Customer Relations are Key to Success!

Our guest began his journey in the world of top-tier hospitality immediately after finishing school, under the mentorship of renowned culinary master Slavko Adamlje. With 30 years in the culinary field, you might have already read one of his blogs on Blazkuha or seen his recipes on various cooking shows. Recently, he has been focusing primarily on managing his restaurant and café, Dobri Čuk.

Among those who know your restaurant, you are recognized as someone who understands the importance of building genuine relationships with customers. Why is this so crucial in the hospitality industry?

This relationship is very important in every business. Entrepreneurs must understand that it is a process that needs to be built over a long period. Many seek shortcuts, but this often backfires. If you focus on the long term, the results are entirely different. In our case, despite our efforts, we didn't see significant results in the first four years. Now the story is different. With persistence, we succeeded. Our customers have recognized that we are continually striving to build genuine relationships with them. This relationship is always two-sided.

What are Čuk Restaurant and Café best known for?

The largest percentage of our customers come for daily lunches. My key principle here is that the food is always freshly prepared. Customers know that sometimes they might have to wait a few minutes for their meal, but it will always be freshly made. At the same time, we strive to prepare tasty meals at affordable prices. In the café, coffee is certainly a highlight. Recently, we have also been focusing more on offering breakfasts and sandwiches.

You are also known for using advanced digital tools in your work. Why did you decide to take this step?

Technology is constantly advancing and can significantly ease our work. As I mentioned earlier, our customers are very important to us. I am aware that we live in a time of rising prices. Therefore, we sought ways to reward our regular guests. We achieved this with our loyalty or benefits card. It's not just about discounts, but customers feel that we are always trying to offer them the most.

Can you tell us more about the benefits you offer?

Basically, it is a 'pre-paid' card. This means that you load a certain amount of money onto the card at the beginning, and we add a bonus based on the amount. Then there are additional benefits, such as discounts on drinks, free soup (which is always allergen-free), and free packaging if you take your meal home. Additionally, we warmly invite all readers to visit us and try our offerings for themselves. We have prepared a special offer for all new guests who decide to use our loyalty card. Upon a payment of over 131 euros, they will receive an additional 22% credit on their card (with the code: Čuk - Kavarna_Restavracija_2024*). You can find more details at this link:

*The offer is valid until the end of August 2024.

Many entrepreneurs still resist digitalization and stick to traditional solutions. How do you view this approach?

Digital solutions have proven to work. I must emphasize that they do not bring additional work; quite the opposite. Without such tools, it would be much more difficult or even impossible to manage such an offering. In the coming months, I hope to enhance our loyalty program with some new features. Here's an interesting fact: when we introduced our benefits card, customers initially loaded lower amounts. Now, these amounts are several times higher. The digitalized card has also brought us new customers.