RESTAURANT OBITUARY

'The (insert name of restaurant)


The (insert name of restaurant) was opened on (insert date and year) by (insert owner). Through the years the restaurant and its employees were major contributors to the growth of the local community. (insert owner) also owned and operated (list other properties and locations).

The (insert) was well known for its products and services, and how management appreciated the contributions made by its employees. Many young people returned each summer to work, later furthering their education with the help of the restaurant, and returning here to open their own businesses.

The property was always impeccably maintained, invitingly so. People came from near and far to enjoy their outstanding food and personalized service. It was awarded the (insert brand name) 'best restaurant of the year' award in (insert year/s).

The restaurant was also consistently listed among this city's 'best places to work'. Wages were above the industry average attracting the best applicants to our area. Benefits were appealing and many of the staff stayed for decades, in turn contributing to this area's growth and success.

The restaurant was frequently remodeled ahead of competitors to maintain its reputation as an industry leader. Local construction companies rather than out-of-the-area contractors were used bringing needed revenue to numerous small businesses here. Over the years the owner, (insert name) and many of the restaurant's management staff were cited by the local chambers of commerce, not-for-profit service organizations and churches for their volunteer activities and notable contributions.

No details are currently available as to why the restaurant closed. But it will be missed - by many!?!

Would your restaurant's obituary read similarly? 
Would it even be missed?
 Or would anyone really notice?

Would anyone attend the funeral service for your restaurant? Would they mourn its passing by recounting their favorite stories and experiences? Or would they simply say 'good riddance'.


If you're looking for purpose, creating a mission statement, developing an organizational service culture, setting goals, or establishing management-employee relations policies and procedures, I suggest the best place to start might be at the end - by looking and working backwards.


Perhaps the answer to create a good business reputation begins by deciding what you want to be said about your hotel when it's all said and done - by writing your restaurant's obituary.


If your restaurant close tomorrow... will anyone care or miss you?

michelpiton@gmail.com


This blog does not have any comment but I will reply to all email.

LAST MINUTE WAYS TO USE CHRISTMAS TO GROW IN 2010

This year, the Christmas spirit will not come easily to many people. But there are many thoughtful, personal ways to use the season to build stronger links with customers. For some, it could be the start of a valuable, long-term relationship with your business.

Make this the season of list building.
Call it your database or Christmas card list - it doesn't matter so long as you grab a name, email, mobile number and basic preferences - do they want to hear about new wines, new bands, new food or football nights? Spam is when people are sent information that doesn't interest them - taking care with how you gather data at the beginning avoids this and will make your list much more responsive. Constant Contact makes it easy to run.

Chase down previous bookings.
If you haven't heard from them, phone, fax or write - this year needs much more assertive promotion. If you don't have someone on staff who is confident on the phone, ask a wine rep to do it - they know how!

Write and Send a Card.
Almost any card will do, and who said it has to be your handwriting? This is SO powerful, because it's usually unexpected. Use your booking list and some spare waiter time to get it done before December.

Promote Gift Hampers.
For corporate customers and for 'friends who have everything'. Raffle one every week to bring it to everyone's attention - the profit margins can be excellent if you include a 'secret ingredient'.

Sell your clothing and merchandise like a real gift shop.
So many lost opportunities when the display, pricing and packaging is last-minute or stuffed in a corner. These are great gifts for last-minute giving - do you have a stylish t-shirt available?

Poke some fun at the economic gloom.
A low-cost wine becomes the Recession Red, or design a Banker's Banquet package that looks flash but keeps the cost affordable. Better this than the Discount Desperation Deal.

Promote community spirit with a charity donation.
Groups such as World Vision and Oxfam have 'gifts' that builds lives - school books, a goat or a water pump. You may like to organise a group donation from your business.

Create a Wishing Tree.
Make it out of cardboard and ask customers to write a Christmas wish on it - a home-made feel makes it more genuine. Customers have an opportunity to share their thoughts, and you show that the business is about more than just sales and money.

Consider your non-Christian customers.
Depending on where you are, there may be a large number who don't celebrate the religious festival, but want to enjoy time with friends.

Share your Top 10 Best and Worst Lists for the year.
'10 life & death excuses why customers were late for a reservation', '10 Best Selling Cocktails' etc - keep it fun.

Be firm about deposits.
The booking is only confirmed when the money is paid. Many groups will also accept having to pre-pay for the entire group which cuts down on no-shows. Offer the best value in town, then make sure customers show you respect.


michelpiton@gmail.com

This blog does not take any comment but I will reply to all email.

START PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS

It may seem very early to start thinking about Christmas but it's going to be more competitive than ever this year.


December is the most profitable time of the year for all hospitality businesses but this year will be bleak for many. With redundancies on the rise and tighter budgets than ever, attracting those profitable office parties is going to be tough and key to many's survival.



This year, the Christmas spirit will not come easily to many people. But there are many thoughtful, personal ways to use the season to build stronger links with customers. For some, it could be the start of a valuable, long-term relationship with your business.


Make this the season of list building.

Call it your database or Christmas card list - it doesn't matter so long as you grab a name, email, mobile number and basic preferences - do they want to hear about new wines, new bands, new food or football nights? Spam is when people are sent information that doesn't interest them - taking care with how you gather data at the beginning avoids this and will make your list much more responsive. Constant Contact makes it easy to run.


Chase down previous bookings.

If you haven't heard from them, phone, fax or write - this year needs much more assertive promotion. If you don't have someone on staff who is confident on the phone, ask a wine rep to do it - they know how!


Write and Send a Card.

Almost any card will do, and who said it has to be your handwriting? This is SO powerful, because it's usually unexpected. Use your booking list and some spare waiter time to get it done before December.


Promote Gift Hampers.

For corporate customers and for 'friends who have everything'. Raffle one every week to bring it to everyone's attention - the profit margins can be excellent if you include a 'secret ingredient'.


Sell your clothing and merchandise like a real gift shop.

So many lost opportunities when the display, pricing and packaging is last-minute or stuffed in a corner. These are great gifts for last-minute giving - do you have a stylish t-shirt available?


Poke some fun at the economic gloom.

A low-cost wine becomes the Recession Red, or design a Banker's Banquet package that looks flash but keeps the cost affordable. Better this than the Discount Desperation Deal.


Promote community spirit with a charity donation.

Groups such as World Vision and Oxfam have 'gifts' that builds lives - school books, a goat or a water pump. You may like to organise a group donation from your business.


Create a Wishing Tree.

Make it out of cardboard and ask customers to write a Christmas wish on it - a home-made feel makes it more genuine. Customers have an opportunity to share their thoughts, and you show that the business is about more than just sales and money.


Consider your non-Christian clients.

Depending on where you are, there may be a large number who don't celebrate the religious festival, but want to enjoy time with friends.


Share your Top 10 Best and Worst Lists for the year.

'10 life & death excuses why customers were late for a reservation', '10 Best Selling Cocktails' etc - keep it fun.


Be firm about deposits.

The booking is only confirmed when the money is paid. Many groups will also accept having to pre-pay for the entire group which cuts down on no-shows. Offer the best value in town, then make sure customers show you respect.



It really is crucial to start the process now and, don't forget, deposits paid now are a useful and sometimes much needed addition to cash flow.



Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413



This blog does not have comments but I will reply to all email.

TRUTHS ABOUT CUSTOMERS...

courtesy of Jay Levinson and Amy Levinson

You may think you know why your customers buy from you but there's a good chance they buy for reasons other than the reasons you think. Or they don't buy for reasons that may escape you.


People seek a wide array of benefits when they're in a buying mindset. If you are communicating any one of those benefits to the people who want them this very instant, you've virtually made the sale.


People do not buy because marketing is clever, but because marketing strikes a responsive chord in the mind of the prospect, and its resonance makes that person want the advantages of what you are selling.


Your customers do not buy because they're being marketed to or sold to. Instead, they buy because you help them realize the merits of owning what you offer.


They often buy because you offer them instant gratification -- such as I sought when El Nino flexed his muscles and my roof began to leak. Sprinting to the yellow pages, I called the one roof repair company that offered emergency service, for there I was, smack dab in the middle of an emergency.


It was an easy decision for me. The company offered just the benefit I needed. I was in the market for a specific benefit and there it was, grinning up at me from the directory. If the company's ad heralded their new roofing materials, I would have ignored it.


Like most people, I was looking to buy a benefit, not a feature. Everybody knows that. But the truth is that people don't always buy benefits. They buy a whole lot more:

• They buy promises you make. So make them with care.
• They buy the promises they want personally fulfilled.
• They buy your credibility or don't buy if you lack it.
• They buy solutions to their problems.
• They buy you, your employees, your service department.
• They buy wealth, safety, success, security, love and acceptance.
• They buy your guarantee, reputation and good name.
• They buy other people's opinions of your business.
• They buy expectations based upon your marketing.
• They buy believable claims, not simply honest claims.
• They buy hope for their own and their company's future.
• They buy brand names over strange names.
• They buy the consistency they've seen you exhibit.
• They buy the stature of the media in which you market.
• They buy the professionalism of your marketing materials.
• They buy value, which is not the same as price.
• They buy selection and often the best of your selection.
• They buy freedom from risk, granted by your warranty.
• They buy acceptance by others of your goods or services.
• They buy certainty.
• They buy convenience in buying, paying and lots more.
• They buy respect for their own ideas and personality.
• They buy your identity as conveyed by your marketing.
• They buy style -- just the kind that fits their own style.
• They buy neatness and assume that's how you do business.
• They buy easy access to information about you, offered by your website.
• They buy honesty for one dishonest word means no sale.
• They buy comfort, offerings that fit their comfort zone.
• They buy success; your success can fit with theirs.
• They buy good taste and know it from bad taste.
• They buy instant gratification and don't love to wait.
• They buy the confidence you display in your own business.

It's also important to know what customers do not buy: fancy adjectives, exaggerated claims, clever headlines, special effects, marketing that screams, marketing that even hints at amateurishness, the lowest price anything (though 14 percent do), unproved items, or gorgeous graphics that get in the way of the message.



Jay Conrad Levinson
The Father of Guerrilla Marketing
Author: "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books with over 14 million sold; now in 42 languages


www.gmarketing.com
www.guerrillamarketingassociation.com





"Because the purpose of business is to create client, the business enterprise has two -and only two- basic functions : Marketing and Innovations"
Peter Drucker-In Search of Excellence-




Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413


This blog does not have comments but I will reply to all email.

MARKETING PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Thanks God It's Friday!
And this is a new post from lazygourmet...






A marketing plan for restaurant success is essential for attracting new customers to your eating establishment and for promoting repeat business. An effective marketing plan should incorporate several components to attract a broad range of people and be measurable so you can track its results.


Once a restaurant is open and doing well, a marketing plan for restaurant fluidity ensures a healthy profit. Your marketing plan can be a combination of direct mail, promotions, community activities, and effective and traceable advertising. In-house promotions are also effective, such as themed dinners or early bird specials.


A marketing plan for restaurant business includes programs that promote repeat business. For example, a marketing effort that honors customers on their birthday with a special promotion encourages a larger group of diners to join in the celebration. This leads to more people knowing about your restaurant, which in turn, leads to more referrals.


When developing a marketing plan for restaurant stability, evaluate the dynamics of your overall business. This includes identifying your market, comparing your competition, defining your customer base, exploring other customer based opportunities, implementing focused marketing efforts for new and repeat business, identifying your competitive edge, determining menu price points, and implementing up-sell strategies.


A marketing plan for restaurant lifecycles should address busy and slow months. Establish a marketing budget in proportion to your sales. A good range is 3% to 6% of sales. Have a marketing plan that includes advertising in all mediums, as well as promotions on-site, at special events in the area, or in partnership with a charity or other company. Get to know your local media and find ways to encourage free press. Think creatively and consider every opportunity a way to market your restaurant.




A marketing plan for restaurant development can include targeted mailings, coupons, customer loyalty cards, an e-newsletter, a website and gift certificates. Gather customer's emails in the restaurant or through your website for an email marketing campaign. The email campaign can inform customers about specials, send them holiday wishes, or offer them incentives for dining with you on certain nights. Consider efforts that will better connect you with the customer so that they feel part of your family and want to support you.




A marketing plan for restaurant continuity should be easy for all staff levels. They are the ones with direct contact with diners, so they need to be an essential part of carrying out any type of marketing effort.




A trained staff is the best marketing strategy because they set the tone for a customer's experience and whether they will return and refer your restaurant to others. Enhancing customer expectations through the dining experience is an inexpensive marketing effort.






Related posts: Restaurant Marketing Inaction




Want to learn more?



michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

RESTAURANT MARKETING INACTION

Thanks God It's Friday!
And this is a new post from lazygourmet...



Sometimes I get frustrated, really frustrated, and I will tell you why.


Restaurateurs contact me all the time, looking for restaurant marketing information and solutions. Most of them know that their restaurant marketing is not working. Many understand that good marketing can be the make it or break it solution to their lack of customers, and they all really want to find a solution to their problems.


But then, when I offer them solutions that really work, even when I provide them with a specific plan and guidelines to improve their business, they do absolutely nothing about it.


Many restaurant owners and managers prefer to pay sales people to run traditional advertising that does not work:

* Ads in newspapers and magazines
* Blanket mailing of coupons to the wrong target audience
* Yellow Pages ads
* Radio ads
* Etc.


Instead of taking control of their own marketing and spending a few hours of their time implementing marketing strategies that work. This is what frustrates me.


I personally suffer this when I am consulting with many restaurant owners. I teach them the techniques, they acknowledge them and recognize that they make sense and should work, and then... nothing happens. They are so busy running their daily operations (even if the restaurant is half-empty), and complaining about the economy that they do not have any time or energy left to take any action and improve their business.


There are so many free marketing tools available to restaurateurs such as:

* Opening a free group/fan page in facebook.com to promote their restaurant.
* Create an account in Twitter to send hourly promotions to fill in empty seats.
* Create a formalized referral system. One of the cheapest and most efficient ways to bring back your quality clients.
* Use special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries to attract customers (and they will come with their friends and/or families)
* Capture people's name and email in their websites so that they can follow up and email them special offers, etc.
* And many more...


You would think that these techniques: free or very inexpensive to implement, and extremely effective, would be the main focus of their restaurant marketing right?


Well, not really...


The sad reality is that restaurateurs still prefer to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars in very ineffective marketing, and the only reason why they do this is because they do not have to get involved.


They just pay somebody to take responsibility for their marketing, and keep on running their operations hoping for the best.


This also gives them a really good excuse to complain about the economy, the market conditions, etc.


Fortunately, this does not happen to all restaurateurs. Some of you really take charge and think strategically about restaurant marketing. And this is good.


Whether we like it or not, the reality is that without solid and strategic marketing, your restaurant (regardless of how good your food or service is) will not attract the necessary clients. You should think of marketing as a key element in running your business. It is as important as your food, as important as your service. You cannot just ignore it and hope for the best.



There, I feel much better already...



Related post: Winning website Strategies


Want to learn more?


michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413



Interesting read by Seth Godin: Is Marketing an Art or a Science?

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

Thanks God It's Friday!
And this is a new post from lazygourmet...

So you have a nice restaurant with good food and service, and yet the dining room is not always full. You spend quite a lot of money in marketing and wonder why it's not working for you.

Well, let me tell you, there are many other restaurants with good food, good service and a nice ambiance, so your place might not be as special in the eyes of your customers as you want it to be.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Why should they come to your restaurant rather than visit one of your competitors?

Well, the truth is that if you stand out from other local options, they probably won't.

You need to think hard and long about your place and what it makes it special or different from any other restaurant. And believe me, it is different. No two restaurants are the same (except in the case of franchises, which - by definition - want to look and operate exactly the same).

So what makes your restaurant special or different?

You need to articulate the essence of your restaurant, the essence of your offering, so that people will know why they should come to your place instead of your competitors. This is called your Unique Selling Proposition (or USP for short).

You need to create and announce a USP that identifies your restaurant and makes it a unique establishment.

So how can you do that? Don't worry, I will help you out. Just follow these easy three steps and you'll be on your way to creating your own USP:

1. Make a list of the real benefits or advantages that you currently offer to your clients.

Think about what's special about your restaurant. Is it your food? Your wine selection? Your service? Your location? Your decorations? Do you offer live music? Do you have a large menu selection? Open kitchen? Etc.
Ask your customers, your employees and your providers what makes your restaurant special or different. Perhaps you have a unique recipe that people really appreciate and come to enjoy, or perhaps your chef comes out of the kitchen and greets the clients, or you have bilingual servers who can communicate with foreign travelers in their native languages.

Some aspects that can help you determine your USP are:

* A wide variety of dishes in the menu
* Unique, ethnic meals or menu items
* Restaurant especially designed to accommodate families (with a play area or toys or entertainment for children, etc.)
* Reasonable prices
* Quality of the food
* Originality of the dishes
* Impeccable presentation
* Excellent service (good is not good enough: it must be excellent to make an impact!)
* Wide wine selection or special hard-to-find wines
* Wide beer selection or special hard-to-find beers
* Specialty cocktails
* Open kitchen where people can see/talk to your cooks
* Beautifully decorated place
* Live music
* Candles on the tables
* Cloth linens
* Original art on the walls
* Any other distinct advantage that you may have or can provide that your competitors don't provide.

2.- Make a second list of benefits or special things that your competitors offer but you don't.

For example, do they have a big place and your restaurant is small? Do they offer a full bar and you don't? Do they have a super-chef with a reputation that you cannot offer? Do they have an excellent location while your place is out of the way?

3. List the ways that you could improve upon your competitor's unique advantages.

If their place is big and yours is small, you can use this to your advantage by stating that you offer "A unique experience in a cozy atmosphere where you'll receive very personalized treatment".
Or the opposite - if your place is large, you can say "We have facilities large enough to accommodate your office party or your special occasion".

Or you could compensate for not having a full bar by offering an extensive and excellent selections of wine.
If you have a great location, say that you are "conveniently located in the middle of the city, within walking distance from..."

Or if you are out of the way, you can always say "our restaurant offers free parking and it's worth it the trip, since you'll surely enjoy an extraordinary dining experience"...
You get the idea, right?

So write down the top five advantages and/or differentiators that make your place unique. Then combine them into one short sentence or phrase.

This will become your USP

Once you come up with your USP, write it down, review it and edit it several times to make it as clear and complete as possible.

Write your new USP in a one-paragraph statement. You may have problems expressing it concisely and clearly. It may take a few paragraphs. That's OK.

Now you need to edit down all the fluff (trim the fat), and focus on the core message until you have a clear and unique USP that people will recognize and immediately identify with your restaurant. It needs to become one memorable sentence.

Share it with your employees; share it with your clients. Announce it to the world by using it in all your marketing and sales materials...

Remember, attention spans are getting shorter these days, so your USP must be short and memorable.

If you follow some of these techniques, and come up with a powerful and memorable USP, you will be ahead of your competitors who simply announce their restaurants in the most traditional ways.

People respond to short and remarkable messages. If you can articulate the essence of your place in a few precise words, and consistently use them to promote your business, you should be able to stand out from the crowd.

Related post: Be your own mystery guest...

Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

COOPETITION IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

Thanks God It's Friday!
A new post from lazygourmet...

Have you heard the term Coopetition? If not, you'll hear it soon. It is causing quite a stir in the marketing circles.

So in case that you are not familiar with the term, let's start by defining coopetition. If we look at Wikipedia, we find the following definition:

"Coopetition or Co-opetition is a neologism coined to describe cooperative competition. Co-opetition occurs when companies work together for parts of their business where they do not believe they have competitive advantage, and where they believe they can share common costs. For instance, the cooperation between Peugeot and Toyota on shared components for a new city car for Europe in 2005. In this case, companies will save money on shared costs, while remaining fiercely competitive in other areas. For co-opetition to work, companies need to very clearly define where they are working together, and where they are competing."

Long-term business success comes not solely from competing successfully with other restaurants but also by working with them to your advantage.

Coopetition is part competition and part cooperation. When restaurants work together, they can create a much larger and valuable market that they ever could by working individually. Restaurants can then compete with each other to determine who takes the largest share of the potential customers.

A good example of restaurant coopetition is when there is part of a city or town that has a large number of restaurants concentrated in a relatively small area. If you look at this from a traditional business point of view, it looks like this is a bad idea.

Why should anybody open a restaurant in an area already full of restaurants?

However, the reality is that all this abundance of places to eat, attracts customers who may just go to the area without any specific restaurant in mind until they arrive and make their decision over there. This is where the competition starts.

The restaurants with the best ambience, or the best sounding menu, or the best quality/price or funny enough, with the most people usually bring the most customers...

There are many other typical examples of coopetition such as:

* Food courts: All the restaurants are together in places like shopping centers, etc. sharing tables, trays, cleaning services, etc. Again, they all bring customers to the same spot (cooperation) and then compete for their business (competition).
* Advertising: sometimes restaurants group to put together a food magazine or a restaurant flyer where they all pay and contribute (both in money and in content) to the publication.
* Special food events: Sometimes several restaurants organize food events where they all contribute with food or food stalls. Because of the participation of many restaurants, many people attend these events (there is usually music involved and often many other activities as well).
* Etc.


As you can see, these are some of the possibilities for coopetition. However, there are some other intriguing ideas for you to consider. Here you have a few to think about:

* Cross-Promotion with restaurants that offer different food than yours. Often you don't compete directly with other types of restaurants. If a person is in the mood for Italian food, for example it won't go to an Indian restaurant, or viceversa.

Perhaps you can join forces with restaurants in your area that have other styles of cuisine, and together create a coupon book that you can distribute to the regulars of all the participating restaurants. Or maybe you could create a discount card that your customers could use in any of the restaurants in your area. This will attract more customers to your neighborhood.

* Cross-Promotion with restaurants that offer the same kind of food than yours. But that are not located near your place.

Again, usually people prefer to go to restaurants that are near their homes or workplace. If there is a French restaurant nearby and they are in the mood for French, they won't travel far to a different French restaurant... at least that this other French restaurant is so superior that it is worth it the trip and this where the competition kicks in.

So what can you cross promote? Well, if you have an ethnic restaurant, you could create a newsletter sharing printing and perhaps distribution costs to clients of all the restaurants involved. The newsletter should cover articles about the foods, culture, geography, etc. of the restaurant's native country.

But what if your restaurant is an all American place or an Irish pub? You still can have trivia, etc. about the specific States, some local recipes, etc.

* Join Forces to negotiate better deals for linens, food providers, bulk printing for menus, etc. Imagine that you talk to the owners of nearby restaurants and you make a deal to use the same basic distributors for common things like linens, candles, dishwasher maintenance and supply, garbage and/or grease disposal, exhaust filters, printing menus, etc. You could then get a volume discount from these distributors and everybody will benefit.

These are just some quick examples of coopetition. Joining forces with your competitors could be a win-win proposition. Just be smart about it and think about areas where both of you could benefit.

Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

20 CUSTOMER SECRETS...

Thanks God It's Friday!
And this is a new post from lazygourmet...

Profitable Hospitality in 2009, Customers rule as never before, and smart operators will be really paying attention.
Guests will share their secrets, if you take time to listen. How many of these ring true...and what's your response?

1. My busy life means I have the attention span of a goldfish. If you don't keep in touch, I will forget you exist.

2. When I refer my friends and they have a great time, it makes me look smart - I like that!

3. I love it when you play good music - your staff know how to use music to create atmosphere.

4. I like to get treats that no one else does - at least let me think that they don't!

5. If you say it's the 'best coffee in town', make sure you deliver - otherwise you're just spouting hype like the big advertisers.

6. We will forgive slowness once or twice, but when it's more than that, we assume you don't care.

7. I really don't want to hear excuses when things go wrong - they're usually not convincing.

8. Thank me for my business, or the referrals I send you - if you don't, I assume I'm not important to you.

9. Your staff make personal phone calls when the boss is not looking - is that really OK?

10. Some staff don't charge us for all our food and drinks - I think they assume we will tip more.

11. I don't mind paying a little more for quality. But when you cut quality to save money, I'm usually the one who suffers.

12. We know who your worst service staff are, and we wonder why you keep them?

13. I would like to give you feedback (positive or not), but prefer not to do it in person. Please allow me to do it online.

14. I like your 'all inclusive' function packages that don't make me feel I will be short-changed.

15. I also like the way the banquet menus make me feel I got more for my money, not less (like at so many other places)

16. Your website looks old-fashioned - is that the impression you really want to give?

17. I can't stand the way some staff try to 'hard sell' me - it actually turns me off ordering extras.

18. Using your bathroom is not very pleasant, and it makes me wonder about your kitchen.

19. I want to eat better, but none of your healthy options are very interesting - is it that hard?

20. I don't like wearing glasses when I go out, and that means I can't read your menu - why does that have to be my problem?

21. (one more) My diet will always be forgotten when I see good chocolate. Can you please serve the best and most wicked chocolate treat available - I will pay!

Are there more? Ask your staff to share a secret they think a customer would tell if they were asked anonymously...a powerful discussion to plan for the new year review.

Related post: Truths about customers...


Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

BRINGING NEW CUSTOMERS TO YOUR RESTAURANTS

Thanks God It's Friday!
And this is a new post from lazygourmet...

When restaurateurs like you appoint me for a first consultation (which is always free!), at that initial meeting I ask the following question:

What's your biggest challenge as a restaurant owner/manager?

And this is the number one answer from a significant number of restaurateurs every month:

"To bring new customers to my restaurant."

It looks like a logical answer, doesn't? Who doesn't want to have lots of new people walking through your door? However, if I continued to my manage my restaurant - and after everything that I know now about marketing - my wish/challenge would be different. It would be something like:

I want my existing clients to come back to my restaurant over and over.

Does that mean I don't want new customers? Of course I do, new customers are new opportunities to convert into repeated clients, but targeting your marketing efforts towards getting new clients shouldn't make up the bulk of your expenses or efforts. So what do you need to do?

I will explain to you by presenting a hypothetical exercise:

Let's imagine that we have two restaurants with similar capacity. We will call them Restaurant A and Restaurant B.

For the sake of simplicity we use $ and assume the following parameters are common to both restaurants:

· The average price per meal is $25
· The profit margin per meal is $10
· The marketing investment for both is $5,000

Now the differences are:

Restaurant A invests all the $5,000 in bringing in new customers.They invest the money in a very successful campaign and produce coupons, direct mailing, etc. When the $5,000 marketing dollars are over, they brought to their restaurant 1,000 new customers. Pretty good, eh? Five dollars per customers is an extremely small investment towards bringing in new clients.

Restaurant B does things differently. They spend the same amount of money ($5,000) but instead of expending the entire amount focusing on bringing new clients via advertising, they decide to invest all the money in their existing clients to bring them back over and over. They will also give them incentives for their friends and family members so that they can also come in and try their restaurant.

Who do you think will do better? Let's do some numbers.

Restaurant A invested $5,000 and brought 1,000 people who will give a profit of $10 each so they made a total of $10,000 profit or a 50% return of investment. Not bad.

Restaurant B focused instead on bringing back their existing customers via a formalized referral system. They gave 100 of their best clients four gift certificates: one for them to come back again and three others to give to their friends and family members so that they can try your restaurant for themselves. These gift certificates give them 50% off of their entire meal.

Now, remember, an average meal only cost Restaurant B $15 since the other $10 is profit as we mentioned before. When you offer a 50% discount, in reality it will cost you $7.50 per meal.

Also, when you give somebody a gift certificate, chances are that they won't come to your place alone. Most likely they will bring some company to enjoy their meals with. Let's assume that for each $12.50 (50% of the price of the average meal) that you give away, you bring back two people. Now, your cost is $3.75 for each. Wow! It's even better than the initial investment. But that's not all, three things are also happening here:

If the people don't use the gift certificates when they dine, you're not losing any money, making this investment a sure thing (versus spending money on advertising that can't guarantee you any results)
New visitors will come predisposed to like your place; after all, your restaurant has been recommended by a source that they trust more than any other restaurant review - their friends or family members who gave them your gift certificate in the first place. If your restaurant offers great food and service, they'll likely come back again since they felt that not only did they get a good deal because of the discount, but you can also give them a gift certificate for themselves plus three extra for their friends to try your place. This is called viral marketing since they are spreading the word about your place.

Do you see how this goes? You can invest a lot of money to bring new people to your place that may never come back, or you can spend less money to create a referral system that will bring people wanting to eat at your place, and with a solid predisposition to having a great time. These techniques will, if you stick to your system, bring in new repeat clients and also will establish a referral system for you and your place.

In these times of economic crisis, every single marketing dollar that you spend needs to be leveraged to bring you the maximum amount of profit. Be wise and think strategically before spending your hard earned money.


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michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

SOFT OPENING?!? GRAND OPENING?!?

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The arguments for either one are missing the point. It’s not one versus the other.

Doing just the soft opening is silly. It like saying, “Well, let’s see if this whole restaurant thing is for me. If enough people find out about me, I guess we’ll keep on cooking.” You quit before you started. And when you did start, you did it with a severe handicap to your competition.

On the other hand, starting out with a bang and succeeding in attracting a lot of people fast could be as bad. Your kitchen may implode on the very first night. The logistics get intricate and the sparks fly when you have 50 four-tops sitting there for 2 hours waiting for their plates to come out. Ugly.

The correct answer is, you need a soft opening followed by a grand opening 3 or 4 weeks later. The soft opening gives you a chance to work out all the logistical kinks, train the staff, tweak the menu, and really understand who you want to attract as a customer. This way you are in a position to hit a home run on the night of the grand opening.

That’s why soft opening first, then grand.

Also, the idea that there can only be one Grand Opening for a restaurant ever is totally, utterly, absolutely false.
You can — and should — have as many grand openings as you want and need.
Once it gets too repetitive, you can call them “special events”.

And this is when the calendar becomes your biggest friend!

Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

WHO IS THE TARGET MARKET FOR YOUR RESTAURANT?

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A new post from lazygourmet...

This may be the most important question you can answer when designing a restaurant concept. It is definitely the most important question to answer when creating a marketing plan.

One of the biggest mistakes restaurants make is trying to appeal to everyone. If you think that your target market includes everyone, you are setting yourself up to fail. If you want to be successful in any business, especially the restaurant business, then you need to define who it is that is most likely to buy your products, and focus your concept to appeal to that defined market.

First off, let me tell you what a target market or target demographic is and what it isn’t.

A target market IS the portion of the population most likely to buy what you are selling.

A target market ISN’T the portion of the population you want to sell your food to.

Do you see the difference? You must realize that your target market picks you, you don’t pick it.

When creating a plan to market your restaurant, focus on these points:

1. Realistically define what type of person is most likely to enjoy what you want to offer.

2. Assess whether that particular demographic works or lives in large enough numbers within 3 miles of your location to support your concept.

3. Make sure your marketing is communicated in a manner that demographic can understand, and broadcast via a medium that demographic uses.

Here is how you use those points to build your marketing plan.

Point 1: Realistically define what type of person is most likely to enjoy what you want to offer.

This isn’t the time to be politically correct. You need to examine gender, age, race, religion, income, background, prejudices and sexual orientation among other things if you want to get a clear picture of who you should be marketing to. No matter who you want as a customer, kosher Jews and Muslims aren’t going to eat at your BBQ joint. Lower income Asian families aren’t going to eat at your bistro, and upper income, white yuppies aren’t likely to visit your diner in the hood. If you have a “quiet” atmosphere, don’t expect to attract families of any type. If you have a “noisy” atmosphere, don’t expect seniors.

Until you throw political correctness out the window and truly define exactly who is most likely to eat what you offer, in the atmosphere you are offering it, at the price you are charging for it, you aren’t ready to move on to the next step.

Point 2: Assess whether that particular demographic works or lives in large enough numbers within 3 miles of your location to support your concept.

Once you know who it is that is truly most likely to buy your food, you’ll need to consider whether or not they live or work in large enough numbers in your area to support your business. This is a feasability exercise. With this point, you are determining whether or not it is even possible for your idea of a restaurant to make it in the location you are considering.

If your concept appeals to low income seniors on a fixed budget, you shouldn’t be putting it in an upscale shopping center surrounded by neighborhoods full of high income families. You also don’t want to open a bistro appealing to high income white people in the ghetto. While these examples seem obvious, I’ve seen many restaurant make the mistake of putting their concept in an area where their target market does not live or work in great numbers.

A good rule of thumb is to only consider the initial 1-mile and 3-miles radius around your restaurant when evaluating the presence of your target market. Whatever the sex, age and income of the persons most likely to eat your food, those persons need to be living or working in great numbers within a 1 to 3 mile radius of your restaurant. The closer the better. On to the next point.

Point 3: Make sure your marketing is communicated in a manner that demographic can understand, and broadcast via a medium that demographic uses.

Email marketing isn’t going to produce customers for a breakfast diner appealing to seniors. Radio ads on an easy listening radio station aren’t going to bring in 20 and 30 year old hipsters. If you haven’t defined who it is most likely to buy your food, it’s not likely you are using marketing mediums most likely seen/heard by your most likely customers.

In marketing, you must use the language your target market understands. Speak your target market’s language and only create offers that target market values. $10 off a meal isn’t going to attract high income middle aged married couples, but a complimentary bottle of wine with any food ticket over $50 might. While any demographic appreciates a good deal, each demographic has a different set of values. What is valued by middle class high school kids won’t be the same as what is valued by humble German country folk. The language each of these groups understands will also be different.

Communication with your potential customers is just as important as communication with your employees. If you are speaking a language your customers don’t understand, or designing offers your target demographic doesn’t value, then your marketing will be a big waste of money. If your current marketing isn’t working, there is a good chance your doing one of these two things.

I hope I’ve driven home the importance of defining your target market. Marketing can be an expensive undertaking, but if you define exactly who it is you should be marketing to, you can greatly reduce the cost involved in reaching the customers most likely to eat at your restaurant. With the right approach, you can not only compete with chain restaurants with big marketing budgets, you can beat them.


#Question of the month#

When every restaurant serves good food, how do you become the favorite in your neighborhood? By applying hospitality and community marketing concepts!

Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

CREATING A MANAGEABLE MENU

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A new post from lazygourmet...

Today, what I really want to talk to you about, is how to create a manageable menu for your own restaurant. There are three main factors I think you should concentrate on when you are putting together your menu.

1. Your limitations
2. Your customer’s desires
3. Your financial needs

Notice that nothing in that list refers to ‘what you want’ to serve. To tell you the truth, it’s not important what you want to serve. For more on that, check out Don’t give your customers what you way.

Your limitations

First things first. Something you’ll see in a lot of independent restaurants is owners or chefs trying to do the impossible by offering a larger selection than their equipment, facility, ability or staff can handle. You need to realize that these things limit what is possible out of your restaurant. You can’t just go and write your dream menu without considering the factors that will affect your ability to produce the food on that menu.

Your menu selection needs to be limited to only the number of items that you have the equipment to cook. It also needs to have items that spread the work load across the different stations and equipment in your kitchen. If you have 10 different saute items, and only 4 burners, you’re going to keep a lot of people waiting for their food. People NOT being served quickly means that tables aren’t turning, and you aren’t serving as many people during your rush that you can. In most restaurants, at least 80% of the day’s revenue comes from the rush periods where you are putting through as many people as you can possibly serve. If your huge selection means you can’t serve as many people during a rush, then you won’t make as much money as you could.

Your menu should also be limited to only the number of items you have the storage room to store ingredients for. If you’re working with a two door reach in cooler and a top loading, three foot wide deep freeze, you’re not going to be able to offer all those fun creative dishes you learned to make in culinary school. Limited storage space means limited menu. You can make the most of your storage space by getting multiple orders per week, but even then, you’ll have to watch your space. There has to be a spot for everything, and stuffing more things in a cooler or freezer than was meant to be in there means you don’t have quick access to it in a rush, which means slower service and less money as we’ve already covered.

Your ability may be the first limitation you want to consider. Just because you are the best at cooking whatever it is you think is your specialty, doesn’t mean you’re good enough at teaching other people to produce it to your high standards enough to feed a huge angry mob. It also doesn’t mean that people are going to think whatever you’re cooking is as good as you do. You need to be honest with yourself and work within your limitations. Cook what you KNOW how to cook, not what you’ve seen other people cook. If you’re not an expert on everything on your menu, it will show. Maybe your customers won’t know how to verbalize it and let you know that your food really stinks, or maybe they’re just to nice to say it, but it will still show in the ever decreasing number of guests you’ll serve.

Your staff is another limitation you have to take into account when creating a menu. You can’t produce haute cuisine with minimum wage cooks. Every market is different for hiring talent. Every manager and chef is limited by their own ability to find qualified help. If you can’t find help that can make a two egg hollandaise in a job interview, then you don’t need to have hollandaise on your menu. Limit your offerings to what your staff is qualified to prepare.

Your customer’s desires

If you want a menu that works, it has to work for your potential customers. Whatever idea you have about introducing some new, awesome cuisine to a market that hasn’t seen it yet, forget it. People rarely eat what they don’t understand. I know you think your idea is different, and the food you want to bring to the area is soooo good that people just HAVE to love it, but you’re most likely wrong. Unless you have tens of thousands in marketing dollars to educate a new market enough to create an interest in a new type of food, you’re not likely to bring them in. People try new foods based on buzz. When it starts to get popular, people try it. When it gets to be the “in” thing to eat, people try it. Until your target audience knows about the food you’re going to serve, they won’t have an interest in it. How can they, they don’t even know what it is? Find out what your customers want, not what you want them to eat. Make your menu about them.

Stick to foods your customers are familiar with. A good place to start is at the local farmer’s markets and grocery stores. See what meats and produce the markets carry. Those are the things people in that area buy. Those are the ingredients they know and are comfortable with. If you can find items that are even grown locally, all the better. If you have to have everything flown in from some exotic far away place, people in your area aren’t likely to know what it is or even care. Sure there are some adventurous people out there like me that love to try anything new and interesting they can get their hands on, but we are the exception, not the rule. I checked my ego long ago to make myself realize that it’s not about me, it’s about whoever I’m feeding.

Once you’ve made it about your customers and figured out what they want, create a signature item in each menu category. These signatures items should speak to your unique selling point, and really communicate to your customers what you are all about. I also suggest that you make the the highest gross profit items in their respective categories.

Your financial needs

You’re wasting your time if you’re not making money, so naturally a manageable menu is one that gives you enough money to pay your bills. While I’m not going to go into detail about pricing in this article, I am going to make the obvious point that you’re in business to make money.

When creating a menu, you need to consider how much every item on your menu costs to make. How much does every person who walks through your door cost you in overhead to serve? How much profit do you need to make for this restaurant venture to be worth your while? These three financial considerations combine to give you the information you need to set the prices on your menu. From there, you just have to keep your price points competitive for the market, and make sure your food offers a good value for what it is. Your food doesn’t have to be “the best”, but it does have to be worth what you’re charging.

Pricing your menu by a budgeted food cost isn’t an effective method of ensuring you will collect enough money to pay the bills. You need to consider every cost of running your business including the rent, insurance, utilities, equipment, maintenance, small wares, labor, taxes and benefits to name a few. All together, the other costs of running your business make up a lot larger part of your financial picture than your food costs do. You have to estimate all these, determine how much you need from every customer to cover these, and price your menu based on all the costs of doing business, in addition to profit.



I hope this article gives you a couple things to think about before creating your menu. Just keep in mind that big menus equal big waste, big theft, big product costs, big ticket times, and big service issues. Less is more. A small focused menu that accurately conveys who you are and what your restaurant is about will make more money than any big menu. I only have to bet my reputation that I’m right, you may have to bet your business you’re not wrong.

#Recipe of the week#



Want to learn more?
michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413

WILL THIS BE THE YEAR OF HOSPITALITY DISCONTENT?

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A new post from lazygourmet...

The Summer Season is closing with a decidedly shaky landscape for many. There is no need to harp on our obvious Hospitality challenges. We deal with them, knowing that through "Boom or Bust" that is our assignment, creating that Memorable Experience. Be steadfast and prosper!

As the food prices keep rising, restaurant owners cannot help thinking about ways to deal with the eroding profit margins.

At times like this, it may seem like a good idea to shop around for better prices on your key ingredients. After all, what if you could:

• Negotiate better prices with your current supplier?
• Make several suppliers bid for your business?
• Or switch your suppliers altogether?

This is a natural response. But you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Here’s how:

Trying to get a better price on chicken breasts can only get you so far. The benefit to your business may be short-lived and illusory: The only way food prices are going is up. And you could be trying to solve the problem from the wrong end.

Think about what you’d have to give away to get a better deal:

• Scenario #1: You sacrifice the food quality. If you are already a troubled restaurant, that could be the last nail in the coffin of your business.

• Scenario #2: You replace your old supplier with someone less reliable. Then one night you may leave more money on the table than you could have saved on the ingredients.

• Scenario #3: You throw yourself into heavy-duty negotiations that will suck up a lot of your time. You should know that your time has a high price tag attached to it and it may be better invested elsewhere.

Which brings us to the next point:

The fact that you cannot sustain the increase in food costs is a symptom of a bigger problem. If the menu is stale and unoptimized, if the concept is unexciting, and if you are doing a mediocre job of getting enough people to try your food, then do not look for a bail out from your supplier.

Sure, you should not be paying more than a fair market price for the ingredients. And you shouldn’t be paying much less either. If the basic economics of your business are not right, you are fighting a losing battle against an enemy of your own creation.

That enemy’s name is “Poor Me” and we have all met him at some point in our lives. He comes unannounced and turns a confident restaurant owner into a wimp blaming everything and everyone — government, weather, competition, economy, suppliers, even customers – for the lack of profits in their business.

To have a fighting chance, you need to get out of the cost-saving penny-pinching mindset and start plugging creative holes in your marketing.

These are not just “end of summer” musings. The issues are very real. They touch upon sustainability and sensibility. We are living challenges right now, but we know this will not last forever. However, what will we see at the upswing? By all indications, we will face a very different Hospitality marketplace. If we have not done our homework and applied a little introspection, we will enter this new phase unprepared rather than undaunted. We need to get on track!

We need to get on track!

#Quote of the week#

"Never order anything off a menu that is longer than your underwear!"
David Adjey
Celebrity Chef

Want to learn more?

michelpiton@gmail.com
+66(0)877733413