Philip Duff says bartenders are failing to exploit even the simplest ways to make customers spend more, reports Ian Cameron

“When customers are relaxed, you can sell them anything,” says Philip Duff. It’s a mantra the leading Irish bar consultant lives by. He says helping customers relax is the key to ensuring repeat business – and an easy way to increase profits. Bars, he says, can be one of the most stressful social places in psychological terms, so the earlier you can put customers at their ease, feel less on display to their peers, make them really feel part of their surroundings, the earlier you can start ringing up the changes on the till. But most bartenders fail on the simplest of levels to charm their customers, he says, and are missing out on a host of other more subtly cunning and manipulative techniques that can help persuade them to part with more of their hard earned cash.

“People tend to think of the greatest bartenders as ‘naturally’ charming individuals,” says Philip. “Other people in other walks of life are knows as ‘naturally’ stylish. But these things can be all learned by deconstructing ‘natural’ charm, using techniques that you’ve probably seen on Derrin Brown.

“At first these might seem like techniques you are ticking off a list, but over time they become second nature.”

In practice, this starts simple. When customers walk in the door, he says, wave at them, acknowledge them in some other way, or go over and give them a compliment. “People never give compliments these days,” says Philip. “Take their coat, smile.”

But some other apparently simple techniques are also intriguingly clever. “There’s one technique called the ‘nodding dog’. If someone asks for a vodka and tonic, and you are reeling off a list of vodkas, if you nod your head when you say the name of the one you want them to buy, nine out of ten times they’ll choose that one.”

And, he says, in the same exercise, rather than nodding your head, if you repeat a brand name in that list of vodkas, particularly if you start and finish the list with the vodka you want them to buy, the customer will almost certainly order that brand.

“And the thing is, customers never really notice it,” says Philip. “I’ve heard the nodding technique has even been shown to work on the phone, so in person it can be quite powerful.”

He says there’s a certain taboo around bartenders being ‘charming’ and manipulative, but says personal charm often remains absent even while the general quality of bartending has improved.
“There’s an enormous amount of nerdiness around bars and bartending – it can be all about facial hair and sleeve garters – and drinks are better than ever before, but people are still rude to customers. They learn all the mixological techniques – but none of the charm.

“The goal is always repeat business – it’s far better to have a repeat customer coming in twice a month spending £50 rather than coming in just the once and spending £500.”

Philip Duff is based in the Netherlands where he runs Liquid Solutions Bar & Beverage Consulting. He will be giving away more of his trade secrets at Bar Ten in a talk entitled: Secrets of a Bar Charmer, on 15 June.
 

Tim Bacon, operator of Living Ventures and serial bar entrepreneur, famous for developing and selling the Prohibition and Living Room brands, reveals his latest plans to Ian Cameron. So what’s new Tim? I’ve just opened The Red Door in West Kirby, it’s something I’ve done with an old business partner. It’s a neighbourhood bar with kitchen – basically it’s about me going back in time in my mind, romancing and reengineering my first venue, JW Johnson’s. It’s the spirit of that, with a sort of Key West/West Coast USA vibe, and it’s doing marvellously thank you!

And how’s it going in Hale, Cheshire with your last new venue before that, Suburbia?
Well I’m not used to having a charge on the door, that’s different, but apart from that it’s doing really well. It’s bartender-led, with great drinks and is giving a 40 per cent return on investment. It’s the only late night venue in the area and there are unlikely to be any other licences issued.

Suburbia was a bit of a departure wasn’t it, considering you’re more about restaurants these days?
Well, there’s no food in Suburbia, but it all depends how you see ‘departure’. Historically I’ve always had late night operations and it’s really relatively recently that I’ve been doing restaurants. It’s more of a ‘return’.

What is it you still get from opening bars?
Creating something new still turns me on incredibly. What I like about bars is the immediate reaction you get between bartender and customer. It’s very honest and immediate. I get the importance of food, and don’t want to move away from that, but want to up the bartender ante to match the quality of food.

So can we expect more wet-led bars from Living Ventures?
We’re now entering a new phase with the company – a new beginning, it’s quite exciting. We’ve set up another company called Living Restaurants Management and are in the process of opening the New World Bar Company: a boutique collection of bars in Manchester, Alderley Edge and South Manchester.

Tell me more...
Food should be 35 per cent of sales, so it’s more about the bar side of things, as you can tell by the name. The first will open in September, then two more by summer 2011.

What type of bar do customers want these days?
I’m looking for that North American-style casual bar culture – a combination of big back-bars, good music systems, something that looks and smells good, is easy to use, not confrontational, where the price point’s good.

Anything other big projects on the cards?
I’m developing a concept we’re calling ‘atmospheric fine dining’ – it’s a late night restaurant, a real quality environment that looks and feels and smells fantastic. It’s a Living Room for today’s market and will be in central Manchester, naturally focused on food rather than drink. Think of it like a modern Hakkasan, or Zuma. Here, it’s more about Australasia/Pacific Rim – though not tiki. More like the opening credits to Miami CSI. It will open before Christmas.

Been affected by the recession?
Historically customers have been a lot more forgiving than now. People go out a lot less and tend to go to places they trust. But last year, across Gusto and Blackhouse, sales were up 9 per cent and profits up 5 per cent.

Any regrets over selling Living Room (which went into administration last year under new owners Premium Bars and Restaurants before being rescued by Orchid)?
Ha! No, we made stacks of cash. One thing it does say is that big operators can’t seem to run complex operations. I think they tried to ‘decomplex’ it and lost some of that soul. But it’s not good for me if people perceive my operations as too complicated to run, makes them more difficult to sell.

What’s the secret of your success?
Most people don’t understand what it takes to create a brand, but fundamentally all our offers are the same: good product and good service. It’s not rocket science: look after your customers. What generates real noise is happy customers.

Tim Bacon is a ‘shark’ at Bar Ten’s Dragons Den-style bar consultancy on 16 June. Revamping an existing bar with a new concept? Redesigning an exiting bar menu? Have a great plan for a new bar operation? Can you convince a panel of Britain’s toughest bar sharks to back your idea?

The Shark Pool: Bar! Sink or Swim! Competition will see contestants pitch their brainchild to a “Shark Pool” that includes: Eric Yu from The Breakfast Group, Mark Fuller of Concept Venues, Richard Wynne of Callooh Callay, Tim Bacon of Living Ventures Restaurants, and Simon van Moppes of Pernod-Ricard UK. Prizes are £1,500, £2,500 and £5,000 in product support/legal/business advice.

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