Texas Roadhouse-Listens to the Customers.

Texas Roadhouse - Listens to the Customers

     Our First Visit: The Texas Roadhouse in Medford, was the first we had ever been to of the evidently 563 locations in the US. My daughter was recruiting for college softball teams at a tournament and a couple of coaches offered her a spot on their team. To be grateful for the hard work paying off after years of hard work, I said to her, "find a good steakhouse for Dad for Father's Day, with no less than 4 stars and 100 posts and let's go celebrate the good news". We scrolled our thumbs over the 1,000+ comments on Google and people were genuinely happy with the tasty food value and appreciative of the service. I was also impressed that the manager replied to Google comments good or bad and even offered virtual coupons on Yelp and Google as a reward for people who responded! It was possibly the best service we have ever had far surpassing any steak house we have been to.

Father's Day: posing after tourney

    What it's like: For those who have never been to a Texas Roadhouse, it meets all of the requirements of a steakhouse but with a tequila-type, country-kicker music vibe for a lower cost. It's "fun" to just walk in. T.R. is a cool place to be for Gen X,Y,Z and Boomers alike. One might compare Texas Roadhouse (T.R.) to an Australian Outback but without the pretentious tip-focused salesman and higher price tag. Steaks are grilled to good expectations, attractive beverages, with a rustic musical farm atmosphere all with exceptional genuine 22 steps of service. My drink was never more than half empty before they asked me if I wanted another one although the place was packed with a 30 minute wait. All of the employees we met at Texas Roadhouse seemed to genuinely believe in the business, taking care of people and the value of hard work.  .

Comfortable seating, busy with classic rock.

Peanuts and rolls are everywhere. 

    Highly Ranked Nationally with Strong Social Media: Not surprisingly, they are in the top 20 ranked companies that listen to customers in (Forbes 2018, “Companies with the Best Customer Service”) During Covid-19, they had turned a primarily aesthetically pleasing, upbeat steakhouse with great customer service, good food and cool music into a take-out/dine-outside in just weeks. Surprisingly, they were able to keep their stock options up because of their fast thinking and keen social media presence, including giving respect to BLM. Also surprisingly, they didn't lay off employees but rotated vacations and leave to keep people on. According to Wikipedia, "CEO Kent Taylor has announced he will give up his base salary and bonus for the remainder of the calendar year in order to pay "front-line" employees amid the coronavirus pandemic. The amount donated from Taylor will amount to just under $1 million." 

Texas Roadhouse responds to social media posts, good or bad, in a refreshing yet still professional way.

Refreshingly, Texas Roadhouse does not shy away from customer complaints and openly responds with them on social media maintaining a best practices on the platforms on Instagram and Facebook. In this humorous Facebook post, the manager is clearly addressing the top issue but "peep" the complaint below by another person wanting to go back and use her gift card from the manager. Obviously not too bad of an experience. 

    The three most common things people are primarily saying about Texas Roadhouse are great food, great service but long wait times. At first I was a little concerned with the quantity of complaints the Roadhouse management tolerates getting flogged with and thought a few of these complaints I would delete but then I really liked how they maintained integrity by leaving them and letting us see how they deal with them. How they treat others is how I would expect to be treated. 

Complaint customer trying to drum up return visit with friends.

According to Mobile Marketer, “Through the initiative, Texas Roadhouse uncovered a significant difference in engagement on content published to the local Facebook Place pages and content published to the brand page. In fact, the content on Texas Roadhouse's local pages got 71 percent higher engagement than the content on the brand page.” Furthermore, “During the three-month period, Texas Roadhouse generated 21 million Facebook impressions by sharing content to its local restaurant pages and curating customer-generated photos from Instagram and foursquare.”

    Marketed as a Dine-In-So Now What?: Being a heavily marketed primarily dine in restaurant, I was curious as to how they could financially survive during the Coronavirus and what marketing challenges they would face. When looking at their posts on social media and marketing, they made a heavy shift to take out and home delivery like many other restaurants but surprisingly they were doing well.  They had special offers on social media,  good choice of take out food products and a loyal customer base. Albeit their stock options are listed as not great, note the comeback in the below graph. 

   

     To test out if this primarily dine in business has not been changed by the "Rona", I called the Medford restaurant and asked "If I order these menu items to go how do I get all the goodies I normally get when sitting having drinks?" Their response, "You tell us how much you want and we will just add it to the to-go box free of charge. You are welcome to have a drink inside or outside too while you wait. We also have dine in with masks and gloves-just tell us what you are comfortable with-we will even move your table outside if you want us to."

   Furthermore, Texas Roadhouse is acquiring loyalty from its locations all over the US as one of the restaurants with a high loyalty index. 

    Value Proposition: Obviously, the value proposition is best value and service and their registered trademark is “Legendary Food and Legendary Service®”. Spend your money here and you will be treated well and fed well by people willing to bend over backwards for your business. I feel confident that if I spend my money I will get a value in customer service and quality of food without aggravation. Texas Roadhouse is recovering from Covid-19 and have appeared to have maintained their integrity to their customers, their brand and their staff. 

    What I Learned from this Assignment: I learned from this assignment that there is much to be learned from digging through market analysis, stocks, social media threads and a company’s reputation. Perhaps the greatest thing I learned was the value in a good company culture. If a primarily dine in vibe steakhouse can survive Covid-19 maybe most businesses can. I also learned that looking at steaks for hours in a project is best done after you eat.

Marketing in the News

When the economy is down-college enrollment goes up. When the economy is good-college enrollment goes down. When I saw the article by “Colleges are seeing record online enrollment during Covid” (Matt Zalaznick, University Business, June 9^th, 2020.) I became interested in this old phenomenon. Everyone is talking about doom and gloom of colleges now –but when will people have this much time to stay at home and take online classes? Just a few months ago prior to Covid-19 Universities were struggling with the rumor of a “bubble” that would soon burst and indeed some enrollment was going down due to a cyclic economic trend that happens about every twenty years in education-that is, until Coronavirus hit. At first it looked like the closing of schools would be the death nail of some colleges and universities and indeed some campus’s relying on campus housing revenue may struggle or fall due to lost revenues due to students not returning to campus.  However, those that adapted to online education QUICKLY maintained enrollment and in some parts of the country university enrollment is up for online classes.

UofO president, Michael Schill said this spring to KEZI News, -“stay in school and take online classes-people are laid off-what else are you going to do this summer?” And indeed people enrolled this summer. Lane Community College in Eugene went so far as to Market “A Free online course this summer”. OSU’s spring’s 2020 enrollment on campus was down 4% but e-campus enrollment was up 13.%. OSU summer class enrollment is up 5.4% overall from last summer. (OSU Foundation July 2020) with on campus down -1.1, Cascades down -4.7%, LaGrande 0% change, BUT PDX (hybrid and e-campus) up 30.9% and E-campus up 20.5%! As the character Ian Malcom, (Jeff Goldblum) said in the movie Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.”

 “Colleges are seeing record online enrollment during Covid” (Matt Zalaznick, University Business, June 9^th, 2020.) “Students all over the country are flocking to online classes.” According to the article, many schools who quickly adapted to switching courses to e-campus are not just surviving but are THRIVING. Arizona State’s enrollment jumped 16%, other colleges in the east and south are seeing 13-16% growth in online courses as well. Indiana University, which for years has been experiencing a mass exodus of students and families to the west coast and east coast saw a 22% increase in student enrollment of more than 12,000 students due Covid-19 and their ability to offer online classes. Universities are also picking up people who may have never been able to attend school but now they can because they are laid off, working from home or have less work obligations in commuting. According the Chronicle of Higher Education “There is no more talk of 20% decline in enrollment admissions for fall 2020” (Scott Jaschik, June 15, 2020)

                The value proposition of this e-campus opportunity and low employment is that people who take advantage now of e-campus classes may come out the other end of this recession/depression/Armageddon with the ability to be more employable with newer skills. That time is of the essence right now to accomplish something because there isn’t really anything else to do but work for the grocery stores or Amazon or maybe attend a protest and hope to not get sick with the "Boomer Remover" and oust g-ma. The largest challenge of this for colleges is the stodginess of brick and mortar commitments and student life. Students want to leave their parents homes and experience college life where indeed social growth and navigation occurs. Campus housing is expensive to maintain if students are not going to be living in those buildings. At Oregon State University the average cost of attendance is only @$12,000 for tuition but it costs @ $13,000 a year for housing and it is a huge source of revenue. Colleges that do not provide housing and can switch to e-campus classes will have less to loose. Also, e-campus classes can be harder or take longer than in person classes and the duration of loneliness from quarantine is leading to depression for many students.

                Furthermore, many prestigious universities like, Duke, Harvard, Stanford and MIT are marketing some free online classes this summer to encourage students to continue. These are the SAME schools that closed their doors first at the end of winter term 2020 after finals-before spring break and said, “Don’t come back spring term” due to the Coronavirus. In my personal opinion, I am impressed with the most prestigious schools for both of these decisions to close early and offer SOME e-campus courses for free during the summer in that they create trust and loyalty while keeping the customer engaged.  These students are likely to want to come back after they see their school was looking out for them. These schools are creating brand loyalty. Also, many students are dropping out right now due to fears and genuine hardship felt by families but if history repeats itself, those that stay in school will have an advantage of supply and demand. They-having a degree- when they graduate and the economy turns. The “new normal” may change education and marketing for education for generations. 

Marketing Introduction

Blog for a Marketing course. 

• Introduce yourself. Where are you in life? 
  

I have lived in the Willamette Valley and in Benton County most of my life. I feel blessed to have grown up in such a beautiful bucolic location of the world. I have worked in higher education and computer technology for over 20 years. At the moment, I am supplementing my previous college education by taking a variety of classes in marketing and technology. 

• What prompted you to enroll in this course?

I was interested in taking a few courses that deal with social media on a more dynamic scope.

• Are you a business/marketing major?

Yes. Now returning for for updating education and expansion. 

• What are you most interested in learning about marketing? Tell why.

The science on how to choose to gamble on certain marketing strategies especially utilizing social media. Gen Z and onward doesn't really watch TV and they are hooked to their phones. 

• Tell us something you are passionate about outside of college. I love to travel and the hike the great outdoors in locations few go to. I like to hand down secret unique locations to those that will be good stewards to the area and help keep it special for the next generation. I have a previous history with collegiate sports in my life and my daughters and I enjoy classes of all kinds not just collegiate.  

• Optional: Include a photo of yourself.