming madness, it is the ultimate high standard.
Upgrade the membership system and do hierarchical marketing
"In the past, when customers were found out, they were all nagging or asking them to fill in small notes." Zhang Min said that in the most stupid way, write out the evaluation and suggestions of the store on paper.
Every day, he will carefully read the collected information, review with the team on the same day, ask the waiter to memorize the taste needs of some old customers, and slowly establish contact with customers.
Later, he sent snacks or desserts to customers and guided them to add the store manager's WeChat. The store manager will make a mark on each customer. And as long as it is an old customer, you can also get some coupons and new product tasting opportunities.
Zhang Min designated the 17th of each month as "Membership Day", and each time launched a different dish as a benefit. Just like this, more than a dozen stores have also accumulated hundreds of thousands of fans.
Brand upgrade, to do the first category
When the store was just established, first of all, we must let customers remember you, how to remember is the key, you need a lot of repeated exposure, let customers know the brand, so there is a beginning of the "delicious is not on fire".
The strategy of chain store development is "honeycomb layout", concentrating forces to deeply cultivate Shunde.
One is the large number of stores, the second has a central kitchen, and the third is to get a large number of advantageous advertising spaces. The advantages are superimposed, forming a strong brand competitiveness of Dongzao fish head hot pot.
When the brand power accumulated to a certain extent, he changed the brand's slogan to "fish head hot pot leading brand".
Zhang Min said that he wants to be the first in the fish head category, to enter the Pearl River Delta, to enter Beijing, Shanghai.
"Dare to fight to win" is the phrase he hangs on his lips most often, and new models and new forms are all places of interest to him.
He teased himself, "I'm an 'active person' who wants to make a name for myself."