Dear Gordon Ramsay, Your Email Is Too Late

Posted by barblog on Feb 15, 2010 in Bar Marketing | 0 comments

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I’ve been subscribed to the Gordon Ramsay Group email list for three or four years now and today was the first time I received an email from them.

I’ve been a big fan of Gordon since I began in the hospitality industry and he has always bee nan industry idol of mine, but sadly, his business of late has taken a turn for the worst, his restaurants have lost chefs and Michelin Stars and the very restaurant promoted in this inaugural email I received was for Plane Food, a restaurant of his that was just saved from closure after managing to pay it’s outstanding tax liabilities to the Revenue Commissioners in the UK.

Sadly, Gordon Ramsay no longer has a hand in the restaurants where I enjoyed his food, namely The London in New York and Claridges in London and I can’t say that any of his current restaurants are high on my bucket list, so for me, maybe the honeymoon is over between me and Gordon.

So what about this email that I received today? Well for me, the lack of emails for the past three years spoke of an overall lack of strategy of keeping in touch with me, a paying customer, an interested aficionado and a potential future customer.

Is it a coincidence that this first email was received at a time when his troubled restaurant empire is facing it’s biggest challenges. Doesn’t it stink just a little bit of desperation? Is it a case of too little too late?

I have no idea of the size of his email list, but I suspect it to run into the six figures at least. had these interested customers been receiving regular updates from the man himself, details about his restaurant openings, new menus, new chefs and more, maybe the business wouldn’t be on it’s knees right now.

Is this a stretch? I don’t think the current economic climate helped, but the ever decreasing presence of Gordon Ramsay in the restaurants that bear his name and the lack of communication with his fans and customers is certainly to blame for a portion of the losses.

had I his ear, I would tell him to get personal with his customers, get a couple of Live uStream Shows going for us to interact with him, answer customer’s questions online, send out regular updates and give us the information we need to frequent his newest venture. I was surprised to see many new pubs and hotels that he was involved in when I visited his website today that I knew nothing about. It would also be helpful to have tweeted more than 43 times. His customers expect it and his business needs it.

Get it?

A lesson for all business I think.

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