Simplify Your Life: Optimize Your Restaurant Operations (1st part)

This is the second blog of the Simplify Your Life series. The main concept behind these series is to give you some ideas to help you simplify your workload (and your life!) AND in the process, improve your business.

I my previous blog, I mentioned that you need to reduce the number of items in your menu. In this one, I will talk about simplifying your operations.

Operations in a restaurant are all the actions that happen from the moment that you open your doors in the morning, until the moment when you close them at night.

For simplicity purposes, I will split the operations in two separate components:

1. Your front of the house: whatever is visible to your customers.

2. You back of the house operations: what happens behind your restaurant doors that your customers are unaware of, but that it is essential for the smooth working of your restaurant.

In this blog, I will focus only on number one: the front of the house operations that covers from the moment than a customer makes a reservation (online, on the phone or in person) to the moment that they leave your place and everything between.

Every single aspect of your operations should work like a well-oiled machine; without hiccups and without your staff needing to wait and think how to act in each moment that something unexpected happens.

Often, restaurant owners and managers spend an incredible amount of time troubleshooting problems and dealing with customers complains and issues.

So what can you do to avoid this trap?

First, you must document all your current processes. I know that this may sound like a tedious task but trust me; it is important. You can’t improve your current processes if you don’t know what they are.

Just sit at your computer start writing down how do you currently handle your bookings:

✔ Online from your site: do you have an easy and efficient way to manage online bookings? If not you should consider one. You should check www.bookingangel.com or some other online reservation system.

✔ On the phone: Does your staff have a consistent and polite way to answer the phone?

Create a nice message and write it down. Make sure that you include the following points:

☛ “Hello, this is restaurant XXXXX” (Pronounce clearly the name of your restaurant), “How can WE help you?” (It is better to use we than I since it creates a sense of community)

☛ Make sure that you capture their name (ask to spell to make sure it is correct), contact's phone number, AND ask the reason of the visit and if they are coming for any special occasion.

This is very important. Most of the times when I make a reservation, the host(ess) don’t ask me why I am visiting the restaurant. If this is a special occasion, (birthday, anniversary, some celebration, etc.) make sure to write it down in the reservations book or online system so that you can greet and compensate your clients as appropriate.

☛ Repeat back to the clients the booking information: their names and phone numbers, the date and time and the reason for their visit. Not only this will avoid you misunderstandings, but your prospects will be happy to know that you are acknowledging the reservation, and you paid attention to them.

✔ In person: Basically, follow the same rules than on the phone.

NOTE: Make sure that the person answering the phone or taking the reservation in person is smiling to the prospects. Even thought the phone, one can detect when somebody is genuinely happy and it makes the whole experience more pleasant.

In my next blog I will continue with the operations and talk about what to do when people arrive to your place.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco

© Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

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Simplify Your Life: Reduce Your Restaurant Menu Items

In these times of economic uncertainty, it is easy to get lost in trying to do many things all at once. A good example is restaurateurs trying to manage their inventories, their staff, their operations, their books, their sales, their marketing...

Do you know anybody like that? I thought so.

This is the first of a series of blogs covering simplification. You need to simplify your life and focus on just a few basic core competences to make your restaurant the best it can be to stand out from your competitors.

So let's start with your menu: do you have many menu items? If so, perhaps you should think about reducing the number of dishes that you offer.

Frequently restaurateurs think that having many choices is better for their customers, when the opposite is often true. The best restaurants in the world have limited selections with all around excellent offerings.

With large menu choices, the quality is often uneven since it is almost impossible to equally master all the dishes. It also becomes a nightmare to manage the inventory, probably your servers struggle to remember all the dishes (and components), and your customers get often confused with so many choices.

Perhaps you should take a hard look at your menu and reduce the items to just your basic signature dishes. Not only you will avoid that your clients order menu items that are less than exceptional, but fewer dishes mean that they will be easier to remember (making them; thus, memorable) the next time that your clients come over for lunch or dinner.

Having a short and exquisite menu allows your kitchen to focus on providing exceptional quality, reduces your inventory (and perhaps you can even get a volume discount since you will be ordering more of the same items), and makes it easier for your servers and your clients to remember.

There are other secondary advantages such as less programming in your computer or point of sale, better track of what items are selling the best, easier to create the paper menus (with larger font), etc., but the essential point is that your restaurant will be associated in your customer's mind to a few exceptional dishes. And this is what you want.

If you agree with me, I would suggest that you meet with your Chef (or cook) and go over your menu, eliminating dishes that are less than great until you focus on a few appetizers, salads, entrees, and desserts. Cut down everything else.

Believe me when I tell you that people, your customers, will love to go to your restaurant to eat just a few great dishes. The best restaurants in the wold are famous for one or two dishes that they cook to perfection. No need to reinvent the wheel and try to please everybody.

It is better to have faithful clients that come to your place continually looking for your signature dishes, than trying to please everybody by increasing the number of dishes that you offer, just to have everybody leaving your place with just an OK experience. The world is full of mediocre restaurants; you don't want to belong to this category. You want to make yours exceptional.

This is the only way to stand out from your competitors.

We will cover other aspects of simplification (operations, sales, marketing, etc.) in later blogs.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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Restaurant Marketing Strategies: Surprise Your Clients Today

When your clients go to your restaurant, they are looking forward to enjoy good food, good service, and usually to share a good conversation with friends, colleagues, or family members.



They expect to be taken care of, and to have a pleasant experience; what they don’t expect is to be surprised.



Usually, people like consistency when they are eating out, but this can play in your favor if you can provide them with an unexpected and enjoyable surprise.



It doesn’t have to be something amazing or expensive. It is more about the “wow” factor of a pleasant non-expected act from you that will make the eating experience memorable for your clients.

I will give you an example. A friend of mine, manager of an Italian restaurant located in Seattle bought a prosciutto to eat at home. He paid with his own money but asked the providers to deliver it to him at the restaurant.

Since he loves prosciutto, he started cutting the ham to get a taste of it. Then he though that it will be a good idea to share it with the people eating at the restaurant, so he asked one of the cooks to cut fine slices of prosciutto. He then offered it to the clients with compliments from the house.

Needless to say, his idea was a success and welcomed with open arms (or I guess mouths in this case). People were really happy to get a sample of prosciutto that they didn’t order, and specially didn’t have to pay for.

To make a long story short, this restaurant gives away now regularly complementary prosciutto to their best clients, and they just love it!

This is just an example of the many things that you can do to surprise your clients. Here you have some other ideas:

• Buy some flowers and give a flower to each woman in your restaurant.

• Buy very small bottles and fill them with extra virgin olive oil (you can buy it bulk at a very good price), then make a hole in one of your restaurant’s business cards and tie it with a ribbon (or ask one person from your staff to do it) around the neck o the bottle. Give one to your best customers for them to take home. They will love it.

By the way, you can also do this with any nice container filled with a special sauce that you use in your restaurant or some spices, etc. You get the idea.

• Create little snacks made with olives, dried fruits, nuts, or some other appetizer that your restaurant may serve. Give them to people who order a wine or a cocktail. They will happily eat them and will order more drinks from you.

• Print copies of two or three of your best recipes in a nice paper and give them to people ordering the dish. Put the name of your restaurant, your website, and the phone number. They will love it and keep it. And don’t worry about giving away your secrets. Most people are too lazy (or afraid) to cook even if they have the directions so you won’t be losing any business.

• Etc.

These are just a few ideas of things that you can do for little money to surprise your clients. You and your staff should come up with many more…

To conclude: here is an idea for you: Why don’t you establish the “Best idea for a surprise” weekly context and promote it among your employees? You can offer the winner a complementary meal, a movie ticket, or any other small reward. On exchange, you will get your staff involved in the process and very motivated to help you out.

It is a win-win situation for you, your business, your employees and most important, your clients. They will leave your place very happy and will be coming to your place again and again, looking forward to get surprised. As a bonus they will tell everybody how great it is to have dinner at your place!



Happy surprises,

Jose L Riesco

© Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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My Book is for Sale in Amazon Now

Today was a very intense day.

First, I had a very interesting interview/conversation with Jenna Lloyd. She is an online marketing consultant and copywriter who just launched a very interesting offer for restaurant owners and managers. It is is called My Internet Manager and it is basically a hands off approach to online marketing aimed to restaurant owners and managers.

So we talk for 1 hour and 15 minutes about online marketing, how to use social media to promote your restaurant and know what people are talking about your business, etc.

You can listen for free to the complete audio interview here: http://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com/Audio/JennaLloydInterview.html

At the end of the recording, she made a very generous offer to all my readers. You can find more information about her product and a very generous discount offer here: www.myinternetmanager.com/Jose

If you would like to subscribe to her restaurant online marketing offering, you can enter the following discount code (when you are in the shopping cart): 88F8D2 and you'll receive a discount of $200!!

But that's not all; while I was talking to Jenna, the UPS truck came and dropped off 30 author copies of my new Restaurant Marketing Strategies book. To my surprise, a friend told me that it is already available in Amazon. com and Barnes & Noble online.

You can find (and hopefully purchase) the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Restaurant-Marketing-Strategies-Dramatically-Spending/dp/0981935117/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252113817&sr=8-5

and here:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Restaurant-Marketing-Strategies/Jose-Luis-Riesco/e/9780981935119/?itm=1

The book came out pretty good. It contains really valuable and logical marketing strategies to help you improve your restaurant marketing (and business!). Check it out.

Now, I need a rest to enjoy the long (and rainy) weekend.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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How much should you invest to market your restaurant?

As a restaurant marketing and consulting expert, I get often this question: How much should an independent restaurant spend in marketing? The answer is... it depends. There is not a hard rule or fixed amount that a restaurateur must expend.

When I bought my first restaurant, I remember that the previous owner told me "You should invest at least 10% of your gross income in marketing if you want to be successful." So for a while I complied. Although 10% sounded very high to me, I knew nothing about the restaurant industry so whom was I to question the opinion of an expert restaurateur?

Very soon, however, I started realizing that I was wasting my money in marketing vehicles that just didn't work (many inherited from him). After lots of trial and error, I reduced the amount that I was expending in marketing; but even more important, I started investing in marketing that worked and brought me lots of customers.

So, let me ask you this question. Would you invest $1,000 in marketing if I told you that it will bring you $2,000 in profits? Of course you would, it would be silly no to.

However, many times, when I recommend some marketing investments to restaurateurs, they complain that they are expensive and can't afford them; even if I tell them that they will bring back many times their investment. This is specially true when these marketing investments are not the usual ads, flyers, coupons, etc. that restaurateurs are so used to, and love to hate.

Recently, I recommended to my list a great hands-off online marketing package from Online Reputation Management Expert Jenna Lloyd. This new program is specifically designed just for restaurants, nightclubs, and bars.

Yes, the price is $497 per month (soon to be raised to $697 per month), but the idea is that they will take care of everything, from writing newsletter articles customized to the restaurant, to take care of capturing customer's information, email them with personalized emails, etc. This is a hands off approach.

You can check the details here: www.MyInternetManager.com

After I suggested this online package to my list, I received many emails from restaurateurs complaining that they can't afford $497 a month. They get the wrong message. It is not a matter of if they can't afford it or not (they all can, $500 is not that high of a budget for a restaurant), it is about how much more business they will get if they invest this $497 a month!


They (and you) need to start thinking about marketing as an investment. If they get enough extra business to cover for their marketing expenses, then it is just a smart investment. If, on the other hand, after a few months, they see that there is not enough growth in their business brought by the marketing to justify the expenses, then this investment is obviously not working for them and they should cancel it.

At worst, they will expend only a few hundred dollars. At best they could improve their business dramatically. Isn't worth it a try?

Oh, and let's not forget all the hours that restaurateurs will save trying to market their restaurant online. How valuable is their time? Probably quite more than the $497 a month...

So should they cut any of their existing marketing and replace it all by this online system? Again, it depends. If it's working for them (and they can measure it and track it), then they should keep it. If not, they should just cut it and save their money.

It is as simple as that.

I hope that this blog put some sound ideas about investing wisely in your marketing. I surely hope so.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco

©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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Dear Restaurateurs: Your Servers Are Your Sales Force, Are You Training Them?

Based onpersonal experience, many restaurateurs underestimate the importance of having servers trained in sales in their restaurant. Although most of the people serving food are pleasant enough, and can do their jobs, the best servers are always also the best sales people. Not only the get the highest tips, but they also increase the restaurant's profit.

Both, sales and marketing skills are key elements to make any business profitable. Usually (but not always), the restaurant owners and/or managers take the helm of the marketing while most of the sales rest on the shoulders of the servers. And this is probably where the problem lies since often, the servers just learn the operations and dishes. They never get any training in sales.

It happened to me more times that I can think of: I finished a very satisfactory meal just to be presented with the check, before anybody bothered to ask me whether I want dessert, coffee, or perhaps just an after-dinner drink. When a server brings the check, customers usually pay and leave the place, missing extra sales for very little extra effort.

Same thing with the water; offering your client’s mineral (or just bottled) water is an easy upsell that very few servers even consider.

There are many other examples where a trained server can increase the check amount without being pushy or bothering the clients. A client won't order (or very seldom will take the initiative to do it) an item that doesn't know of, or it's not blatantly displayed in the menu. However, many of them will appreciate an informed suggestion by a professional waiter.

Customer engagement is also another important element of the overall dining satisfaction

Don't underestimate the importance that your servers have in your business? After all, they are the main contact that the customers have with your restaurant. They are your image, your sales force and represent (for good or bad) your restaurant and the opinion that people dinning at your place have about it.


If you are not doing so now, implementing a formalized sales training for your servers should be very high in your priorities list.

Happy meals,

Jose L Riesco

©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

twitter.com/jlriesco


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The Cactus Cowboy Sent Me!

If you noticed that I haven't posted any blogs lately, you are right, but I have a good excuse.

I've just come back from a well deserved 2 weeks vacation. Some friends were visiting us from Spain, and we all went for a 2 weeks road trip. We flew from Seattle to Las Vegas, rented a van and visited Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Los Angeles (from where we flew back to Seattle).

In one of the many motels where we slept in Arizona, I found a brochure in the room with advertising of local businesses. One of them was a typical Southern restaurant. What caught my attention waws that they had the following text under the ad:

When you come to our restaurant, mention the following to your server: "The Cactus Cowboy Sent Me!" and you'll receive a free coffee or dessert.

Now, the symbol of the restaurant is a Cactus dressed as a cowboy swirling a lasso (you can see it in the photo), so this ad somehow makes sense.

Although I would prefer to pay for my coffee than to say something so silly to my server, these people have a good point. They are tracking their marketing expenses. Each time that somebody says this silly sentence, they know that these people saw the paid ad displayed in the brochure. They could have included a coupon instead, but this would mean replacing the ad each time that a customer clipped it to bring it to the restaurant.

By saying a unique sentence like that, they can track the results of the marketing without having to replace the ad each time. It is clever and effective.

So what about you? Do you have a way to track your ads? If not, you should be learning from the Cactus Cowboy. After all, he knows what he is doing.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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Restaurateurs: Are You Delivering a Consistent Dinning Experience to Your Clients?

One of the main turn-offs for people going to a restaurant is the lack of consistency.

Customers expect predictable results when buying a product or a service. If somebody goes to a restaurant, and has a great dinning experience, they expect to get this same experience every time that they go back to the same restaurant.

And this is often the problem. Since restaurants are heavily relying on people (cooks, servers, bussers, hostesses, etc.), and people have different moods and needs, depending on their personal circumstances, delivering a consistently excellent experience is both difficult and challenging.

If these people get temperamental servers, wrong cooked food, or some any other unexpected results, they will leave the restaurant very disappointed to probably never come back.

Part of the success of restaurant franchises is that they work hard standardizing the processes so that the mistakes get minimized. They have thick operations manuals where they cover each aspect of the process, from receiving the guests to the timing and delivery of food, etc.

So what can you do to minimize randomness and deliver a consistent excellent experience to your clients?

To start, you should have the basic processes defined. From the moment that a prospect or client walks in the door, you should have clear processes to greet them, sit them, and deliver them some water or drinks quickly and efficiently.

Same thing with the flow of the meals; Your waiters or managers should know how long each table has been waiting, when and how to deliver the food, when to check if everything is going well, how to deal with difficult customers, etc.

But, even if you try your best to document every possible situation, you will never be able to cover all the possibilities. People react in unpredictable ways and there are not enough manuals in the world to cover every possible scenario.

The most important training that you must give your staff is a good understanding about what your restaurant is all about: Make crystal clear to them what makes your restaurant different from your competitor's and why your clients are your number one priority, and also it should be theirs.

You must specify in your operations manual that whatever issue occurs with a client, your staff should never argue with them. Make clear that your staff should do their absolutely best to compensate your customers for whatever incident (despite whom has caused it) that could make them unhappy with your restaurant.

If you have clear policies and rules to deal with problems and clients, you will be able to deliver the consistency that your clients are looking for.

Tomorrow I will be taking a well deserved vacation with my family. I'll be offline for two weeks so don't expect any new blogs during that time. :-)

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco

©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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Restaurant Long Term Strategy or Short Term Profits?

Here is a fundamental question that restaurateurs need to ask themselves: Do you have a long term strategy for your restaurant or are you just focusing on getting short-term profits?

The answer to this question can have profound implications in the way you manage and operate your business.

For example, if you are just looking for short-term profits, then you don't have to worry about having clear policies regarding how your staff should deal with customer's issues. If a customer has a problem, you can take the short-term profit route and just refuse to compensate them if you see that they don't deserve it. You will get their money instead of making them happy. Who cares if they won't come back? You don't want those kind of customers anyway right?

Same thing with your staff; if you want to increase your short-term profits, you will try to discount every single penny that you can from them. If they break something, you will discount it from their tips. If they eat, you will also discount the food, etc.

You will also try to understaff your restaurant so that your fixed costs are minimum and you can survive in these tough economy that we are experiencing and you will cut or eliminate your marketing expenses to a minimum or even zero...

Although this short term vision looks like a good idea in these times of crisis, this is a sure way to shoot yourself in the foot in the long run...

People are very sensitive to the way they are treated. And this goes not only for your clients but also for your staff. If you treat people badly (or even not as good as they think they deserve), you are saving pennies and expending dollars. A disgruntled customer will let other 100 people (it was only ten or 12 but now with the Web, it can be hundreds) know about their bad experience in your place. Unhappy employees will do all they can to make you pay from a situation that they believe is unfair. They will be more prone to steal from you and slack as much as they can. The worst part is that your clients will notice that their food has been cooked and/or served by unhappy people.

Saving in marketing is also a sure way to funnel customers to your competitors. All things equal; people will flock to restaurants that bring them incentives to go, and provide them with the emotional experience that they are looking forward to when they go out to eat.

If, on the other hand, you have (or are implementing) a long term strategy for your restaurant, then you already know that people are your main asset. Your clients are the ones bringing you the money, and therefore you should bend backwards to please them. Above all, never ever argue with them; even if this means giving them a free meal and compensating them so that they always leave your place happy and impressed with your service.

Same thing with your staff; if you treat them fairly and even give them an occasional bonus to compensate them for the extra effort that you see they put, they will be very motivated and happy to work for you, and this means that they will transmit their happiness to your clients.

Let's now talk briefly about your marketing. This is a great time to evaluate how you are spending your marketing dollars. You shouldn't stop marketing your restaurant, on the contrary, you should use this opportunity to implement efficient and inexpensive marketing vehicles that could bring you repeated clients. Use the power of referrals (you may want to check my Restaurant Referral System in a Box, it's a very inexpensive and foolproof to bring back your best clients and their friends and families). Also, you should use the power of the Web to promote your business. Online sites like Twitter, Facebook, MetaFlavor, ResOS.net and other can help you spread the word about your place.

Yes, this may mean less cash in hand in the short-term, but you are establishing the foundation for a prosperous business for the long term. If you want your restaurant to succeed, you must create a long term strategy and follow it religiously. Any other action means sacrificing your most valuable assets looking for a short-term solution.

Happy meals,

Jose L Riesco

©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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Difficult Times for Restaurants

The NPD Group reports that the U.S. Restaurant Traffic Decline is the Steepest in 28 Years. You can read the complete article here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/npd-reports-us-restaurant-traffic-decline-steepest-in-28-years,896710.shtml

This is bad news indeed but probably no surprise to anybody who is in this industry since you all can see your restaurants emptier than before.

This also means than competition to attract customers is now fiercer than ever. Less people going out for dinner makes the battle to bring people to your restaurant a more daunting task. To respond to this challenge, many restaurateurs are lowering their prices or issuing discount coupons to entice money-tight customers to go to their restaurants.

Although this marketing technique may work temporarily, I don't think that it's really a good strategy for the long run. First, you will attract the cheapest customers looking for the most inexpensive place they can go to eat, despite the quality of their dinning experience. Also, these people won't become loyal clients. Instead, they will go only to restaurants looking for the bargain of the day, moving to your competitors if their discount is bigger than yours.

So what can you do to attract people to your restaurant?

First, you need to be creative and position your restaurant so that it is unique and different from your competitors. Think for just a moment. Do you have something unique that your restaurant has/offers than nobody else does? This is called a Unique Selling Proposition, and you can use it as a differentiator in the marketplace. People understand that they need to pay a little more to get a unique experience, and even in these times of crisis they are willing to do so.

If you don't have, or can't come up with anything unique, then you need to put yourself in the minds of your customers. Why should they go to your restaurant instead of going to your competitors? What can you offer them that makes them want to go to your restaurant? These are key questions that can help you come up with your Unique Selling Proposition.

Once you attract new customers, you need to make their visit worthy. Give them the best dinning experiences that you are able to. Make sure that they receive great food and an impeccable service. Make sure that your place is very clean and inviting and that you treat them so well that they would love to come back to your place looking for those good memories that they've shared in your place.

Remember, people go to restaurants looking forward to have a good time. Provide them with a great experience and they will come back. Fail to do it and they will take their business elsewhere. There are plenty of restaurants that will be more than happy to comply.


Good luck and happy meals,

Jose L Riesco

©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

Follow me in Twitter:www.twitter.com/jlriesco

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