Q&A: Jim Garcia, El Pinto Restaurant & CantinaQ&A: Jim Garcia, El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina

Ron Ruggless

While many restaurants struggled through the recession, New Mexico’s largest operation, the 1,020-seat El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina, thrived by amping up its engagement with guests and tapping social media to enhance the relationship.

Sales at the family-owned El Pinto in Albuquerque, N.M., have increased in each of the past 10 years, said Jim A. Garcia, El Pinto’s director of operations. In 2010, for example, sales at the restaurant alone rose more than 7 percent to pass $6.2 million, he said, and that excludes the company’s popular packaged salsa products.

“We want to create evangelists,” Garcia said. “We want to get guests to tell other people about us.”

El Pinto, founded in 1962 and owned by twin brothers Jim and John Thomas of the original founding family, has emphasized the guest experience, producing a wait list for its thousand-plus seats nearly every night.

Garcia, who worked 10 years each with Bennigan’s and Olive Garden, said the guest experience starts with El Pinto’s 220 employees who “create the magic.”

They concentrate on creating a “wow factor” for the guest, and learn to do so in a training program created a year and a half ago.

Garcia talked with Nation’s Restaurant News about other El Pinto programs that contribute to the restaurant’s success:

How do you maintain your customer loyalty?

We decided we were going to create a remarkable experience for our customers, giving them not only a dinner, but an experience they would never forget. We knew our market was families and a variety of people who wanted to celebrate an occasion. El Pinto is a spot that has a lot of beauty and great things to look at. We started to animate everything that we did and animate their senses: the view, the chiles roasting and great food.

Hear co-owner Jim Thomas talk about El Pinto; story continues on page 2

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Did you make cuts during the recession?

We had a couple of price increases in the past couple of years, but customers kept coming. We knew we had to be different from everyone else. Everyone else was looking where to cut during the recession, and we were looking at how to entertain the guests more and making it an experience that was worth coming out for.

How do you get your staff to enhance that?

We are in the business of making friends. We want to know your name, your wife’s name and who your kids are. We thank them by name.

How do you use e-mail and Facebook?

We decided to take Groupon out of the loop and do our own. Instead of conventional marketing, we decided to give that money to our regular customers. So we discount our regulars. We’re going to make sure those regulars get to make reservations when we don’t let the general public have reservations. If you sign up for our weekly newsletter, you get discounts e-mailed to you. We pop up on Facebook an offer “two-for-one” dinners. Those are real fans. We just put the offer up on our Facebook along with other events. We’ve maxed out at nearly 5,000 friends on Facebook. We also do book signings and get a dance studio to give free salsa dance lessons. It’s all for free. We don’t do any conventional marketing. My entire budget for radio last year was $16,000.

How does your staff get into the “friend-making?”

We teach our host staff to look at each customer and tell whether that customer has been to El Pinto before. When they first walk in the door and look at the big waterfall and pictures on the wall, our hostess will walk up to them and ask, “Hi, folks. Where are you all from?” They know they are new by the body language. So we start making friends right away and will give them a jar of bean chili or salsa. It’s worth the investment, because they’ll become a friend forever.

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You said cleanliness is important. How does the guest see that?

We are always tour-ready. We’ll get a manager, and take them through anytime. Our employees are used to seeing customers being escorted through the kitchen. We’re doing it because no one else does it. We’re animating all the senses to make the experience better.

Owners Jim and John Thomas are a unique selling point.

Jim and John have no script. They are humble. They can be welding in the back and then come out and meet guests or customers can go back at watch. People want an experience. We’re always looking for an opportunity to make the experience better, like adding a side dish to a table. That helps get people to come back.

You have five values that you run the business on. What are they?

We expound on them every day: Friendliness, cleanliness, service, safety and show.

How do you work with other local businesses?

We align our business with other business in the community, like the local baseball team, which averages 6,000 people a night. They can bring their ticket stub to El Pinto and get a free appetizer. They are marketing our business for us. And guests can take a lid from El Pinto salsa to the Albuquerque Isotopes, the baseball team, and they get a ticket to the game. They use their remnant tickets. If you align your business with others that might have the same customers, the loyalty will crossover right away.

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