Bigger Ain’t Always Better: Why Renovation Can Be Risky

Seeing as how it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d focus this post on something I truly love: food. More specifically, there’s a burger place in Seattle called Lunchbox Laboratory. You could order up a huge sloppy, delicious concoction of your choosing — beef, “dork” (duck + pork), lamb, “churken” (turkey + chicken), game — adorned with bacon, truffle sauce, gorgonzola cream, you name it, complete with a fries or tots with your choice of salt accompaniments and one of many different milkshake flavors to wash it all down.  It’s the sort of place you could go to for lunch where you’d gorge on a meal and be so full that you wouldn’t (or couldn’t) eat anything else the rest of the day. It’s a pricey excursion (two burgers, shakes and fries would add up to about $45) but totally worth it. Lunchbox Laboratory is considered to be one of Seattle’s best burger places and has graced many culinary magazines’ lists of best burgers nationwide.

So damn good

Or so it used to be. One of my favorite burger joints in town was recently bought by a somewhat craptacular establishment called the Eastlake Bar and Grill, and they decided to move Lunchbox Laboratory’s location from the tiny, hole in the wallish building where it used to reside in Ballard to a larger location in South Lake Union. I initially thought this was both spectacular and dangerous news, as the new location is closer to where I live. However, after checking out the new location’s Yelp listing, I can’t help but feel a bit heartbroken.

old location's Yelp listing

The old (now closed) location’s Yelp listing averaged four stars out of nearly 500 reviews. The new location, on the other hand, isn’t faring nearly as well:

new location's Yelp listing

Thus far the new location has only amassed 37 reviews, but it’s averaging a surprisingly poor 2 1/2 stars, down from its stellar four star rating. What the hell happened? After perusing through the reviews, it’s apparent that the location isn’t the only thing that Lunchbox Laboratory has changed:

• “…they are no longer getting the kaiser roll from Grand Central Bakery, and are instead using a bread that is so dense it ends up overpowering the burger.”
• “Looks like the new owners brought in their frozen food tendencies from eastlake bar & grill, etc and ruined a classic..  you would think they would expand options with a bigger space/kitchen but they did just the opposite. “
• “burger size has gone down considerably while price went up?”
• “They’ve taken everything that made Lunchbox Laboratory worth going to, waiting in line for, and paying $25 for a meal for, and watered it down to another link in a mediocre burger/bar and grill chain.”
• “…the selection just isn’t what it was…”

Some reviewers are chastising the folks who left negative reviews for being too “hipster” and bemoaning the changes (I suppose it’s the culinary equivalent of scoffing and saying you loved this band when they were more underground…maybe an “I had this burger on vinyl” approach?), but when you love something and expect it to continue to be that thing you love, you’re understandably upset and disappointed when it’s changed so drastically, you barely recognize it. It’s akin to coming home to your gorgeous, lovely wife from a hard day’s work, only to find that she’s inexplicably gained 120 lbs and grown a bunch of hairy warts over the course of eight hours.
Lunchbox Laboratory’s reasoning for their new shoddy service and product (subpar ingredients, poorly cooked food, smaller portions, no substitutions, severely neutered menu with jacked up prices) is that they’re struggling to properly train their staff, and that once they learn the ropes, they’ll adjust the menu accordingly. This is a hardly an excuse — as a business, you should know that you need to get your ducks in a row before opening or unveiling something new. If you rush into something before you’re ready just so you can rake in some green a week or two early, the extra cash you make won’t be worth the customer dissatisfaction and disappointment (which will hurt your wallet in the long run). They should have re-opened with their staff properly trained and ready to bring the same experience that established the brand and made it so great to begin with.
This is exactly the same thing that happened to Digg when it revamped its site to its now-famous version 4. They rolled out a bunch of changes in an effort to appease publishers, which would have made the site more money, but the radical revamp alienated and outraged its loyal users and drove them away. They learned the hard way that they really shot themselves in the foot and scrambled to restore beloved features that had been cut out of the recent design, but by then the damage was already done — many users abandoned the site and flocked to other communities like Reddit, which is now experiencing record growth.
Put simply, there’s a reason why your loyal customers are loyal. You offer stellar service, a great product, friendly ambiance, a simple design. Whatever it is, it’s working for you, and that’s why your customers love you so much. If you’ve got a user-friendly website that’s highly praised by your users and completely revamp it so it’s overly complicated and technical, you’ve just alienated every single one of them. If you’re a mom and pop store who offered warm, personalized customer service but got bought out by some corporation who switches you over to an automated phone system and thick-accented guys named “Bob,” your customers will wonder where that unique experience went. And if you sell your awesome little burger place to a shitty bar and grill chain and change everything that made your business great so you can make a couple more bucks, your rabid fanbase will shake their heads and say “You’ve changed, man.”
You can scoff and say it’s hipster or douchey to bemoan change, and I won’t argue that some change and growth is good for your business. However, once you start tinkering with the very thing that sets your business apart and makes it great, you’ve embarked on a very slippery slope. You need to really ask yourself the following:

• How will these changes impact my business?
• How will they affect my existing customers?
• How will they affect new/future customers?
• Is the bottom line worth the drawbacks these changes may bring about?

Basically, will the quality of your product and/or service be negatively impacted by these changes? Is it worth it to cut corners in order to make a bigger profit? If you’re a brand-centric company, it might not be — your reputation for quality and your customer loyalty may be too valuable to compromise. If you’re convinced that your radical changes will bring about a new crop of loyal customers at the expense of your old ones, I suppose that’s a risk you can take. However, ask yourself how often you’re willing to cycle through a new throng of loyal fans every time you’re itching to “reinvent” your business. There’s a reason why Garth Brooks’ alter ego experiment in the 90′s was met with head scratches and puzzled looks. Don’t be the Chris Gaines of your industry.  Your customers don’t want that