Free steak sample

Last night, while at the local Outback restaurant, my dinner conversation was politely interrupted by the manager holding a tray of sample-sized food. Each small cup contained a strip of steak. The manager offered us one in the hopes we could let him know why people might not be ordering the steak off the menu.

Apparently, people were still coming in and ordering food, they were just not ordering this particular steak and he couldn't figure out why. So he had taken to passing out free samples of the steak and asking for customer feedback.

I asked the price, thinking that perhaps it was too expensive, and was told "$14.99 but it comes with two sides." That's not a bad deal for steak, so that must not be it.

We are in Texas, so the public's propensity for eating meat is strong, so that's not it.

My friend said that it needed more spices. "After the first bite, you're all 'yum!' but then the next bites aren't that tasty."

The manager thanked us for the feedback, obviously very appreciative and then moved on to the next set of customers.

I believe this is the first time I have ever seen user research done by a manager of a restaurant. I hope he finds his answer and sells some more steaks.