Restaurant Operations

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Preparing Your Restaurant for Thanksgiving

Preparing Your Restaurant for Thanksgiving

Originally Posted on FoodableTV – By Doug Radkey 11/05/2017

Each individual has their own personal explanation of what Thanksgiving means to them. The general, modern celebration of Thanksgiving however, is characterized as an opportunity to enjoy quality time with friends, family, food, the occasional beverage, large parades, and yes, often the game of football.

It’s also a time to reflect, set aside political and corporate related agendas and turn a blind eye to the negative news surrounding us from around the world. Smiles, laughter, and memorable experiences are often shared over the course of the long weekend.

With so much focus around food, drink, and togetherness; what does all of this mean for restaurants on Thanksgiving?

Well, restaurants aim for a similar experience each and every day— offering food, beverage, smiles, laughter, and memorable moments with friends, co-workers, family, and loved ones.

Depending on the restaurant concept and its location, there likely lies a large opportunity to generate awareness, increase revenue, develop repeat customers, or hopefully, a combination of the three.

Here are six elements to consider for your restaurant around Thanksgiving:

1. Marketing 101

Solve a problem. For starters, a restaurant has an enormous opportunity to highlight consumer convenience by solving one of Thanksgiving’s largest ‘problems’.

What’s the one thing everyone enjoys at Thanksgiving? The answer (naturally) is eating the delicious Thanksgiving meal. What are the two things everyone dislikes at Thanksgiving? The answer is cooking the delicious meal (for many people) and of course cleaning up after the often large, messy meal.

With high quality design, consumer touch-points, and overall (pain-point) messaging, a marketing program can highlight convenience, more time for family, and yes, keeping a nice clean kitchen at home.

How can your restaurant leverage this solution?

2. Menu Development

The traditional Thanksgiving meal revolves around turkey, stuffing, yams, other vegetables, and of course, pumpkin pie. Is your restaurant in a position to offer this traditionally plated meal or other fall/harvest flavors? How about a unique variation or infusion based on your restaurant’s concept and kitchen structure?

Don’t be afraid to think outside-the-box and get creative. If you’re a sports bar, put together a football inspired Thanksgiving menu. If you’re a QSR near a parade route, create an easy-to-eat holiday inspired option for on-the-go.

Develop a menu plan with the entire kitchen team (and bar team) with the restaurant or bar’s target market and concept kept close in mind. As always, keep the specialized menu small and inviting to reduce inventory, prep-time, additional staff requirements, and potential waste.

3. Revenue Options

If you strongly believe the target market would prefer to dine at home for Thanksgiving, don’t look at it as a potential loss. This presents an opportunity to offer the catering of a traditional or concept-infused, Thanksgiving meal— right to their door!

Create a variation of value-added packages for different sized parties and request 72 hours (or more) notice to have it prepped and delivered, right on time. Just don’t forget the high quality take-out containers and plates for an easy clean-up afterwards! Pre-ordered packages such as this will generate cash-flow, control potential waste, and control staff costs.

4. Cross-Promotions

Make sure that special events and other winter related promotions are planned for well in advance. The Thanksgiving holiday weekend can act as a forerunner to both Christmas and New Years Eve parties, packages, and other revenue generating opportunities such as gift card sales.

With the right marketing and sales mix, a restaurant or bar can take advantage of pre-booking and pre-sale opportunities; keeping in mind many consumers are already in a money spending mindset, thanks to the likes of ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’ which surrounds the holiday in the US.

Create a marketing plan that will drive sales now and over the next 1-2 months.

5. Giving Back

Based on your concept, target market, location, and/or size of establishment, maybe the above options aren’t right for you. This doesn’t mean that your restaurant cannot be involved in the festivities. Consider hosting a community benefit meal for less fortunate individuals or families, or hosting a meal for military personnel.

If that may not work, consider getting your team involved in the holiday by assisting at local food banks or shelters. This practice will not only increase employee engagement, but also develop a positive perception of your brand and increase the possibility of local media coverage. Make it a win-win for everyone involved!

6. Saying Thanks

It may sound obvious, but show what you’re thankful for. Give thanks to your customers with appropriate messaging on social media, your website, or within the specialized menu. You can step it up a notch and ask staff to provide a video snapshot on what Thanksgiving means to them and then create a video montage to share on Social Media.

Speaking of staff, let’s not forget about them! Ensure they’re given time to spend with their friends and family too. Be flexible with your scheduling and/or consider special operating hours over the course of the weekend – and don’t forget to thank them for their loyalty and commitment!

By truly knowing and understanding your target market, your concept, and the neighboring business environment, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is an excellent time to showcase your brand and your creativity – ultimately generating awareness, revenue, and repeat business opportunities.

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What to Look for in a Restaurant Business Partner

What to Look for in a Restaurant Business Partner

Originally Posted on Typsy by Doug Radkey – 11/01/2017

If you’ve worked as a leader in the restaurant industry, then you know what it’s like. You know that leaders have to be willing to make sacrifices and acquire the systemized thinking, social skills, creativity, stress management, and passion that it takes to be successful.

Becoming a restaurateur combines an enormous amount of passion and vision. You have to create food, drink, and overall experiences with a drive that is undeterred by the high number of unprecedented risks. You must be determined, positive, confident, adaptable, and crave learning experiences.

And even if you do have all of those qualities, it can often be too much for one person to endure. This is when considering a partnership might be ideal for some.

It’s not uncommon for restaurants to be started or initially operated by a partnership, and you will be hard pressed to find a well-known restaurant brand that didn’t start as a partnership before becoming a larger corporation.

However, partnerships aren’t easy. They come with their own set of challenges, both at the start-up phase and during the operational stage.

There must be a common vision, mission, and commitment, and a high level of communication, creativity, and expertise between partners. Effective partners will also play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses to succeed in this cutthroat industry.

Here are a few elements to consider when determining if a restaurant partnership is right for you. This is what you should be looking for in a business partner today.

1. Have a Three-Step Plan 

Before engaging in serious partnership discussions or agreements, it is crucial to complete a feasibility study, concept development plan, and business plan. Is the idea of a partnership even feasible? Can your restaurant concept withstand not only the market, but also two or more owners? Is there enough of a profit margin for all partners to live a healthy lifestyle? What are the short and long-term goals? 

Many questions need to be answered before you make any decisions, and these plans will lay the foundation needed to move forward.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

There should be a competitive SWOT analysis within the business plan, but it is also ideal to complete a thorough SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) on both a personal and partnership level. 

What strengths and weaknesses do you each possess, what opportunities exist if you decide to partner, and what threats will present themselves if you formulate a partnership? 

For full effectiveness, have all potential partner(s) complete the same and analyze all of the responses.

3. Create Statements

To ensure potential partners are on the same page, it is imperative that you all have a similar vision, mission, value, and culture statements. Complete an exercise, similar to the SWOT analysis, in which each individual writes a statement addressing those four categories. These answers should then be compared against one another.

A partnership will inevitably run into hard challenges if visions and goals are not equally aligned. If you cannot cohesively agree on these statements at this stage, don’t move on to the next step.

4. Review the Laws

It’s absolutely critical to review your national and local business laws, regulations, taxes, and how they may relate to structured partnerships, liability, and asset management. Many countries, states, provinces and local municipalities have different information on their registered requirements.

Study this information and review it with both an accountant and a lawyer, so you can determine which partnership structure is best for your unique situation.

5. Draft an Agreement

Restaurants, bars, and other hospitality related businesses are really no different to traditional businesses. There needs to be a comprehensive and clear partnership agreement in place, even if it is a friend or family member as the potential partner.

The agreement must clearly state the financial structure of the partnership (investment, return and profit share) in addition to property management involvement, labor involvement, and overall activeness within the business.

Will both partners be active in the day-to-day operations, or will one act as a ‘silent partner’? Often, one partner looks after the back-of-house while another looks after the front-of-house, or is one partner just there to assist in finances while the other operates the business? Every minor detail must be documented, reviewed by a lawyer, and signed for liability and accountability purposes.

At the end of the day, successful partnerships rely on setting realistic (S.M.A.R.T) goals, open communication, frequent meetings, defined roles, and sound business structure. Only partner with other individuals who are willing to be open, honest, and respectful, and share the same values that you do.

You will need a balance of planning, trust and talent to be compatible. There will undoubtedly be stressful situations throughout the start-up phase, operational phase, and overall partnership that will reveal who you have really partnered with.

By executing these steps, you should be able to limit any surprises. The same goes for partnerships as it does for business in general; if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

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Security Strategies for Your Bar

Security Strategies for Your Bar

By Doug Radkey – 10/25/2017

Slips and falls, over-serving, theft, and violence are the most common reasons a bar needs very strict safety and security strategies. Bars, pubs, lounges, and clubs in particular, must continuously look at opportunities to reduce risk and liability.

The bar industry is built upon reputation and that reputation can be altered in the blink of an eye. In reality, it only takes a short moment of ‘looking the other way’ to create an unwanted atmosphere that encourages theft and an opportunity for violence, in particular.

As a bar owner, operator, manager, bartender, cook, server, or security personnel, it is your cohesive duty to create and maintain a safe environment and positive experience, not only for your customers, but your other team members as well.

How can we reduce risk and liability while creating a positive, memorable guest experience?

Bar Characteristics

The first thing to consider, is the bar concept. What brand messages are being portrayed? What type of environment has been created? Characteristics that often relate to violence and liability issues include darkness, crowded areas, noise level, competitive games (example pool tables), aggressive bouncers, and temperature/ventilation issues. How would you define your characteristics and what can be changed to improve them?

Drink Safety Policies

Guest harassment and potential danger, often comes with either the quantity of drinks consumed and/or the consumption of ‘spiked drinks’. Ensure that all bar staff have been highly trained (and have ongoing training) on proper serving protocols, signs of intoxication, and potential elements that can lead to ‘spiked drinks’ by other guests. In addition, it’s important to have a ‘safety drink’ that female guests can ask for if they feel they’re in danger, which should be posted in the female washroom indicating what to do if they feel they’re in a dangerous situation.

Install Strategic Cameras

There is plenty of new (affordable) technology that can assist in bar security, theft, and the protection of overall liability. Consider installing night & day 360 degree cameras to capture every moment as it happens. Cover the bar, liquor shelves, dance floors, cash registers, storage areas, hallways, patios, and all doorways with proper indoor or outdoor monitors. With digital storage space, you can now keep hours and months worth of data, to protect your brand from potential litigation.

Lighting Strategies

Dark areas are perceived as an area to start fights, to steal, to spike drinks, or to handle drugs. Ensure that washrooms are bright and that each light bulb both inside and outside the venue, has a true purpose. Is it to create atmosphere, create a sense of security, or a blend of both? Think through each light placement for a better sense of security and to protect both staff and customers.

Staying Alert

Sounds simple, but as time goes on, people often put their guard down and become complacent in their day-to-day activities. Absent-minded owners, managers, and staff can lead to danger for everyone. Provide a known presence, remember there is safety in numbers, and have ongoing meetings regarding theft, security, and guest experiences to keep everyone on the top of their game.

Bouncers

Are they still needed? Yes, they are an important part of a bars security plan, especially in larger establishments or venues with competitive gaming, live music or DJ’s, and dance floors. However, aggressive bouncers can actually lead to violence and security issues. Hire properly trained bouncers, have a security plan in place, and enforce your rules of conduct (which you hopefully have). Also, ensure your bouncers have a positive and transparent relationship with local police in addition to an effective communication plan, if there are multiple bouncers.

Bars can even step up their game by also hiring ‘guest experience officers’ who are visible on the floor both enhancing the guest experience and communicating with security staff of potential issues before they escalate. This is a less aggressive approach and is known to work, in both security elements and an increase in sales through brand perception.

Bars that target younger, less agreeable and more impulsive drinkers are the most at risk. Know your concept, know your target market, and know the consequences of having a poor security strategy. Your reputation and long-term success ultimately depends on it!

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Often Overlooked Benefits of Restaurant Lighting

Often Overlooked Benefits of Restaurant Lighting

Originally Posted on FoodableTV by Doug Radkey – 10/19/2017

There are so many critical elements that go into the design of a restaurant, so much so that it can easily become overwhelming. It’s a moment during the start-up or renovation period, where specifics that play a large impact on customer experience, can simply be overlooked. One of the key elements that are often overlooked — is the importance of restaurant lighting.

To create positive emotions and to deliver on your promise for memorable customer experiences, a concept must think through its initial design while utilizing processes, maximizing communication, and creating surprises through a multitude of ‘touch points.’ Arguably one of the most important touch points in the overall design — is again that of restaurant lighting.

Lighting within a restaurant (or bar), affects many elements within both operations and guest experience, including food and drink presentation, atmosphere, and length of stay. Lights come in many creative materials, shapes, sizes, and brightness; therefore the largest challenge is finding the right balance for each location and concept.

When planning a restaurant space, one has to consider the ‘job’ of each light source. Is it meant to highlight wall features, to enhance a back-bar, to highlight walkways, washrooms, and exits, or is it to create the right mood over a table? Or perhaps it is for security, liability, and theft prevention?

When considering the job of each light source, it’s imperative to remember to keep customers and operations top of mind first and not the architecture itself.

Here are other ways that restaurant lighting can have a large impact on revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction by again, considering the ‘job’ of each source.

Sense of Security

Ensure that the restaurant and bar space is well lit (this is both inside and outside the venue). Strategic placement and brightness of lights will undoubtedly reduce theft opportunities, reduce damage to property, reduce injury and liability, and keep both employees and customers safe (especially at night).

Differentiated Space

Different lighting sources within a venue can assist in creating multiple spaces. Similar to guest positioning, lights can assist in highlighting the multiple “levels of comfort” that guests will connect with and want to be seated near, allowing the restaurant to maximize each individual seating area, effectively managing customer satisfaction and revenue opportunities.

Seat Optimization  

Lighting has another effect on Restaurant Revenue Management, as well. If a restaurant wants customers in and out quickly (QSR model), they should consider brighter lights paired with fast paced music, as it often makes guests feel hurried. A balance between warm and bright lights is ideal for casual restaurants where dimmed (softer) lights is therefore more ideal for restaurants that are looking for longer guest duration.

Kitchen & Bar Performance

Don’t forget about a restaurants team and the productive areas within the restaurant space. Ensure the correct light placement and correct choice of bulbs is decided upon for inside the kitchen and bar production area. Consider where food and beverage preparation and final presentation will be completed for a final quality check before being delivered to the guest.

Food & Beverage Presentation

Increase restaurant and bar profits with the correct back-lighting, up-lighting, and track lighting along liquor, beer, and wine displays. Take it up a notch and differentiate positioning of premium product with a different set of lights. Furthermore, food and drink can look unappealing if placed under the wrong lighting element— therefore bars and full service restaurants should use dimmers to control brightness (softness of light) and to ensure there are no shadows along the plate or glass while at a table.

Energy Conservation

When deciding on lights, consider the upfront cost and the ongoing energy cost and look for long-term operational savings, adding profits to a restaurants bottom line. Restaurants use a lot of lights so dimmers (or control systems) for example, are great for a variety of concepts to reduce costs and create more efficient layouts.

Curb Appeal

A restaurant cannot forget about its exterior lighting. Outside of the obvious security reasons, a well designed exterior with strategic lighting can in fact, invite people inside versus them choosing a neighboring restaurant. Lighting along entranceways, signage, landscape, and the up-lighting of architectural highlights, is most ideal. Lastly, outdoor lighting for a restaurants patio needs to be creatively decided upon and equally not overlooked to create not only the right outdoor atmosphere, but curb appeal, as well.

Poor restaurant lighting can lead to a cold and clinical feeling or a dark and unsafe feeling among guests. Lighting can also have a psychological effect on guests, as their minds may play tricks on them when it comes to flavors and scents for both food and drink. 

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Creating Restaurant Brand Ambassadors

Creating Restaurant Brand Ambassadors

Originally Posted on FoodableTV by Doug Radkey – 10/14/2017

Ask nearly every restaurant owner what their number one, long-term marketing ‘program’ or tactic is, and most will say effective word of mouth. This can be great until it starts to fizzle down or another new restaurant opens up down the street resulting in the competition becoming the new talk of the town.

Instead of shooting into the wind and hoping ‘word of mouth’ with deliver desirable long-term results, restaurateurs need to embrace a program that is an extension of word-of-mouth marketing, by developing what is called ‘brand ambassadors.’

A brand ambassador will positively represent and promote a restaurant’s venue. They will embrace the company values, vision, mission, and culture. They will strengthen a restaurant’s identity within the community by providing additional visibility and overall awareness.

Yes, word of mouth happens organically over time because of excellent food, drink, service, and experiences, don’t get me wrong. But what if there was a way to double-down and create multiple micro-communities and multiple levels of ambassadors to promote a restaurant’s brand?

That’s where an ambassador program comes in.

Here’s how:

Owners & Operators

A winning brand ambassador program begins with guests and staff. However, as with any program, there needs to be a leader. As a restaurant owner or operator, there are many ways to be included within a brand ambassador program and be looked up to as the leader of the program.

Business Networking

Restaurant owners and operators can further ‘humanize the brand’ by networking within the community and showing the face behind the brand at a variety of business events that every city or community holds. Building effective hyper-local relationships is the first step to a winning program.

Community Involvement

Restaurants can build and protect their reputation by being involved in as many community based events as possible and even collaborating with other restaurant or foodservice operators within their area. An open mind and community driven mindset is essential.

Community Influencers

Restaurant owners and operators should also look to build long lasting relationships with community leaders, city officials, F&B distributors, local media, and bloggers— who are all influential within their city. These individuals can further amplify a restaurant’s positive message.

Set Goals

Once an owner or operator is on board with a true brand ambassador program, setting clear goals for both guest and staff ambassadors, is required. What do you want to see come out of this program? When setting goals, remember this one key rule a friend once said – ‘numbers lie and relationships rule’. Don’t look at the financials first; the money will flow once relationships are built.

Restaurant Guests

Happy customers are everything. They are the foundation to effective word of mouth. Outside of hoping they share their experience with their social network, there is a multitude of ways to get them further involved in the process of building true brand ambassadors.

Focus Group

Develop a group of individuals who show great interest in the restaurant (regular guests) and meet with them either once per month or quarter. Discuss upcoming community events, new menu items, or possible events to hold at the restaurant. Get them involved and give them something to talk about. For example, provide food and beverage samples of new menu items they will surely take photos of and share with their network.

Social Amplification

Similar to focus groups, consider holding ‘Facebook Only’ parties for example, where the only guests are ones that are fans of the restaurants page. This will surely amplify your messaging, product, and experience as they will be sharing photos or even live video of the event with their network.

Loyalty Programs

Every restaurant should have some form of loyalty program. There isn’t a one size fits all approach, but the general rule is that it will only work if the restaurant makes it worth something of perceived value. This comes down to knowing customer profiles and thinking of creative ways outside of just the standard ‘get one free after ten purchases’ loyalty program that everyone sees.

Restaurant Staff

When restaurant staff members are effectively on-boarded, trained, and are emotionally happy in their environment (a venue where they get a sense of achievement, respect, and wages) they are more often than not, willing to share the positive moments, effectively becoming brand ambassadors.

Provide Empowerment 

When staff members are given empowerment to make minor decisions, a lot of positive can come from it. Customer service is the number one benefit, and happy customers as we know, continue returning. A training program that focuses on customer service sequence training (role playing) will allow staff the opportunity to create relationships with guests while providing both confidence and empowerment within their respective roles.

Double the Social 

Nearly all employees will be active on some social media platform. Restaurants should look to encourage the use and even supply employees with content to share with their network. A social media training and a social media policy however, needs to be clearly articulated and signed off on to protect the brand. Furthermore, make sure staff members are included as much as possible with community events and any focus groups to amplify the social reach.

Create Stay Interviews

When staff members are happy, make a record of it. Create a ‘stay interview’ which is asking them questions such as why they love working at the restaurant so much? Create a video, share it, and post it on the restaurant’s website. This will create a positive brand perception which will improve hiring processes, reduce turnover costs, and set the stage for future brand ambassadors.

In summary, doing the unexpected, getting involved, creating engagement, highlighting staff, and listening to guests, will instantly develop the foundations for not only word of mouth, but that of a brand ambassador— delivering the desired long-term results!

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Restaurant Seating Strategies

Restaurant Seating Strategies

Originally Posted on FoodableTV by Doug Radkey 10/09/2017

There are many tactical elements to operating a restaurant business and Restaurant Revenue Management (RRM) is one of them.

RRM can be defined simply as selling the right seat, to the right customer, at the right price, and for the right duration of time.

As property and overall restaurant operating costs continue to increase, so does the desire to maximize seating and guest turnover. This goes for either a full service or quick service restaurant environment. There is, however, a science to restaurant seating strategies— the essence of RRM.

First and foremost, restaurateurs need to understand their intended guest experience and their ideal customer profile — including guest behaviours — to maximize their seating potential.  

With the right seating strategy, a restaurateur will position themselves to increase guest spending, increase turned tables, and contribute to a more positive guest experience. Consequently, this will greatly affect the operator’s revenue and profit potential.

An award winning seating strategy will include the following planning steps and thought processes.

Here are six factors to think about:

1. Room Size

The general rule of thumb for a restaurant is to allocate 60 to 70 percent of real estate to the dining area with the remaining percentage allocated for kitchen, storage, and washrooms etc. Ideally, a restaurant wants to keep approximately 20 to 25 square feet per seat, to offer the most comfort and flexibility for guests and the most adequate flow for staff including traffic aisles, server stations, and beverage bars/counters.

For example, a 5,000 square foot property will provide approximately 3,250 square feet (65 percent) for the dining and/or service area, resulting in an average of 144 optimal seats (22.5 square feet per seat).

2. Table Size

As with the above room size, there is a general rule of thumb for table size as well. Ideally, guests should be given a minimum of 300 square inches of space (per guest). For example, a 24 inch by 30 inch table will offer 720 total square inches of space or 360 total square inches per guest for up to two guests, often enough space for traditional plating, utensils, and glassware.

Table size can fluctuate based on concept, menu, plating style, and service sequence. Make the tables too small, and guests will feel uncomfortable and leave more quickly. Make the tables too large, and your property will lose valuable real estate. In this case, size does matter!

3. Table Optimization

A profitable interior design combines a variety of table sizes to meet the demand of different sized parties in addition to maximizing Sales Per Minute (SPM), an essential key performance indicator of Restaurant Revenue Management. For a restaurant to be successful, it needs to live in the moment by maximizing every day, every hour, and every seat.

Optimizing table sizes and their positioning, will improve traffic flow and turnover while reducing noise and accidents within the restaurant. Utilize point-of-sale reports to understand typical party sizes, average duration of stay, and dollars spent to ensure the restaurant is not wasting any seats or opportunities.

4. Guest Positioning

Depending on the concept, we know guests either sit themselves or wait to be seated. If one were to sit back and watch how guests were to seat themselves in a full service restaurant, a high percentage of guests would rather choose to sit near a window, featured wall (near fireplaces or wine racks, for example), or a partition wall. This is because these elements create a level of comfort.

When planning a floor layout, it is important to keep this in mind and create multiple “levels of comfort” that guests will connect with and want to be seated near, allowing the restaurant to maximize the space and not have undesirable seating areas that lead to quick visits and less spending.

5. Seating Styles

Without getting into specific details on chair styles (that’s another article), there are three key seating arrangements that are known to either keep guests in their seats and/or keep them spending more money.

Banquette tables (a bench along a wall with an opposite chair), often reduces sales per minute because it keeps guests sitting longer (which can be a great thing). This results, however, in a requirement for the restaurant to up-sell coffees, desserts, and/or other profitable items throughout the meal. This is a critical communication point to all service staff.

Booths on the other hand, are the number one option for guests and users of these booths are known to spend more in both time and dollars, as they feel highly comfortable and often feel a higher sense of privacy. Unfortunately, most restaurants cannot offer a space consisting 100 percent of booths, nor is it ideal for single diners. The right table and seating mix is required, but more booths than others, is a more desirable approach.

Traditional tables, those with two or more seats, often lead to quicker visits, unless strategically positioned near levels of comfort and appropriately spaced apart — offering a more intimate experience and ultimately leading to longer stays. It is essential this setting is truly mixed for seating of two and four (or more) to maximize potential and to reduce the risk of a single diner, for example, sitting at a table for four.

6. Guest Duration

By now, we understand that the longer a guest stays, the more they need to spend to maximize the seat and space. As a restaurateur who knows their concept and ideal customer profile, one must decide whether to focus on longer stays and higher revenues per table or to focus on volume of guests (resulting in volume food and beverage production).

What is needed to not only breakeven, but be profitable long term while having a highly productive, but not overrun kitchen and bar?

Every concept and every location will be slightly different, but once you know the average meal length, one can determine many other aspects of the restaurant such as the full potential for each day of the week which will then correlate to improving other financial management components including optimal staff schedules and food and beverage preparation.  

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How to Set Employee Expectations in Your Restaurant or Bar

How to Set Employee Expectations in Your Restaurant or Bar

Originally Posted on Typsy by Doug Radkey – 09/28/2017

Effective communication can provide your restaurant with two things. First of all, it creates an atmosphere where both front of house and back of house employees are excited, motivated, and honest. Second of all, it helps you establish workplace expectations, which can lower staff turnover costs.

Proper communication starts from the top, and from the time someone is employed (or arguably during the interview stage). The key to setting expectations, communication, and a positive working environment starts with onboarding, operation manuals, and formal training.

Onboarding

The true meaning of onboarding is often overlooked within the restaurant industry, though it should be a priority! It’s an opportunity to introduce new hires to your expectations and culture.

It’s also your chance to define what it means to be productive, promote compliance, and create the footprint for a memorable working experience.

Use the first day to discuss:

  • Short-term and long-term goals
  • The history of the restaurant
  • The vision
  • The mission
  • The values that make you who you are
  • Why customers enjoy your establishment

Create an open dialogue and allow for questions. Discuss the importance of manuals and training and set realistic goals for training completion.

The days of throwing new hires into the fire on their first day of work needs to come to an end; no matter their level of experience.

If restaurants hire for a mix of values and experience, versus experience alone, and create a systematic approach to hiring through proper job advertisements, interview processes, onboarding, manuals, and training, they will see an immediate difference in their culture and turnover costs.

This is why it’s important to remember that ‘values beat experience, when experience doesn’t work hard’.

The onboarding process should also be fun and exciting. Consider taking the process to the next level by developing a creative welcome package that consists of inexpensive but valuable tools, resources, and restaurant branded products that will go along with the paperwork needed for new hires.

This will instantly make your new hires feel like they’re a part of a team and set your restaurant apart from others in the immediate area. The added bonus is they will probably take a photo of their welcome package and share it with their social network!

Operation Manuals

Operation manuals should further outline items like:

  • Key statements
  • Policies
  • Probation periods
  • Scheduling
  • Harassment
  • Pay scales
  • Pay schedules
  • Tipping procedures
  • Emergency procedures
  • Pre-shift meetings
  • Opening/closing checklists

There should also be a complete kitchen and bar recipe manual that is continuously updated based on the current menu.

It probably sounds like this is going to be a large and heavy book (that no one will read because it sounds boring). Keep the categories short but impactful, and consider breaking them up into separate mini-packages.

You also want to keep in mind the variety of ages within your team and how they may react to different training and manual related material.

Consider creating a mix of visuals, infographics, videos, and written material in your operations manual. Incorporating video into the mix is a great way to create consistency in your messaging, and it will save you valuable resources over time.

It is imperative, however, that all components within the operations manual have a form of accountability. Make sure your new employees are signing off on their responsibilities so you have something to keep on record. They must ‘own’ it!

Staff Training

Staff training plays the third and final role in developing employee expectations. New hires need to be taught the specifics of your restaurant’s concept and business model.

They need to learn how to interact with customers, service sequences, food and beverage production, and specific equipment safety.

An advanced training program will offer adhoc training and cross-training opportunities. It will also offer a mix of classroom-style training (offline or online with a tool like Typsy), off-site training (at a brewery or winery for example), and on-the-job training (shadowing) that should be followed by tests to ensure the messages are being received.

The value of a training program lies within its structure. A winning training program will not try to train an employee all in one day, and you shouldn’t expect new hires to remember everything they learn in one session for the rest of their employment. It is imperative that a training program also includes refreshers and reviews, something that can be done in pre-shift meetings or during a restaurant’s periodic downtime.

A high percentage of employee turnover occurs within the first few weeks of employment. Step into a new hire’s shoes and remember your first days on the job, whether in a restaurant or another industry. How was your experience? Was it positive, memorable, and engaging? Most will likely say not.

In summary, you want to develop systems, experiences, confidence, morale, and consistency, which will set the expectations needed to successfully operate a restaurant.

If you have the correct mindset, the correct programs, and the correct leadership, any previous onboarding, operation manual and training nightmares will simultaneously go away, benefiting operators, employees, and yes, even the guest.

It takes a complete team effort and it starts from day one.

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Sound Engineering for Your Bar or Restaurant

Sound Engineering for Your Restaurant or Bar

By Doug Radkey – 09/26/2017

In the bar (and restaurant) industry, emotions and experiences are paramount. Without delivering positive emotions and memorable experiences, you will not have a long lasting business. Outside of food, drink, seating, video, and decor – properly engineered sound (music) can enhance those much needed feelings that guests’ ever so often, desire.

Music has the authority to deliver the right ambiance based on one’s brand and based on one’s target demographic while increasing overall profits. No matter the concept, guests are known to enjoy their food, drink, and inner-circle company more so when music is playing; which ultimately makes them stay longer and of course, spend more of their hard earned dollars at one’s venue.

We sat down with our friends at Playdio Inc., a new platform labelled ‘handcrafted radio for your business’ to ask them a few key questions regarding the importance of sound engineering in bars today. Here’s what they had to say!

Bar Start-Ups

If you’re in the start-up phase of your food & beverage business, don’t overlook the importance of music and sound. As Mat Lunnen of Playdio tells us “a new bar is like a luxury cruise liner – it’s not a speed boat. Erratic music creates erratic guest behaviour. Changes in your music should be subtle turns like a large ship, not swerving in and out of the water like a jet ski.”

To accomplish this is no easy task. It takes the correct sound system, the correct speakers, the correct speaker placement, and the correct level of sound paired with sound management (song choices and playlists) to make it work like the noted luxury cruise liner.

“You’ve taken the time to surround yourself with professionals in your business. From designers and architects, to bookkeepers and chef/bar consultants, you rely on experts to craft these parts of your business. Music is equally as important and cannot be overlooked.”

Working with a sound or music professional “allows you to dive deeper into understanding your day parts and demographics while creating memorable and meaningful experiences for all your customers.”

In summary, make the right choice and invest in proper sound engineering and sound management, right from the start.

Psychology of Day-Parts

Whether it’s pre-game drinks at a bar, or a fine dining experience at a restaurant, crafting the perfect playlist is an art form. “Using professionals can help increase customer engagement, and impact customer behaviour & spending patterns, while allowing you to focus on the more pressing day to day issues of your business.”

Mat’s advice “is to take a good look at your day parts, understand them and who is in your business at that time, and create appropriate playlists for each day part”.

For example, during lunch hour, consider upping the tempo and energy of the music being played to encourage guests to eat their food faster, opening up tables for additional customers.  Analyze each hour of the day and the type of guests you’re typically serving. Subtle tweaks to music selection can play a large part in duration of stay, money spent, and guest satisfaction.

Four-Walls Marketing

Marketing events through sound & music is also an excellent way to drive emotion and memorable experiences. Does your bar show the hockey game every Saturday night? It would be ideal then to “play stadium songs that we would normally hear at the hockey arena, as if we were really there, to get your customers in the mood”. Don’t want guests heading to the exits after the game? Consider “crafting a high energy, familiar playlist and then crank the volume to keep the party going” which is a great option to pair with late night food & drink menus.

———-

When you “take songs that are connected to our memories and times in our lives where music and sound had more of an impact on us – we increase social experiences, social activity, and often connect those feelings back to a specific venue where the song was played”.

Music builds brand perception, creates an atmosphere, influences guest behaviour, attracts & prolongs guest visits, increases staff productivity, and boosts staff morale. Who wouldn’t want all of that!?

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Is Your Restaurant Ready for Digital Ordering

Is Your Restaurant Ready for Digital Ordering

Originally Posted on FoodableTV by Doug Radkey – 09/15/2017

Nearly every household orders food to-go from a local restaurant at least once or twice per month (some per week) and the days of traditional ‘phone orders’ or simply waiting in line, are clearly coming to an end thanks to new and continuously improving technology.

Many independent restaurants have been sitting back, watching the development of online/mobile ordering, also known as digital ordering, wondering if they need to get into this space and/or how to even get started.

The question shouldn’t be ‘should we introduce digital ordering?’— the question should be ‘when will we introduce digital ordering?’

The answer to that question should be: As soon as possible, BUT only when your operations are ready for it and you won’t be undermining any restaurant fundamentals throughout the process.

If you haven’t implemented digital ordering yet, don’t freak out!

It’s obvious you didn’t open a restaurant because you love technology. You opened one because you love food, drink, and serving a community through the development of customer experiences.

There are numerous benefits, however, to offering digital ordering methods to your guests. The good thing is that technology (or apps) currently on the market (for example, Gloria Foods) have made it extremely simple and cost effective to introduce this new feature while improving on customer experiences.

To sum it up, independent restaurateurs no longer need an IT department or professional to get started— the hard work is already done for you!

If you’re on the fence about the how, why, and when of digital ordering for your establishment, consider the following tips to see if it’s the right fit for you.

Improves Efficiencies – Digital ordering will not tie-up phone lines or require staff to stand around taking manual orders.  This will allow staff to be more productive in terms of food preparation and other customer service requirements, especially if the ordering method is tied right into the point-of-sale system. This will undoubtedly and effectively control labour costs while improving communication amongst your team and your customers.  Speaking of preparation, digital ordering methods often allow customers to ‘pre-order’ hours ahead of time, allowing the kitchen more time to prep, just like traditional table reservations would for a full-service restaurant.

Improves Quality Control – Digital ordering will also reduce human error often associated with phone or counter orders (due to background noise, customer accents, or simple misunderstanding), resulting in higher customer satisfaction rates and often quicker customer return rates.

Improves Mobile Presence – With digital ordering, you instantly have a mobile app while improving your mobile and online presence, which then improves your SEO, marketing, and overall customer satisfaction. Use this updated technology to ensure your website, social media, and online efforts work FOR you, not against you.

Improves Competitive Advantage – You’re not alone when it comes to not having online ordering methods implemented. It is likely true, many of your hyper-local competitors are ‘behind,’ as well. This means that introducing this technology will give you an immediate advantage while also positioning you to compete at a higher level with the larger mainstream brands in your area.

Improves Overall Revenue – When customers are given more time to order and can view all of the different menu options available to them, they tend to spend more money. Digital ordering increases impulse purchases through effective up-selling. Imagine what adding even just $2-$4 could mean to your bottom line!

Improves Marketing Efforts – Lastly, digital ordering collects data that is highly beneficial. Many of the applications offer ways to track previous orders, create customized profiles to predict sales, and understand which neighbourhoods are buying and which ones are not. It also provides an avenue to improve social media efforts by driving sales directly through these platforms.

Introducing digital ordering methods can, however, come with their challenges for operators and these challenges are not necessarily technology driven. Here are some to consider.

Menu Setup – It must be easy for customers to navigate your menu. If there are customizable dishes (for example, a hamburger), it must be very easy for customers to decide which toppings they want and don’t want. In addition, typical food sensitivities or allergy alerts need to be clearly visible to the customer on your digital application. The solution is to keep your menu simple.

Delivery Options – With digital ordering as an option, the expectation of delivery often presents itself to your customer. It’s not mandatory, but something to consider as an operator. Delivery can create more immediate questions than answers, though, as one needs to decide on using either a delivery app company or hiring their own set of drivers. This, then, poses insurance questions and another potential increase in costs. Delivery can be expensive and difficult to ensure food is delivered as advertised— meaning your style of to-go packaging will need to also be reviewed for quality assurance.

Venue Layouts – With an increase in digital orders or to-go orders, in general, a restaurant’s layout may need to be adjusted. This could mean less tables and larger pick-up areas. It could also mean aligning kitchen equipment differently and even creating specified digital ordering pickup parking spaces to ensure these customers are in and out, as quickly as possible.

The entire premise of digital ordering is to simplify the ordering sequence, for both the restaurant and the customer. If you cannot promise a high level of customer satisfaction, then you’re not ready.

Don’t start to offer digital ordering just because others are offering it.

It needs to be thought through and planned for long before it’s launched. In summary, customers must enjoy the digital ordering experience just as much as the food they’re ordering.

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7 Ways You Can Increase Your Restaurant Brand’s Social Responsibility

7 Ways You Can Increase Your Restaurant Brand’s Social Responsibility

Originally Posted on FoodableTV by Doug Radkey – 08/30/17

Giving back to the communities we serve is not a mandated practice, but is rather something extra that restaurants, and businesses alike, can do to improve their local and national communities.

This is also known as— social responsibility.

This practice can not only increase employee engagement, but also:

  • Develop a positive perception of your brand
  • Increase revenue opportunities; and
  • Increase the possibility of local media coverage

What restaurant wouldn’t want that?

According to the National Restaurant Association, over 90% of restaurants in the U.S. make some form of charitable contribution each year.

What more can be done, you ask?

Let’s take a look!

It can be as simple as what the Taproom on 19th does in Philadelphia. The gastropub in partnership with its neighborhood association, gives out free beer to anyone who donates school supplies and winter coats.   

It can involve a more hands-on approach, like what Joey Restaurants is doing with their Cup of Care program, where their front of house, back of house, and head office leaders volunteer their time to wash, peel, and chop over vegetables for beef and barley soup “To date, JOEY has served 100,000 hot meals across Canada, Seattle and Los Angeles partnering with local shelters and organizations” chosen by their employees in each of their communities.

Or, it can involve improving and educating your own team, like Chick-fil-A has done since 1973 with their scholarship program. This brand has been helping restaurant team members achieve their dreams of higher education. Since then, nearly 36,000 team members have received scholarships from the company, “bringing the total amount to nearly $36 million applied at more than 3,000 schools nationwide” as stated in a 2016 blog post on Chick-fil-A’s The Chicken Wire.

Below are a few items to consider when either starting or revamping your own social responsibility program to deliver a more memorable impact!

1. Make it a Team Based Mission

Part of your vision, should be improving your community. How will you turn your vision into a promise? Your program should be highlighted in your mission statement, so it can be shared with your team and community. Take it a step further and set up SMART goals for your program to hold a level of accountability. How much time and/or financial resources do you want to work towards and give back each quarter or year?

2. Reflecting On Your Values

Hopefully you’ve taken the time to define your importance, worth and usefulness within your restaurants statements. If you’ve hired and built your team based on both values and experience, your team should have a common goal of wanting to give back. Get them involved in your social program and have them open up about causes they really care about, as well.

3. Environmental Impact

Is there a way your restaurant can build on sustainability? What energy efficient measures can you put in place at your venue(s) and how can you source more ethical food and beverage products to reduce your environmental footprint?  You can also help the environment out by donating used equipment to nonprofits when it’s time to upgrade (instead of disposing them at your local landfill). What kind of impact do you want your brand to leave behind?

4. Local Events

Restaurants pose an easy and enormous opportunity to sponsor local events or teams, or by donating a percentage of revenues to a local benefit event or organization. With a large seating area, a restaurant can also host a fundraising day or night at the restaurant itself. Restaurateurs can also look to support local military and first responders with dining discounts or donations to their equally important charity programs.

5. Team Building

Your restaurant could also take the approach to improve the long-term wellbeing of your team, through a scholarship or further-education program. This could be additional culinary, management, or mixology education scholarships for example, that will improve your operations, both now and in the future. Speaking of team building, giving back often leads to a more positive work environment and increase in staff retention, plus an increase in creativity and personal growth while promoting individual philanthropy.

6. Disaster Relief

When disaster strikes, restaurants are often in a position to lend a helping hand, either locally, nationally, or globally. Whether it is a tornado, earthquake, hurricane, or other life altering event, restaurants can become hubs for financial donations in addition to ‘match funding’ programs – or even the delivery of food or chefs right to the front-lines.

7. Poverty Assistance

This is an unfortunate aspect of nearly every community. Restaurants are given the opportunity to help the less fortunate through a variety of methods, including volunteer participation, hosting a neighborhood cookout, or by hosting food drives benefiting the local food bank, just to name a few.

As much as a restaurant brands should be taking part in social responsibility for the sole betterment of their community, you should want your program to also improve your image, increase media coverage, develop engagement, and attract investors.

Make sure your program is visible on your website, within the four walls of your establishment, and throughout your social media channels to maximize its reach and potential.

Make it a win-win for everyone!

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