Restaurant Masterminds

My wife and I recently spent some time at our local mall dealing with returning some clothes and picking up a few necessities. We went straight from work and by the time we finished our errands, we realized it was eight-thirty and we were starving and needed a place to eat. I’m sure most of you can relate to our situation, unfortunately at this hour and being near the mall, our dining choices were limited. Being an Independent Restaurateur, I like to dine in family owned restaurants when I have a choice. We reviewed our choices and decided to eat at an Italian Restaurant run by one of the chains.

I love eating in chains for two reasons, I always have something to write about after I dine there, and they tend to have some good ideas I can steal. Let’s face it, we can’t compete with the budget chains have for R&D. As a good marketer, we need to glean whatever we can, wherever we can and I’m not too proud to admit it.

My wife and I walked into the restaurant a little after eight-thirty. The place was winding down; it was obvious they were in shut down mode. A pleasant hostess who informed us our waiter would be right over seated us. It took a while for our server to come to our table; I could see him over by the kitchen hanging around the other servers talking. I just wanted a quick bite and to get home, it had been a long day and I really wasn’t in the mood. Our server showed up and asked us if we cared for a beverage, I informed him we were ready to order. When I went to order my glass of wine, I noticed the House Wines were all Californian. I mentioned this to our waiter and he replied, “We stopped serving Italian House Wine a year or two ago, actually the grapes for our House Wines are sourced from Chile.” Here’s where I have a problem, you’re an Italian Restaurant and you’re serving Merlot, Chardonnay and White Zinfandel from California, sourced from Chile as your House Wines. I don’t understand this concept, I know the Euro has gone up and Italian Wine costs more. Deal with it, serving cheap wine from Chile is not the answer. Italian Wines pair perfectly with Italian Food. That’s why there are so many different grape varieties in Italy. (Over 1700) Italians make wine in each region, town, village etc. that pairs with the local cuisine.

Why does everything have to be about the almighty buck? Be true to who you are. As restaurateurs, we have an obligation to our dining public to provide them with the best possible experience we’re capable of. It’s time to fight back, stop settling for mediocre; we are an educated society that knows food. Why would anyone want to settle for a dinner that’s slathered in a sweet gravy glaze masquerading as balsamic reduction with a risotto laced with gritty dry porcinis , that’s been micro waved and finished with cream to reheat it.

My point isn’t to bash chains, they serve a purpose and some are better than others. I just want people to stop and take a good look at who they are. How do we represent ourselves? As business owners, we can do better. We owe it to our customers, now is the time to take advantage of the economy and retool. It’s like having a free do-over. Let’s get it right this time and show everyone just how talented we are, and what we’re capable of.

Dick Varano

MIND YOUR MANNERS!

This week’s marketing educational piece takes a good look at our manners. Have you noticed that more and more restaurants are greeting their guests before they walk through the door? Hostesses are awaiting at the door and open it for the customer with a hardy, “Welcome to our restaurant”. If you think about it, when you have company over to your house, do you let them just walk in and sit down? It is time to greet each guest as if they were walking into your own home. A great smile and warm welcome should await every customer. Manners shouldn’t end there. I have recently started having my servers write up thank you notes to our newly established Repeat Rewards members. They sit down about 5 minutes before their shift starts and jot down a quick “thanks for visiting our restaurant and hope to see you again”….this quick momentary act has my inbox exploding with compliments. Customers email me and say they will be back just because of the warm, caring atmosphere. The personal touch has slipped away, and to receive a hand written thank you anymore, a rarity, and that touch alone has increased sales of new customers tenfold.

Don’t stop with just a simple ‘thank you’…our managers have touched tables and listened to guests. A recent stop by one of my managers at a table had them talking about a nephew who was in a car accident and recovering slowly but would be fine. Following her shift, she sat down and wrote a quick note explaining her concern for the well being of their nephew. The tearful phone call I received when they read their note was worth a million dollars! She said that they have received cards, but NEVER experienced a restaurant that would care….and we did. She told her whole family and neighbors about it—just a simple moment of caring, got us word of mouth that has exploded in the community….all for a .44 cent stamp and 3 minutes of time.

Take a moment to make Mom and Dad proud and use the manners they taught you….it WILL make a difference in your business.

Ben Martinez

Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, for some it’s a day of celebration, others a day of sorrow. We all know someone who lost a loved one during a time of conflict in American History. During World War ll we lost over four hundred thousand American Lives, in the Gulf War, we had two hundred and sixty-nine casualties. Young Americans live a wonderful life, typically free from conflict. It’s our responsibility to educate all Americans, we need to make sure all Americans realize the sacrifices that were made on their behalf. I remember the Viet Nam era; I had to sign up for the draft. I remember being nervous and wondering if my number was going to come up. It was a tumultuous time where feelings were running high and tempers were flaring. Not since the Civil War has our country been this divided, the Viet Nam War brought out the worst in Americans. When our soldiers returned from their personal living nightmare in Viet Nam, we honored them by spitting on them. These brave men and women didn’t ask to go, they were recruited and sent.

No one likes war; war is a part of the evil underbelly of society. Memorial Day isn’t about war; it’s a remembrance of the bravery that soldiers undertook on our behalf. We need to take the time to honor our fallen heroes, this isn’t the time to picket or play politics. Set your feelings aside and honor the families who’ve lost a dear member of their family. We all want to forget about conflicts and hopefully never have to participate in another war. Human nature is such that this is probably not reality. The reality is society has been warring since the beginning of time. We tend to settle our differences on the battlefield, where there are no winners.

On Memorial Day, come together as a civilized society and honor our fallen brothers and sisters. Honor the proud families, have rallies and parades, visit the gravesites and make a difference in someone’s life. Send flowers, lower your flag to half-mast and show everyone you care. We live in a country with the freedom to choose how we live, where we live and how we practice religion. We owe this debt of gratitude to the brave men and women of our armed services. Take the time to let someone know just how lucky and grateful you really are.

Happy Memorial Day,
Dick Varano

I keep reading about going green and helping the environment. What I’m attempting to figure out is how to take this and create some promotion or series of promotions that will entice my customers, make my restaurant look like a community leader and have some fun. This is marketing, it’s easy to be a copycat, what we all need to do is sit down with our team, or staff and brainstorm until we come up with some fun options.

Let me share some ideas we came up with while brainstorming with our management team this Earth Day and Doctor’s Day.

For the week of Earth Day, we gave out two thousand packets of seeds, custom printed with our logo on them. This in itself was a nice gesture, what made the promotion was: on the back of each package of seeds was an offer that read- Plant these seeds and bring back the empty packet and receive ten dollars off your next dinner at Billy’s Chowder House.

You would not believe the impact this promotion has had on our restaurant. Our customers were so appreciative of the seeds and the kind gesture we gave them. People were coming into our restaurant waving their empty seed packets saying, “I planted my seeds and I’m back for my dinner.” People around town were all talking about how nice we were and how much we care. Don’t you wish you could turn this faucet on any time you felt like it? This is a win win situation, our customers got excited and we increased our business.

One of my closest friends is a Doctor, we were explaining to him our Doctor’s Day promotion and he got all excited and wanted to help. We picked his brain about what might be fun to do on Doctor’s Day. One thing he shared with us was that the Drug Companies were no longer providing pens and notepads, the government has made this illegal. Who would have thought that doctors would actually be upset over this. The fact is, they are. Utilizing our doctor’s input, we decided to get a roll of the dreaded white exam paper and use it as tablecloths for Doctor’s Day. We even had pens and sticky notes to give the doctors, and of course doctors ate for half price. We didn’t get a lot of doctors for the promotion, we kind of hastily put it altogether at the last minute. What we got was some great PR and our customers attention. After the fact some doctors found out about it and thought it was amazing and asked if they could assist us next year in getting the promotion into the hospitals.

The fuss is about you creating the event. It doesn’t have to be perfect, get it out there, try it and then tweak it. Our customers expect us to come up with fun holidays, they’re always asking us what we are going to do next. We’ve created an environment that our customers enjoy being a part of. Remember Bennigans; they were the chain that knew how to throw a party. Somewhere along the way, Bennigans forgot their identity and it cost them their chain. Don’t sit on the sidelines; make your restaurant the one to celebrate all the holidays in. Stand out and make a difference, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Dick Varano

On Mother’s Day we kicked some GLASS!

I can joke now, but it sure the heck wasn’t funny at the time…..note to self: Do not let new hires work on the busiest day of the year.

Let me put it to you this way and see if you can feel my pain. I awoke to a glorious Sunday morning, Mother’s Day. I headed in to the restaurant to enjoy a great day of celebrating all the Mom’s about ready to dine at our fabulous 25+ piece brunch buffet. I was prepped and ready to go for the already 600 reservations, and had room here and there for the family walk-ins. The 8am seating went without a hitch, yes, it was the slower time slot of the day, but still kept the staff at a good pace. As the morning continued, I was delighted with my servers and kitchen staff who managed to take care of every guest with the top of the line in customer service….(can you see my chest puff out?)….the heaviest part of our buffet is always our 11:30am seating….the restaurant will be at capacity and the true test of putting all of my systems in place was being tested.

Now with the staff at full speed, 200+ people in the restaurant and the buffet line getting full use, I was on top of the world —until it all came crashing down….literally. I know you have all felt it, the absolute chill that rolls up your spine as you hear an entire cart (yes, an entire cart) of brand new glasses, shatter….you know how you feel with just one breaking….ugh. I couldn’t believe it…not only the entire cart dumping, but it had to be done by the new employee, AND she managed to dump the load in the entry way to the buffet. Good Lord. I felt as though I was in my own little highway traffic jam as I made my way towards the “accident scene” to investigate. People had lined up, not only coming to and from the buffet, but in and out of the restaurant. Luckily, I had trained my staff well, and they were already taking care of it as I arrived. Trash cans were quickly being whisked to breakage and swept up and taken care of….finally the flow of traffic could once again move….and believe it or not, I was heated that it happened, but quickly cooled when the many wonderful guests were playing their sympathetic card with me….”Oh man, we felt so sorry for her….and you having to pay for all of those glasses”…..”Don’t worry, we wanted to help, but your staff was right on top of it all”…..”Now that’s the way to kick some glass, Ben!” I guess on Mother’s Day it reminded me of all of the times I dumped my plate or spilled my milk, only to hear my Mom say, “don’t cry over spilled milk!”

I chuckle now, because yet another note to pass along in my coaching calls….please don’t use the new hires on the busiest day of the year.

All in all it turned out to be a glorious day, no shards of glass lay in the once damaged buffet highway, just loads of happy guests as we finished out the busiest, most profitable (minus the damn glasses) day of the year!

From the desk of Ben Martinez
Restaurant Masterminds Marketing Guru

This week’s lesson is brought to you by Kentucky Fried Chicken….it had the entire population crying, FOWL! The Free meal was one way of getting folks through the door, and then slap a celebrity endorsement from Oprah Winfrey and you’ve got yourself a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…or do you?
I’ll bet the marketing team for KFC is now feeling some heat from the owners of the franchise’s because what the marketing team did not review was the literally millions of people who support Oprah, and the millions of others who are out of work and would do anything for a free meal. Marketing ideas are plenty, but keep in mind that “good ideas” just may end up costing you…the same publicity that is boosting you, will happily take you down too, as with the failure of this marketing piece by KFC— who ran out of “free” chicken the first 6 hours they were open. The sad part is they still had 8 days left on their promotion, minus Mother’s Day (which didn’t sit well with hardworking Mom’s of the world!), and the millions of hits on their website to print the coupon. Were they prepared? I don’t think so. Now if you could only get those million people to come in and spend with you WITHOUT giving away something for free!

Once the media gets a hold of your marketing piece, and they love it, watch out…the number of people that want to be a “part of it” is in the thousands!

To remind you of some of the tips for marketing, here are a couple of pieces to keep your restaurant a success while dealing with the media.

Marketing is not a battle of products or services. It is a battle of perceptions. The only thing that counts is how you are perceived in the minds of the customers. Consider the interesting story of a mustard company that was trying to sell their product. Just mustard! They created an illusion, the perception that their mustard was the absolute best. That it was sought after by the wealthy, the connoisseur of excellent food! Pardon me sir, but would you have any Grey Poupon? But of course! And the company raised their price above the competition and customers flocked to buy it! How do you want to be perceived in the minds of your customers?

Like every good boy scout, be PREPARED:
What if this bad boy takes off and your faced with 3,000 people standing outside your door? Are you ready? It boils down to being prepared…this isn’t the day that your cook decides that he wants out, be prepared with not only the staff on hand, but back up staff. Food consumption, demand and quality are now set at their highest standards, continue to provide the same service to one, as you would looking at the thousands outside your door waiting to come in.

Repairman:
Something unexpected happens, have a repairman handy…and I’m not just talking about a plumber. Crowds get restless and create more of a negative atmosphere. Have a manager or hostess on duty to offer sample items new to your menu or encourage the customers that it will be worth the wait.

In reality, if your business has the backing of Oprah or any other major celebrity, I’m not sure even the best company can keep up with the demand of the followers. Your best bet is to have yourself, your staff and vendors prepared from the moment you open the doors. Media hype, in all its glory, can sometimes back fire to even the best prepared company.

I guess you can say that Kentucky Fried Chicken needed to be better prepared so things would work like “poultry” in motion.

Until next time,
Ben Martinez

Love is a term of endearment, used to express a bond shared by two people that is truly special. Love is used in many contexts today, “ I love your dress”, “I love your new car”, “ I tried that new Italian Restaurant and I loved it.” As a restaurateur, your goal should be to get your customers to love you. This may seem silly at first, the fact is, if you can achieve this status with your customers, you’ll have them forever.

How do you achieve love with your customers? You have to take the time to get to know them. You don’t need to know them intimately; you need to know something about them that is meaningful. Maybe, you learn about their hobby, where they’re from, or what college their son attends. Once you connect with your customers on a different level, your relationship changes. Problems aren’t magnified anymore; they seem to be an annoyance, not a problem. Customers that love you are very forgiving; they have the ability to overlook lots of little things. They’re no longer consumed with judging your every move, they tend to go with the flow and not focus on minute details. They become your ambassadors who endorse you and defend you when people speak ill of you.

Recently, we had a waitress who put a tip on the wrong charge transaction; the customer called and spoke to one of the managers. The restaurant was busy and the customer came on a little strong and frustrated the manager. The manager was trying to explain that there was a mistake made and she would retrieve the charge transaction and fix it. The woman got upset and called the next day to speak with the General Manager. She was upset that the woman who dealt with the situation wasn’t more compassionate with her. Our General Manager massaged the situation and smoothed everything over. At the end of the conversation, the woman stated, “ I just wanted a little love, that’s all I was looking for.”

The key here is perception, people want and need to feel loved. Your definition and your customer’s definition could be totally different. You need to understand what makes your customers tick. You want your customers to have that warm fuzzy feeling when they visit your establishment. This feeling comes in all shapes and sizes depending on what type of restaurant you have. What works in one restaurant might not necessarily work in another. The trick is to find a connection and leverage it to your advantage. The chains aren’t geared for this. As Independent Owners, we have the ability to expose our personal side. It doesn’t take much, a smile, or a visit to their table, flowers sent after a personal tragedy or a donation to their favorite charity. Your customers will take that personal gesture and take it to heart, leaving your restaurant in a favorable position. There is no value you can put on a lifetime customer, I know there are statistics that give you the monetary value. The value I’m talking about is immeasurable; you have someone that believes in you. You no longer can do anything wrong, you have a customer who will become entrenched in your business and love you unconditionally.

Dick Varano

That’s the question of the day. How much money did you make off your walls last quarter? If the answer is nothing then it’s time to change the artwork. You can checkout your local art galleries and locate some artists whose work matches the feel and flow of your restaurant. Next step would be contact the local artist and see if they would be interested in displaying some of their work in your restaurant. This is a great way to have a fresh new look in the restaurant and make some money at the same time.

Set up a generic contract that your lawyer draws with an agreed upon commission amount and make sure to have a clause included that you are not responsible if something happens to the piece. Now, don’t get greedy here and you will have a ton of artists lining up to display their work. Do a little investigating and make some calls to local galleries and find out what percentage they take from the art work when it sells and then determine your percentage from there.

Most artists will be excited for the opportunity to display their work and make sure they put a small sign up with artist name, and pricing so the customers can see the art work is for sale.

Change the artwork every 45 – 60 days to keep a new look all the time. When customers come in they will be trained and encouraged by staff to have a look around to see what’s new. Changing the artwork frequently is the key to increased sales.

Your space will determine how many artists you display simultaneously but, displaying 4 – 5 pieces of each artist will give the customers a good feel for their work.

Once you have displayed for 6 months or when you can see a pattern developing of whose work is selling most, then approach the artist about holding an opening. Sunday afternoons are good for art shows. Develop a postcard with pictures of several pieces and send out to your list and have the artist do the same. Inform your email list and include the information on all your social networking sites. Then create a lovely afternoon of wine and appetizers and sell a ton of art.

15 – 20% from a piece of art hanging on the wall is a nice little boost in profits and its fun for everyone involved. You can even offer part of the percentage to the waitstaff person as an incentive for them to create a sale.

So, get moving and hang some new art.

One of the highlights when owning a restaurant was getting the mail and finding in between the pile of bills that came in the mail everyday that once in a while there was a smaller envelope and the address would be hand written. This was a treat because it was a thank you note for something we had done for a customer, friend or the community.

I think that the power of a handwritten thank you note is often overlooked in this day and age of computers and cell phones. I admit it – It’s a chore I put off until the last minute but I know its value when you send someone a real honest to goodness thank you card. There are electronic versions much faster through my BlueMountain.com account. And, I can even send a hard copy card or postcard from my SendOutCards.com. but, I know how well received the real thing will be.

Handwritten notes are now more valuable than ever before and certainly more memorable because they are so few and far between. When’s the last time you sent a snail mail thank you card? A good habit to get into is when a customer leaves a note on a comment card put those aside in a separate pile. Once a week sit down and write your cards and it only needs to be a couple of sentences letting them know how much you appreciate their business.

If you’re looking for a unique way to stand out with your restaurant customers, send them a handwritten thank you note. I bet anything that they remember it — and you!