Success Story

B-Hat's Curry House Finds Success With a Simple Formula: Authentic Food and Great Customer Service.

B-Hat's Curry House is making more money by following an interesting strategy: not going after money.

Over the course of the months his establishment has been open, owner Prabin Rana Bhat's goal has been to offer patrons high quality, traditionally cooked foods. "We also dominate on customer service," he adds. "I personally interact with guests and have paid close attention to their feedback."

What ties it all together is solid management.

Bhat says he follows a simple system: "To serve home-cooked foods and make sure my guests know they are home cooked. Once a guest walk into my restaurant, the first thing I hear is, 'It smells like heaven here.' After they take a first bite they say, 'tastes like home-made, no doubt.' These facts make me and my employees motivated to keep doing our best work."

Bhat explains that he practices "a different mantra" than other restaurant owners. "Do not go after money. Let the money come to you, and make your guests come back." So far, he continues, "We are the best choice for vegetarians and vegans in this entire North Country." In fact, B-Hat's ranked third on Yelp and ninth on Trip Advisors since its launch.

Education has been comprehensive. Bhat, a veteran, enrolled in Cornell University's Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans, where he attended classes conducted by RestaurantOwner.com CEO Jim Laube. "I learned many more ideas from those classes, and practiced them in the real business. My goal was to provide outstanding foods in an attractive atmosphere."

To help accomplish that, Bhat drafted a mission statement that he says his employees "understand and practice from their heart: "Guests First & Quality 100%." He also "took some video of Jim and put it out on our web site, and those were very helpful."

He went further, taking Laube's advice and instituting what has grown to be quite a successful Birthday Club. "I give them a 30% birthday discount, and if the birthday person brings five more people with him or her the birthday person gets a free entree."

Bhat spends time talking to each guest about his food, encouraging them to try new items. In addition, he shares photos and videos with them of how his staff prepares meals. "I also let a few of the guests visit our kitchen. One of them ordered catering for his 62 employees in following weeks, and I believe it was because he saw how we prepare 100% home-made meals."

Another new part of the culture that Bhat introduced was to, as he says, "Namaste (greet or salute) every guest with our hands instead of just saying hello. Folks who know the value of namaste got just so excited at being greeted in very different way in North Country, where customer service barely exists."

These new practices made it to Facebook and Yelp almost immediately - a new way of saying namaste to the entire community.