Customer Experience Alert

It’s amazing how simple, thoughtful gestures can create a great customer experience. Here’s an example from one of my favorite spots in Chapel Hill, Sandwhich. One one hand, it’s a marketing email sent to their list. But the genuine, creative tone to the email is more ‘community’ and less spam.

It’s not just their emails. I’ve been addressed by my actual name since the second visit. As much as I want to feel special, I imagine the staff is encouraged to do this as much as possible. Techniques like this work. As small, locally-owned businesses struggle to compete against increasingly savvy chains, they will need to pay much more attention to the little things.

Subject: heart-felt thanks

…….I should say: stomach-felt thanks!

To Our Customers:

This Friday, May 12, marks our one-year anniversary at SANDWHICH. Words, lovely as they are, are inadequate tools for expressing our incredible gratitude to you, our customers. Thank you all, for finding us in our charming little corner of Chapel Hill, for tasting, and loving, our eclectic menu, for appreciating our efforts to support local growers and local artists, for waiting patiently while we make your sandwich especially for you (and you, and you…) and for supporting the fundamental idea behind SANDWHICH and our neighbor, 3 Cups (that is, the pursuit of excellence). Thank you for thinking our weird bathroom is cool, and that our bright green tables are fun. Thank you for smiling at the proudly-displayed picture of our son, and for realizing that we are real people, not some boring and dry corporation, not a copycat chain.

Many of you may remember when we declared, after our first successful Moroccan dinner last November, that we’d have regular special dinners. A number of you have asked when the next one will be. Here’s the answer: we decided instead to just open for dinner! We’ll have a very special bistro-style menu (competely different from the daytime) and table service and tablecloths, and it is going to be really nice and cozy and delicious. We decided to do it this way, to just open for dinner three nights per week, because it is pretty much the same effort to do one dinner as to do three. Our tentative opening for dinner is early June, but PLEASE DON’T HOLD US TO THAT! We’ll keep you posted. Oh, and by the way, it won’t be called SANDWHICH at night. We’re going to switch the name a bit — uh, in fact, we’re going to just call it SWHICH. (get it?)

Finally, our dear friend Ezzoubair Frej, has moved here all the way from NYC, to join us as a partner, and as front-of-the-house manager. Zoubair (zoo-BEAR) has years of front-of-house experience in some of NYC’s best establishments, most notably Jean Georges Vongerichten’s “Mercer Kitchen” and Katy Sparks’ “Quilty’s”. Zoubair, like Hich, is originally from Morocco and his mom, like Hich’s, is a really, really (really, really) good cook, so Zoubair understands and loves food as much as we do and is thrilled to have joined us in the wonderful, food-loving community that is Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

And so - the big thanks: you may think we put food in your mouths, but actually it is the other way around. By supporting this nutty venture of ours, you have fed us, both spiritually and, well, literally. Again, from the heart: thank you.

Janet, Hich and Zoubair
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SWHICH & SANDWHICH hours of operation
SANDWHICH: summer daytime hours: M-Sat 11-4
SWHICH: opening date TBA, Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights
same phone number: 929-2114
same vibe; different menus

May 12th, 2006