Chapter 32: How To Keep Customers Coming Back For More
Profitability is going to keep you in business. How and where you focus to become and stay profitable is the key. Are you crunching numbers and pushing your servers to raise their check averages or are you creating an environment that leaves patrons feeling served and eager to come back? Are you holding staff meetings that leave your crew energized or deflated? Are management, kitchen, and wait staffs working independently or as a team toward a common goal? This chapter will give you insights into how and where you can make changes to boost your sales volume 15 to 50 percent.
CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE
Take care of your guests and your sales will take care of themselves. “Customers for life” means that once guests come to your restaurant, they will never be satisfied with your competitors. Simple, right? It also means that the real work of building sales does not happen with your advertising schedule or marketing plan, but on the floor with your customers.
The key to building restaurant sales is to increase volume from your existing customer base. Think about it: If your customers return just one more time per month, that would increase sales volume 15 to 50 percent. These are people who already know about you, live within an acceptable travel distance, and will recommend you to their friends if you make them happy. These are the people you want to target in order to build a regular, loyal customer base — a customer base that shares the pleasures of your establishment with friends. Work on building loyalty, not the check average.
A WORD OF CAUTION
It is true: A bigger check is a bigger sale. However, selling techniques designed to boost check averages can be dangerous if customers feel they are being pressured. Guests come first. Your income comes from serving people, not food. Focusing only on the bottom line or a higher check average puts your customers second. If all who eat at your restaurant are so pleased that they cannot wait to come back with their friends, what will your sales be like? If eating with you was not a thrill, if they felt pressured to order something expensive or a dessert they did not want, the big check makes no difference when they do not come back.
KNOW WHAT YOUR PATRONS WANT
The type of restaurant that you manage dictates the types of side items that will appeal to your customers. An escargot appetizer plate will not appeal to your clients if you operate a family-style restaurant that features chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. But how do you figure out what your patrons want on the menu?
Here is how:
• Experiment with your menu. Discover what works by doing a monthly sales tally of every side item on your menu. Doing so will help weed out the items that are not being recognized. Highlight the “winning” items on your menu and advertise them wherever you can.
• Learn from trends. Always check out restaurant reviews in your local newspapers and magazines. Keep up to date on what is hot in restaurants across the country. Websites such as www.martinsnet.com/restaurantlinks.asp are great sources of information about what is happening in the restaurant business.
• Make them feel special. Whenever you have a slow period, have a server take a cart around with a sampling of a new dish you are considering serving. Ask patrons to give their opinions on the items. They will appreciate the consideration — and the freebie.
• Stimulate the appetite with sub-menu items. Use glowing adjectives to describe side items: “Our Cokes are served in ice-cold frosty mugs.” Place “menu tents” with colorful photos of your featured desserts on the table. These methods are sure to get your sub-menu items noticed. You can order table tents from www.armsco.com in a variety of styles — from acrylic to leather.
• Advertise your specialty items. Advertise (without spending a dime) with tactics like placing items such as desserts in a showcase at the entrance of your restaurant. You can have exact replicas made of your dishes from www.trengovestudios.com so that you do not have to keep restocking.
PAY ATTENTION AND DELIGHT CUSTOMERS
EXPECTATIONS
Satisfaction is not even close to good enough. It is an improvement on dissatisfaction, but in today’s market, it will not keep people coming back. There is just too much competition. You need to exceed your guests’ expectations every time. The food-service business is built on personal connections. You serve one person at a time, and the more personal that interaction, the more you will exceed his or her expectations — and the happier he or she will be.
Here is a list of basic guest expectations and some hints on how to meet and exceed them:
• Guests expect hot food hot and cold food cold. Serve cold food on a chilled — not frozen — plate. Try removing your heat lamps altogether: they do not keep food hot and they can cause your staff to delay in getting food to your guests.
• From order to delivery, guests expect their drinks within two minutes, appetizers in five to ten, entrees in 15 to 25, and dessert in three to five minutes. Check turnaround should take no more than two minutes. At the beginning and end of a meal guests are the least tolerant of delays. Make sure your staff does not keep customers waiting after they have been seated or when they are ready to leave.
• Guests expect their servers to know the menu, how dishes are prepared, and the wine list.
• Guests expect restaurant staff to care.
Do you know what your customers expect when they come through the door? Are you out to exceed those expectations and give each guest a memorable and delightful meal every time?
WAYS TO DELIGHT
Customers are delighted when you care — it is as simple as that. Doing things that demonstrate you care will make a difference. Part of the trick here is that there is no trick. You must be sincere. People know when they are being treated with sincerity or with a mechanical technique. Here is a list of practices that can make your guests feel valued and distinguish you from the competition:
• Umbrellas when it rains. Is it possible that, given the weather patterns in your area, your guests could arrive without an umbrella, only to find it raining as they are leaving? Offer them umbrellas to help them get to their cars or offices. It is a great incentive to have them come back at a later date to return the umbrella. Put your name and logo on the umbrella and maybe it is not the worst thing if they forget to bring it back.
• Free stuff while they wait. People tolerate a wait when they have a complimentary glass of wine or warm cider to keep them toasty or the local paper or magazine to read. They will appreciate you going the extra mile and this gives them something to tell their friends.
• Free local calls with a portable phone, a huge convenience to guests, allowing them to change travel plans or contact friends at almost no cost to you. Let customers know it is a service you offer.
• Owner or manager on the floor. People like to meet the person in charge. They appreciate that someone important is checking in on them.
• Give people something for nothing. Got some new menu items coming up next week? Why not give away free samples today to whet people’s appetites? There is nothing customers like more than something for free — another great way to distinguish yourself from the competition.
• Books, magazines, newspapers for single diners. If you draw or want to draw single diners, have reading materials available — and a staff that knows how to offer them politely.
• Free postcards and postage. Do a lot of tourist business? If your guests are waiting— or even if they are not — why not give them stamped postcards (depicting your restaurant, of course) for sending their “Wish you were here” messages? It is a very low price to pay for advertising all over the world.
• Fax directions to guests. Have a clear map on hand when guests ask for directions to your restaurant. Offer to fax it to them. If they do not have a fax, have the directions on your website.
• House camera. If guests are celebrating but forgot a camera, have an instant camera or disposable on hand and snap a few shots for them to take home. Or, you can use a high quality digital camera and offer to e-mail guests their pictures. Not only will this please your guests, it will help you build a database of customers’ e-mail addresses.
• Armchairs for the elderly. It is harder for the elderly to get in and out of their chairs. If you serve a lot of elderly customers, or even a few, have chairs with arms to make it easier for them to get in and out. Let them know you did it just for them. They will certainly appreciate it.
• Guest book. Make sure your guests fill in the guest book: You need a mailing list of your patrons to send them promotional material. Try to collect e-mail addresses, birth dates, and anniversaries for your database, as well.
WORD OF MOUTH
Positive word of mouth is the best advertising there is. But does it just come from serving great food? Yes and no. Do you have a deliberate, creative, and authentic plan to create great word of mouth? Guests will not talk about you unless they are thinking about you. You have to educate your guests on why they come to you. You must create points of difference between you and your competitors. Then people can tell their friends about why they eat at your restaurant.
An effective word-of-mouth program has five main goals:
1 Inform and educate your patrons.
2. Make the guest a salesperson for your restaurant.
3. Give guests reasons to return.
4 Make your service unique and personal.
5. Distinguish your business from the competition.
CREATING POINTS OF DIFFERENCE
You must distinguish yourself from the competition to get your guests to return one extra time a month and to tell their friends and family about you. You do that by creating “points of difference.” What is different about your establishment, your concept, your type of food, and your combination of dishes? Do you guarantee your service?
Do you give free wine to waiting customers; have an organic vegetable garden in the back; put ice in your urinals and the sports page above them? What makes your place memorable and different from the competition? Here is a partial list of things that every restaurant offers and a few suggestions on how you can create points of difference with them:
• Water. Serve local spring water or imported bottled water or simply filter your tap water so it tastes good. Put a lemon slice or flower petal in the glass or carafe.
• Soft drinks. Serve bottled drinks instead of post mix. Have an extensive selection and offer free refills.
• Salad. Have unusual, local, and/or organic ingredients and dressings. Serve them in unique or oversized bowls. Serve chilled salads on chilled plates with chilled forks.
• Restrooms. Have twice as many restrooms for women. It tends to take them longer; why should they have to wait?
• Beer. Have a large microbrew menu, an extensive beer list, and local brews. Serve beer in exotic glassware, personalized mugs, or numerous bottles in a bucket of ice.
Certainly not all of these are appropriate for every restaurant, but finding a great way to distinguish yourself — often through a mishap or brilliantly ridiculous staff idea — is a great way to give your place a real identity and give your customers something to talk about.
EDUCATING GUESTS ON THE DIFFERENCES
Having a great idea in place is not enough; you have to inform your customers about it and give them the words they can then pass on. A customer telling his friends he had a great time is great. A customer telling his friends he had the best salad ever because you have an organic garden in the back and the lettuce was picked five minutes before his salad was prepared is worth his weight in gold. Details differentiate your product and make yours the place to go for something extraordinary.
How do you get this information across? Arm your staff with words they can comfortably work into a conversation. Do you offer a full menu until midnight? When guests call and ask how late you are open, say, “Dave’s Café serves a full menu until midnight. We are the only place in town that does that.” If a guest comes in at 11 p.m. wondering if you are still open, say, “Not only are we open, we serve a full menu until closing at midnight.”
Over time your customers will be saying, “Dave’s serves a full menu until midnight — let’s go there.”
An effective word-of-mouth program not only creates points of difference between you and the competition; it educates your guests on those distinctions. If you give your customers a great experience and the words to describe it, they will talk about it to their friends.
INCENTIVES
Incentives work because people are rewarded for what they are doing. It is as simple as that. Reward customers for coming back and they will. There are three basic ways to do this: discounts, promotions, and customer loyalty programs.
DISCOUNTS
An effective deal gives your guests a discount and generates more profit for you. How? By making a sale you would not have made otherwise. Is a customer buying a discounted lobster dinner that, even with the discount, has a 40 percent profit margin, instead of the salmon that she would have ordered that has a 30 percent profit margin? Then she is getting a deal and you are making more money. Are your business card drawings giving customers a chance to buy drinks at half price and bringing in more than twice the business? Are your drawings bringing people in right after work when they are hungry or making your bar the first place people think of to go for a drink after work?
Internal coupons can be a great way to increase repeat business. Three of the most widely used are:
1. Courtesy coupons. These are wallet-sized coupons that your staff carries. They can be issued to guests and used on return visits. They are great if a guest has a complaint or is put out somehow or they can be used to reward customers for their ongoing patronage.
2. Cross-marketing coupons. If you have very fast and very slow meal periods, why not offer a discount to customers if they return during the slower time? If you do a great lunch business, for instance, give people a free dessert if they come for dinner on a Tuesday.
3. Companion coupons. Encourage your regulars to bring a friend. You can offer a special group of dishes to be shared among four people, a free bottle of wine, or free appetizers for two or more.
PROMOTIONS
Five great promotional opportunities are birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, special events, and festivals.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Do you have an irresistible offer for patrons who celebrate their birthdays or anniversaries with you? You can get the dates of their special occasions when they sign up for your Frequent Diner Plan. With this information you can invite them to celebrate with you. Have your offer valid for the entire month of the actual date because people need some flexibility in planning their special events.
Holidays
The beauty of the holidays is that someone else advertises them. You do not have to tell your guests Thanksgiving is coming, but you could put a flyer in with their check that lets them know how fun it will be — and what a great deal they will get — if they spend it with you.
Special Events
Special events can be a great way to promote business and goodwill. Have you thought of hosting a cigar dinner, a winemaker dinner, or a charity fundraiser? If a cigar event would fit your restaurant, it is a great way to combine high-priced cigars with fine wine and spirits. Hold a wine tasting early in the evening on a slow night of the week. You can showcase the knowledge of your sommelier or wine steward and afterwards guests can stay for dinner.
A Charity Fundraiser
A charity fundraiser can be a way to gain exposure for your restaurant that pays off for everyone. It will improve your image and distinguish you from competitors. It does not have to be a break-even venture either, because you only give a portion of the proceeds to the cause. Spirits distributors and other suppliers often give free or discounted products for such events, which could lower your costs and even bring heavy marketing muscle to your event. The charity will also promote you to its supporters, which can bring new people through your door who want to support your business.
Festivals
Festivals are great reasons to invite guests to come back and they are great things for guests to talk about. They highlight specific cuisines or products and can be a great way to stir things up for staff and customers alike. You can run a festival on a specific night or for a specific time period — usually a week or two. Make sure that the festival you hold is right for your establishment and that it is run frequently enough to break up your routine, but infrequently enough to remain special. Do a memorable job and build a strong foundation for future events.
Highlighting regional cuisines is a great idea, with foods, wines, and recipes from another culture, as well as music, decorations, costumes, posters — you name it. You could have a guest chef from the celebrated country during your festival. Contact the country’s embassy for ideas.
Product festivals usually coincide with seasonal items — raspberries, corn, etc. — when the items are abundant and cheaper. Off-season festivals can be great for word of mouth — if you can find the product. People will love a fresh strawberry festival in January. Regional food items like ribs, oysters, and lobster work great with various appetizers, salads, and soups and can make a dynamite festival.
T-shirts are a wonderful way to promote your event and business whether you give them to customers or have your staff members wear them. You could hold a drawing each week and award a t-shirt to one customer. It is a great way to get business cards from customers, or e-mail addresses for other promotional pieces. One business that offers custom t-shirts to include your logo or other information is www.campuscollection.net/custom.php3 or call 800-BUY-T-SHIRTS (800-289-8744).
You may want to have special glasses for your event. Berry Plastics offers a wide selection of disposable plastic cups which are great if you have a self-serve beverage area. These cups offer high clarity, are crack resistant, decorative, and have a sleek design. The website is www.berryplastics.com.
CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAMS
These programs can be a huge benefit to your business. Rewarding your customers for continued loyalty gives them added incentive to choose you over the competition. They come in variations of these three basic forms:
1. Punch cards. Punched every time guests purchase a product. When they purchase a certain number of items they receive something for free. The biggest plus of punch cards is their ease to produce. The biggest negative is the ease with which they can be altered. Keeping the guests’ cards, or duplicate cards, on premises can help counter fraud.
2. Point systems. These are often dollar-for-point systems, in which a customer accrues points towards free food or merchandise. Point systems are a great way for guests to “eat their way” towards a free bicycle or dinner for four. A point system is more complicated to implement than a punch card system, often including outside vendors.
3. Percentage-of-purchase programs. The closest type to airline programs, with guests paying full price for items while accruing dollar credits for future meals. It gets people in the habit of thinking of their purchases as having a larger than normal value and keeps them coming to you.
These programs are all ways to monitor your guests’ patronage, reward them for coming back, and increase your opportunities to delight them with your food and service..
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE
PRESENCE
The food-service business is about personal connection. People want to be treated as individuals; they will repeatedly do business in a place that makes this connection.
Multitasking, doing many things at once, has been accepted as effective in today’s society. The same cannot be said of the restaurant business. If you are taking a phone reservation, putting tonight’s specials on the board, and talking to your new waiter, how much real attention will any of those tasks get? Do you think the potential guest on the phone, or your waiter, will feel well treated? Will you have time to check the spelling on the specials board?
The truth is that you can only focus on one thing at a time. Drop distractions, handle each item individually, and then move on to the next. Presence is simply a lack of distraction. If you act distracted with your staff, they will keep asking the same questions or come to you with the same problems. If you are distracted around your guests, they will not come back.
APPRECIATION
If you recognize your customers and make them feel important, it will draw them closer to your restaurant and further differentiate you in their eyes. The following list touches on a few tried-and-true examples. Many can be done at little or no cost.
• Put your customers in your newsletter (You can have either a print or an e-mail version).
• Put them on a Wall of Fame or “Outstanding Customer” plaques.
• Give your regulars awards and honor people in your community who make a difference through charitable work.
• Name menu items after guests. Customers love this and who knows what soon-to-be famous dishes are cooking in their minds?
• Personalize booths or seats.
• Put guests’ names up on your bulletin board.
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR GUESTS
In a business that lives and dies on personal connection, getting to know your guests is crucial. Go beyond the procedures of service, and start thinking of your guests as individuals. There is a difference between serving 200 dinners and serving Steve and Mary Carson on their 30th wedding anniversary or doing a fundraiser for the Friends of the Museum of Science.
Numbers are important, but your relationship to your customers drives your business. Furthermore, the two easiest things to learn about your customers are also the most useful: who they are and what they like.
People love it when you remember who they are. It instantly makes them feel like insiders and makes them feel important in the eyes of their friends. Remember “Norm!” in Cheers? Norm felt pretty comfortable and he definitely came back. As a manager you probably know your regulars by name, but do you have a system in place that teaches your new staff who these important folks are? If you were a regular customer at a restaurant and a waitress you had never seen came up and greeted you by name, wouldn’t you feel like a celebrity?
You can train your servers to write the guest’s name on the back of the check so they can refer to it throughout the meal or you can have your greeter put guests’ names on their checks when they arrive. However you do it, keeping servers using guests’ names will help them remember the names in the future. It will continually remind wait staff that they are serving people — not anonymous mouths.
The next step is to find out what your customers want. You must ask them and remember what you have been told and what you have observed. If a customer is allergic to a certain ingredient, next visit offer to make a dish that is not on the menu. Remember the customer seated too close to the air conditioner; seat him away from it next time.
Small note cards kept about regular guests can make this possible. The cards hold information about customers’ likes and dislikes, patterns, and desires — all the information necessary to treat them like royalty. You can even reward your servers for adding to the cards each time a guest dines. Throughout this process it is very important never to pry: Respect your customer’s privacy. If a customer was reticent to share about his life, a savvy server would note on the biography card not to ask too many questions. In this case, you are serving your customer’s preferences by leaving him alone. Either way, you are finding out what your guests want and giving it to them.
CLUBS
Clubs can be a great way of treating your regulars like individuals by giving them privileges or paraphernalia other customers do not have. If you sell draft beer, here are a few ideas for having a great and effective Mug Club:
1. Keep the mugs or glasses on display, so “Mug Clubbers” have to come in to use them.
2. Make the mugs so distinctive that other customers ask about them and the people with the mugs feel special.
3. Put customers’ names on their mugs.
4. Give them a deal: cheaper product, more for the same price, or another incentive.
Do you sell oysters, ribs, or wings? Or anything else that could be a club that people would join? Through these clubs, customers can accrue points towards a prize. They could get a discount on appetizers and a free golf cap after they have eaten, say, 300 ribs. Clubs are a great way to distinguish your products, distinguish your guests, and give your guests a sense of belonging. The results will benefit your bottom line.
STAFF
Your food and staff keep your customers coming back. The quality of service your customers receive will determine their opinion of your restaurant. Your staff is who delights your guests or not, who gives them things to talk about, and who provides the crucial personal connection. Staff will: execute most of your sales promotions and programs; educate your customers about what makes your rib joint better than the one down the street; and give your guests information they can pass on to their friends.
It is in your wait staff’s best interests to connect with customers, because through that connection their tip averages will go up. If you want your staff to be gracious, to listen, and to delight your guests, you have to do the same for them.
Take the pressure off your staff to get the check averages up. Instead, encourage them to commit to serving their customers’ needs so they return one more time per month, thus increasing their monthly tips by 50 percent. Also, guests who know their wait persons usually leave higher tips. As your wait staff gets to know their customers, they will see increased revenue through repeat business. Here is a partial list of basic things your wait staff can do to make a personal connection and up their tip averages:
• Greet guests within a minute. Do not leave them waiting. Waiting negatively affects a customer’s mood and her mood is going to directly affect the tip.
• Make eye contact. Do not stare at the table, the floor, or the artwork on the wall. Clear your head, smile, and pay attention. Make sure you are at the table when you are talking. Do not talk to your guests as you are flying by. It makes people feel unimportant.
• Do not think about the tip. Focus your energy on taking care of your guests, making them happy, doing little things that exceed their expectations and make their meals enjoyable.
• Encourage your guests’ food choices. People can be strange about making decisions. Telling them that you have had what they are ordering and it is great can take away any anxiety they have about making a bad choice.
• Tell the cooks good news. Just as you need to be sensitive to the mood of your guests, be sensitive to the mood of the kitchen crew. The cooks do not want to hear about things just when they are wrong. Pass along good news to them and they will make it easier for you to take great care of your guests.
• Notice lefties. It is a small thing, but if your guest has moved his water glass and silverware to the other side of his plate, serve his drinks from there. He will appreciate it.
• Make your movements invisible. That means move with the speed of the room. Good service is invisible: Food and drinks simply arrive without a thought on the customer’s part. If the room is quiet, do not buzz around in it. If it is more upbeat, move a little quicker. You will find fitting in with the atmosphere increases your guest’s enjoyment.
• Ask before refilling coffee. Coffee drinkers can be very particular about the amount of cream and sugar they have in their coffee. Temperature also matters. Do not top off a cup they may have spent considerable time getting just right.
• Tell guests about specific events at your restaurant and invite them. It is more effective to invite guests to return for your rib special on Tuesdays than just to say, “Thanks, come again.” While you are at it, invite them to sit at your station.
• Show gratitude. People are dealing with a lot in their lives and you have a chance to “make their day.” Express gratitude in the tone of your voice when you thank them for their patronage or invite them to come back. Making them feel appreciated will make them remember you during tip time and when they are deciding where to eat next time.
• Make personal recommendations. Tell your guests what you like. It is not suggestive selling because it is sincere and will not alienate your guests. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, even if guests do not order what you recommend.
• Remember: Guests leave good tips because they want to leave good tips.
As a manager, you can make it easy for your servers to accomplish these goals. Have them taste everything on the menu. Ensure they know how every item is made so they can speak knowledgeably about it. As part of their training they could work in the preparation area for a day or two. If you want them to be able to recommend wines with dishes, they should taste the wines as well. Have a tasting party where everyone gets to know each other and gets an education. Then they will be able to make educated and sincere recommendations. Nothing is more persuasive than a waitperson who knows what he is talking about.
Also, let them use their own words to convey their enthusiasm. It is hard to make a personal recommendation using someone else’s words. You want them sharing their enthusiasm, not a canned version of yours. Your crew will find their own way of expressing their enthusiasm. Letting them in on what you sell is the best way to give them something to be enthusiastic about.
A TRULY EFFECTIVE STAFF MEETING
How are you going to impart all this newfound wisdom and good spirit to your staff and how are you going to get them excited about delighting your customers? You need an effective staff meeting.
Most staff meetings are far from invigorating. In fact, they usually result in a drop in energy and a staff that feels like they are on management’s bad side. An effective staff meeting is not just a gathering of bodies with one person giving out information; it is a meeting that generates positive feeling in the entire group. An effective staff meeting has three main goals: generating positive group feeling, starting a dialogue and training.
Positive Group Feeling
Positive group feeling empowers your staff to discover what it has in common and to think in terms of working together, as opposed to strictly as individuals. Share good news in order to build good feeling. Staff meetings are not a good time to address individual or group shortcomings. Find the positive — even if you need to hunt for it — and talk about it. It builds a supportive feeling and gets people talking.
Dialogue
A good dialogue is a comfortable back-and-forth of ideas that gets people connected and leaves your staff feeling that they are a creative part of your restaurant. You learn from the staff and they learn from you. Allowing this flow of ideas reduces or eliminates the “Us vs. Them” mentality in your staff, putting everybody on the same team. Service improves and productivity and profits go up.
Training
Good staff meetings are places to pass on ideas for better performance. Not having staff meetings passes the message that things are as good as they could possibly be. Staff meetings are your chance to effectively pass along tips to your staff and to have them learn from each other. Encouraging staff to share thoughts about work will turn meetings into a forum for discussing ideas. This atmosphere will increase their learning curve dramatically.
You should hold a staff meeting before every shift. If you frequently cancel staff meetings it sends the message that they are not important and that the staff’s opinions are equally unimportant. An effective pre-shift meeting should last no longer than 15 minutes. If it is longer, you may lose people’s attention — shorter, you will not get enough said. Pick a length, start, and finish on time. Include the kitchen staff as well. It is also a good time to let servers taste today’s specials and have the kitchen staff tell the wait staff about them.
FORMAT FOR A 10 TO 15 MINUTE PRE-SHIFT MEETING
How your meeting will go depends on your state of mind. Are you looking at your staff as a group of dedicated people committed to doing a great job or a bunch of layabouts looking to milk the system?
Are you a coach on the playing field seeking to facilitate and encourage people’s best performances or a judge looking to identify and punish people’s mistakes? Whichever it is, your staff feels it and it will affect the work they do. Get committed to building on people’s strengths and holding energizing staff meetings.
• Good news (one to two minutes). Acknowledge what works and create a good mood. Find something about the business that shows people doing a good job and making guests happy. Acknowledge the doer or bearer of the news with sincerity.
• Daily news (two to three minutes). Outline today’s specials and upcoming events.
• Ask your staff (five minutes). The most important part of the meeting. It is your opportunity to find out what is really going on in your restaurant and what people are thinking. Listen, do not interrupt with your own thoughts, and do not judge people’s comments. Create a safe space for people to sincerely share what is on their minds and to learn from each other. How well you listen directly affects how much they are willing to say. Since they are the restaurant, as well as your access to the nitty-gritty, get them talking. If they are shy, ask them questions: What is working for you guys? What is making things tough? Where have things broken down? What questions from customers have you been unable to answer? Once you get the ball rolling you may find it hard to stop. Good: That means people have things to say and you will benefit. Asking the rest of the staff if they feel the same way as the speaker is a great way to see if there is a group sentiment and to gauge the size of the issue being presented.
• Training: the latest news (three to five minutes). If staff comments run over, let it cut into this time. It is important that your staff learn from you, but it is more important for you to learn from them. Plus they will be open to learning from you if they know you are listening to them. Use this time to talk about a single point you want your staff to focus on during this shift, to give out specific knowledge about a product, or to train in another targeted way.
Becoming good at running staff meetings will translate into a feeling of camaraderie among your staff. They will give you true insights into how your business is being run; they will care about how to improve it because they know their suggestions count. You will be more effective because your staff will take weight off your shoulders, helping your restaurant run better.
The food-service business is about personal connection. Getting connected is the way to delight guests and bring them back. Bringing guests back just one time per month will give you a 15 to 50 percent increase in sales volume. If you dedicate your energies towards building an establishment where your servers are treated with respect and gratitude, they will treat you and your customers in the same way. Focus on building an environment that is friendly, helpful, informed, and welcoming and people will come back again and again. Everybody — especially customers — should feel they are on the same page.
Your job is to create a place that people think of first when deciding where to eat and when talking to their friends. You want them telling their friends why they eat there and get hungry for your specials in the process. Again:
• Concentrate on building loyalty, not a higher check average. A higher check average will come naturally when the customer has your loyalty. Dedicate your business to delighting your guests.
• Give your guests something to tell their friends about.
• Give customers incentives to return.
• Get connected. Your staff is your restaurant. Get connected with your staff and get them connecting with your guests.
For more information about promoting your restaurant I recommend the following books from Atlantic Publishing (www.atlantic-pub.com).
• Superior Customer Service: How to Keep Customers Racing Back to Your Business – Time Tested Examples from Leading Companies (Item # SCS-01).
• Getting Clients and Keeping Clients for Your Service Business: A 30 Day Step-by-Step Plan for Building Your Business (Item # GCK-01).
• The Food Service Professional Guide to Building Restaurant Profits (Item # FS9-01).
• The Food Service Professional Guide to Restaurant Marketing and Advertising (Item # FS3-01).
• The Food Service Professional Guide to Restaurant Promotion and Publicity (Item # FS4-01).
• The Food Service Professional Guide to Increasing Restaurant Sales (Item # FS15-01).