1st of July, Written by Geoff Ramm, edited by Bella Ehrlicher

 
I was delighted to have been invited to open your amazing HUB network event in Edinburgh recently.  Having worked alongside the KAO teams in Australia for many years I couldn’t wait to share the Celebrity Service philosophy, the stories and the ideas here in the UK.  To close out my keynote I spoke about how it’s the ‘team’ who will create the experience the world will talk about.  It’s all about the team, supporting one another – how KAO supports you, how you support your stylists that creates the gap in your service you never knew existed.  Last year during a family holiday to New York I came across a very special team at a restaurant we shall never forget…”
 
 
 
SPRINKLING THE STARDUST…
If you were to search for the ‘Top places to go in New York’ you will see the usual names will appear, from the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, One World Observatory and the Rockefeller Center through to the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Times Square, and Central Park.  All of them are world famous iconic structures and destinations, however, there is also another ‘top place’ which is regularly mentioned, and it’s not your usual tourist attraction, in fact it’s a restaurant on 1650 Broadway.
Yes, you read that right, the restaurant is the attraction. Imagine for one moment you owned this restaurant.  And for seven days a week from the sun rising at 7am until you closed the doors at midnight, you had customers patiently queuing around the block to come in.

• What do you think you would have to offer to create such a phenomenal demand? 
• A celebrity chef perhaps?
• The worlds greatest food?
• The world’s cheapest or the most expensive food?
• Or how about stunning panoramic views as you dine? 

What would be your secret sauce to attract and maintain this level of customer demand?  It seems all you need do is provide something nobody else is doing, entertainment.

1. Every diner was joining in the singing. 
   2. Every diner at some point in their service would be either photographing or videoing the experience (and I wonder what they would do with those images and videos??) 
   3. Every diner had a huge smile on their face.

It wasn’t just the show as one waitress in particular was singing, ringing cheques into the till, taking cash from customers, handing out their change, all whilst clamping the microphone into her neck during ‘Walking On Sunshine’ by Katrina and The Waves.
You would think the Secret Sauce of Ellen’s would be the entertainment, and you would be right to think so, however, I do believe there was a greater recipe for their success. What surprised us was just the amount of songs the team were performing.  This wasn’t a performance every twenty or thirty minutes, this was one song after another after another.
In-between our pancakes, breakfast burrito and eggs benedict we also had…
 
Late Night Talking (They do love a bit of Harry Styles over the pond don’t they)
Watermelon Sugar (see above)
Can’t Take My Eyes Of You (Andy Williams)
And to round off our breakfast, Circle Of Life (The Lion King). 
 

The best part of this performance was another four team members supported the lead singer by holding up brooms with animals heads on top!
We left full, we left smiling, we left with an experience, we left telling a lot of people.They are also wonderfully old school as you can’t ring to book, you can’t go online to secure your table, you just have to turn up, wait in line and get ready to be entertained.
I am amazed there isn’t an Ellen’s in London’s West End, maybe an idea for someone reading this section to start up a new business one day? The secret to creating a great team experience? Entertainment & consistency and the ability to support your teammates in providing an experience like no other.

Want to know more about Geoff and his philosophy? Geoff has written two books on ‘Celebrity Services’ - Purchase them HERE

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