The Fish and Anchor - Another Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare.

This was a restaurant based in Lampeter, rural West Wales run by ex-boxer Mike and his wife Caron.

The kitchen was like a war zone and so was the dining room!

The Fish and Anchor was very slow at turning around orders due to the menu - Gordon wanted to turn this around with the emphasis on speed.

Food that can be prepared in advanced and served up quickly.

Caron has a bad attitude for a restaurant owner. She had sloppy standards especially when smoking outside when guests were arriving.

The slanging match between husband and wife outside was comical. The shouting and screaming could be heard by the customers.

Just please tell me that your business is not like the Fish and Anchor!

In any business the customer is always king. I was gobsmacked by the way that they spoke to some of the customers. Having said that I was gobsmacked when Mike wrote bogus reviews on the web!

Unbelievable!

The locals did not have a good word to say about the Fish and Anchor restaurant - bad experiences spread like wildfire! The Fish and Anchor’s reputation was awful.

The first thing to address were the arguments between the owners and to give it a new identity i.e open up as an Italian restaurant

The new menu enabled speed and the food could now fly out of the door - i.e the system was now set up for successful selling.

The dining room staff needed to work on their people skills so they set up some role plays - never be scared to practice like this. Make the service friendlier!

Everything was set. It was now time to drum up business.

Remember, marketing and sales are two different animals but they need to work hand in hand. Marketing generates the leads - sales close them down!

With the new launch and lots of customers - the kitchen at the Fish and Anchor could not cope when the chips were down. Added to a waitress slipping on the floor and collapsing - it turned into a real nightmare.

When Gordon came back to revisit they had painted the outside a clean white colour. Their customers had doubled! Gordon then called up their customers to get some feedback. It is vital that you get feedback from your customers too.

With a bit of passion, planning and refocussing - it can make a huge difference.

Happy selling

Sean Mc