Whenever we decide to run an e-mail marketing campaign, we tend to agonize over the content and how to maximize our results. The first objective should always be, what are the results I’m trying to achieve with the campaign? Who am I targeting? These are critical questions that must be answered before you can ever hope to have a successful e-mail marketing campaign.

My wife and I own a Prime Steak House and due to the economic times have had to reposition our dinner menu, we now offer an eight item menu of dinners priced twenty-one to twenty-eight dollars and each entree includes two sides. This is a major shift from our initial a la carte menu we offered when we first opened. The word on the street is that we are a pricey restaurant and to avoid unless you bring your checkbook, or are celebrating a special occasion. Our goal is to re-educate our customers through our new menu and multiple advertising campaigns. We recently ran a campaign where we sent an offer to our top two thousand rewards customers, the offer was a buy one, get one free. The offer was for our new menu items only. The results were fantastic and I honestly feel we are on the right track towards re-educating our clientele. Direct marketing through the mail is a great way to get your message out; it brings in the best results, although the price can be prohibitive.

We are now assembling an e-mail campaign to try and expedite the process and start a viral marketing campaign. The results we are trying to achieve are to bring in all the rewards customers we have that have never visited our Steak House. We own two other restaurants that are casual and upscale casual, in total our three restaurants have over twenty three thousand rewards customers. Our goal is to tap into this massive database and make it work for us, driving in as much new business and first timers as possible, including friends and family of our rewards members.

In the past, this type of campaign would have been too costly to direct advertise to our entire database. The key is to make sure when you capture your customer’s information; you get their e-mail address. We have over ten thousand current e-mail addresses. Our objective is to take these ten thousand plus addresses and leverage them. We are going to send out an offer to our rewards customers, thanking them for their patronage during this awful summer weather we’re having and let them know the weather might keep away the tourists; but thankfully our faithful members never let us down. It is for this reason we will give every member an offer to come in and dine with us and receive the second entrée half off. We will then give our members the ability to forward this e-mail to their friends and family. If every one forwarded this e-mail to two to four friends, the results would be staggering. I’ve never launched a campaign of this magnitude; I think the potential results could push our summer business over last years. In this economy, if you can grow your business, you’re in the minority. Our goal is to maintain our relationship with our customers and create a win/win situation where everyone benefits.

Communication is the key to marketing, leveraging your database in a viral marketing campaign can unlock the results you’ve only dreamed of. What are you waiting for, put your database to work for you today. One last thing, if you unleash this potential onslaught, you’d better be staffed and be ready to handle the business. The last thing you want to do is have the results turn into a negative.

Richard Varano
Restaurant Masterminds

The multiple award-winning Restaurant Manager’s Handbook is the best-selling book on running a successful food service. Now in the fourth completely revised edition, nine new chapters detail restaurant layout, new equipment, principles for creating a safer work environment, and new effective techniques to interview, hire, train, and manage employees. We provide a new chapter on tips and IRS regulations as well as guidance for improved management, new methods to increase your bottom line by expanding the restaurant to include on- and off-premise catering operations. We’ve added new chapters offering food nutrition guidelines and proper employee training.

• Click here for The Restaurant Manager’s Handbook

The Fourth Edition of the Restaurant Manager’s Handbook is an invaluable asset to any existing restaurant owner or manager as well as anyone considering a career in restaurant management or ownership. All existing chapters have new and updated information. This includes extensive material on how to prepare a restaurant for a potential sale. There is even an expanded section on franchising.

You will find many additional tips to help restaurant owners and managers learn to handle labor and operational expenses, rework menus, earn more from better bar management, and introduce up-scale wines and specialties for profit. You will discover an expanded section on restaurant marketing and promotion plus revised accounting and budgeting tips. This new edition includes photos and information from leading food service manufacturers to enhance the text.

This new, comprehensive 800-page book will show you step-by-step how to set up, operate, and manage a financially successful food service operation. The author has taken the risk out of running a restaurant business. Operators in the non-commercial segment as well as caterers—and really anyone in the food service industry—will rely on this book in everyday operations. Its 28 chapters cover the entire process of a restaurant start-up and ongoing management in an easy-to-understand way, pointing out methods to increase your chances of success and showing how to avoid the many mistakes arising from being uninformed and inexperienced that can doom a restaurateur’s start-up. The new companion CD-ROM contains all the forms demonstrated in the book for easy use in a PDF format.

While providing detailed instruction and examples, the author leads you through finding a location that will bring success, learning how to draw up a winning business plan, how to buy and sell a restaurant, how to franchise, and how to set up basic cost-control systems. You will have at your fingertips profitable menu planning, sample restaurant floor plans and diagrams, successful kitchen management, equipment layout and planning, food safety, Hazardous and Critical Control Point (HACCP) information, and successful beverage management.

Learn how to set up computer systems to save time and money and get brand new IRS tip-reporting requirements, accounting and bookkeeping procedures, auditing, successful budgeting and profit planning development. You will be able to generate high profile public relations and publicity, initiate low cost internal marketing ideas, and low- and no-cost ways to satisfy customers and build sales. You will learn how to keep bringing customers back, how to hire and keep a qualified professional staff, manage and train employees as well as accessing thousands of great tips and useful guidelines.

This Restaurant Manager’s Handbook covers everything that many consultants charge thousands of dollars to provide. The extensive resource guide details more than 7,000 suppliers to the industry—virtually a separate book on its own.

• Click here for The Restaurant Manager’s Handbook

This reference book is essential for professionals in the hospitality field as well as newcomers who may be looking for answers to cost-containment and training issues. Demonstrated are literally hundreds of innovative ways to streamline your restaurant business. Learn new ways to make the kitchen, bars, dining room, and front office run smoother and increase performance. You will be able to shut down waste, reduce costs, and increase profits. In addition, operators will appreciate this valuable resource and reference in their daily activities and as a source of ready-to-use forms, Web sites, operating and cost cutting ideas, and mathematical formulas that can be easily applied to their operations.

Anthony Bourdain has been away from Brasserie Les Halles, where he last worked as a chef nearly a decade ago. Given the opportunity to spend another day on the job; he re-evaluates his skills in the kitchen, his love of New York and his life as a chef.
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 There are two ways to approach a downturn in the economy. The first is the “Chicken Little” approach — running around saying “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” Unemployment is up, disposable income is down, and the public’s ability to spend has decreased. While all of this may be true, wallowing in depression about it is not going to increase your sales. Negative thinking often leads to the cocoon effect, where you decide to circle the wagons, cut back on everything you can (especially advertising), and just hope you can survive the storm.

• Restaurant Marketing Secrets

While a lagging economy can offer a great excuse for a downturn in sales, you still have to ask the hard questions about why you’re not growing. During these tough times, I’ve seen similar units in the same town experience opposite results. One is enjoying double digit growth, while another watches the losses mount – same region, same weak economy. The difference is in the drive and the motivation of the manager to make sales happen. There truly is something to be said about the power of positive thinking, when it’s backed up with a lot of hard work!

To get your momentum moving in the positive direction, keep repeating the mantra, “They still have to eat.” Whether they’re rich or poor, they still have to eat. Whether they’re on the job or at home collecting unemployment, they still have to eat. And they still want the convenience of having someone else do the meal preparation that they’ve come to expect. They may not eat out as often, but the choices are still being made, and you just want to make sure they make you their number one choice. And during a slowdown when others are cutting back and waiting for better times, you have an opportunity to reach their market and increase your customer base! It all depends on creative marketing

There are so many different ways to market, but in a down economy just placing an ad in the local newspaper is not going to get the job done. Creative marketing focuses on driving customers through your doors. It offers an element of interactivity. It gets your customers involved.

If you need some new ideas to jumpstart your marketing, you need Restaurant Marketing Secrets!

Without a health inspection, your restaurant could fall victim to a foodborne-illness outbreak that could ruin your establishment’s reputation and even force you to close your doors.

Section 1: What to Do Before an Inspector Visits

The proper strategy for a successful health inspection is to be ready for an examination at any time. This means that you and your managers should become inspectors and conduct weekly, in-house examinations before health inspectors arrive.

• When conducting a self-assessment, you should use the same form-or a similar form-that your health department uses and put yourself in the health inspector’s place.

• Your self-inspection should include walking into your establishment from the outside to get an outsider’s impression.

• After you inspect your operation, hold a 10-minute briefing with kitchen staff to review any problems. This step will help convey the importance of food safety to staff members.

• If your staff includes employees for whom English is a second language, ask a bilingual employee to translate the findings to them so they also understand how important cleanliness is to the success of your restaurant.

• Your self-inspection priorities for kitchen employees should include: food temperature, awareness of food types and hand washing.

• Temperature guidelines include checking the temperature of products when they arrive, when they are stored and when they are served. Doing this will reduce foodborne-illness outbreaks by 70 percent.

• Food-type guidelines are divided into three categories: beef and beef blood; chicken; and all other types of food. These three categories can never touch each other during preparation.

• The importance of hand washing should be re-enforced by posting signs at all kitchen sinks and in employee restrooms.

• Train your managers to ensure that they are up-to-date on the latest food-safety techniques. Restaurant employees can use the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ServSafe food-safety training program.

• Review your local health code for any special, local requirements.

• Another way to influence the outcome of your health inspection is to get involved politically. Join your state’s health-code-revision committee to give a restaurateur’s perspective. Involve senior staff on such committees as well.

Now that you have prepared for the examination, you need to know what to do when a health inspector arrives. Be warned that examiners usually arrive unannounced, so you’ll want to be ready on any occasion, even during a rush.

Section 2: What to Do When a Health Inspector Visits

Don’t panic when an inspector arrives. Think of this as a learning opportunity that will benefit your operation by making it as safe as possible.

To make an inspection as pain-free as possible, you should:

• Ask to see the inspector’s credentials first. In some cases, people have tried to pass themselves off as health officials. If you’re unsure of the person’s credentials, call the local health department or the inspector’s supervisor for verification.

• Do not refuse an inspection. The examiner will likely get an inspection warrant that you can’t refuse and the examination will be even more thorough.

• Tag along with the inspector and take notes of any violations he or she finds. This gives you the chance to correct simple problems on the spot and the examiner will note your willingness to fix problems.

• Refrain from offering any food or any other item that can be misconstrued as an attempt to influence the inspector’s findings.

• After the exam, be sure to sign the inspector’s report. Signing it doesn’t mean that you agree to the findings; it only means that you received a copy of the report.

• Ask the inspector to explain his findings to your staff and offer suggestions on areas that need improvement. Even the cleanest restaurants sometimes contain health-code violations.

Section 3: What You Can Do if You Are Cited

Here’s what you can do to limit the damage of an adverse health inspection:

• Fix small problems during the inspection to let the examiner know you are willing to work with him or her.

• If you don’t understand the violation, ask the health official to explain. Don’t be confrontational.

• If you disagree with the inspector’s findings, keep quiet for the time being and appeal the decision later. Your health inspector should be your ally. He or she can improve the quality of your cuisine and save you from the devastation of a foodborne-illness incident.

Additional resources: The National Restaurant Association and its Education Foundation offer a variety of courses to improve food safety in your restaurant, including:

• ServSafe, a food-safety certification program;

• A Practical Approach to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles; and

• Unit-level employee-awareness materials. For more information, visit http://www.nraef.org.

As a young operator, I always hated complaints. Complaints often seemed like a personal affront. I tried very hard to make it right for my guests and when they complained, it felt like a knife in the heart. I always wanted to sit them down and set them straight about what it really takes to run a restaurant!

• Restaurant Basics: Why Guests Don’t Come Back…and What You Can Do About It

Complaints disrupted the daily routine. When a complaint came in, it meant that I was going to lose productive time to investigate, ask questions and write letters. If it was a complaint that someone made in person, I would have to drop everything else to deal with this person and since I was already pushed to my limit, complaints were intrusions.

Complaints also always seemed to throw me off track, sometimes for days. I would be depressed when we dropped the ball in an area where we should have known better. Often I would start questioning whether or not I knew what I was doing. I looked at my staff with suspicion. I know I was far more critical for awhile, both of my staff and myself. The service lapses hurt . . . and those were only the ones I found out about!

Why are complaints important?

Based on a survey by the National Retail Merchants Association, 14% of the people who stop patronizing a business do so because they had a complaint that was not handled well. That is a lot of business to give away due to lack of skill and understanding when it comes to dealing with guest complaints.

If people would tell you when things are not right, that would make it a lot easier but every complaining guest could represent 24 other diners who had the same problem and chose not to tell you about it. Worse than that, a complaining guest will tell 8-10 people about their problem. One in five will tell twenty. (One in a hundred will probably tell a thousand, but that is another story.) If you run the numbers, you can calculate that the cost of losing a single $50-a-year guest could exceed $50,000 over five years!

If you grasp the significance of these statistics, you can see the potential income you have at risk if complaints are not properly handled. If you grasp the significance of these statistics, you can see the need to get aggressive about identifying and solving any potential difficulties before your guests even become aware of them.

The Positive Side of Complaints

We tend to think of complaints as bad news. While nobody likes to get a complaint, there is a lot to be gained from them. Here are a few of the positive aspects:

Demanding guests force you to be your best. It is easy to get complacent and let down on your standards. The demanding guest keeps you honest by telling you every time your attention wanders or your standards slip. They are always right (at least from their perspective) and they do not let anything slip past them.

Admittedly, demanding guests can drive you crazy sometimes. But pleasing them is the only reason your restaurant exists and they are in the best position to tell you how you are doing at it! Your guests will always see things that you will never notice. Rather than driving off demanding guests, I suggest you seek them out and use them like an in-house shopping service (but more on that at another time.)

Every complaint is an insight into how to make your business better. Every problem has a gift for you in its hands. People go out to eat expecting to have a good time. They want it to be great. Since you are in business to make sure that your guests are happy, the comments and suggestions they give are invaluable research into how to do your primary job better. This is where the gold is. Even if a complaint is entirely off the wall, there is still a nugget of truth in there somewhere. If you can dig it out, you can profit from it.

Guests are more likely to complain if they think you care and listen. If you don’t want to hear it, nobody will bother to tell you. The more interested you are in the truth of your guests’ experience and the more receptive you are to suggestions on how you can do better, the greater the chances you will get the feedback. Some will be good news, some will be bad news, but it is all news that will help you prosper. I acknowledge that being this open requires a degree of vulnerability that many operators find uncomfortable, but if you have a problem and do not identify it quickly, it will cost you a lot of money. It could even cost you your restaurant! Now that is uncomfortable!

Resolving complaints satisfactorily increases guest loyalty. Statistics suggest that if someone has a complaint that is handled well, they are more loyal than if they never had a complaint at all. I do not mean to suggest that you make mistakes just so you can fix them – there are plenty of errors that will happen without any special effort! Perhaps it is because handling a complaint well is a personal statement of caring that establishes more of a personal connection between the guest and the restaurant, but complaining guests can often become your most loyal patrons.

Most complaining guests care about you. If people did not care, they would not take the time to let you know when you have a problem – they would just never return. Most complaints, particularly written ones, are cries for help that are really saying things like these: “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” or “My feelings have been hurt by an old friend” or “You probably didn’t know about this, but . . .”

General Rules for Handling Complaints

I think every manager should have the following message posted prominently in both the office and staff areas:

Stamp out inconveniences before they become irritations.
Stamp out irritations before they become complaints.
Stamp out complaints before they become problems.
Stamp out problems before they become crises.

Complaints, unlike fine wine, do not improve with age. A minor inconvenience can become a full-blown crisis (at least to the guest) if left unattended.

The most common mistake in handling complaints is getting defensive and wanting to explain. It never helps and almost always makes things worse. Handling a complaint well is not about determining who is right and who is wrong. It is about saving a disappointed guest and retaining the business you would lose by alienating them.

Statistically, seven out of ten complaining guests will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. My suggestion is that there is no way to resolve a complaint other than in favor of the guest.

Another interesting statistic is that if you resolve a complaint on the spot, 95% of complaining guests will do business with you again. The only people on the spot are typically your service staff. If you need a case to give your crew the authority to do what they have to do at the table at the time, this is the case – 95% retention vs. 70% retention.

Goals when handling complaints

It helps to remember that you only have two goals when handling a complaint: Your first goal is to calm the complainer so they will not bad-mouth you to others. Virtually all of your loss comes from the people that a disgruntled guest influences. For example, of the $50,000+ we calculated that it cost when you lose a guest, all but $250 of that came from people other than the person involved.

Your second goal is to get the complaining guest back as a patron if you can. If you can’t get them back, you at least want to make sure they don’t go out and do you any damage. These are your only two goals – do not get confused by thinking there is a winner and a loser.

When handling complaints there is only win-win or lose-lose. If you can resolve the problem successfully, the guest will come back and you both will win. If the problem is not handled well, the guest will never come back and you both lose.

Bill Marvin, The Restaurant Doctor™
http://www.RestaurantDoctor.com

All too often we hear managers say things along the lines of “My store would be successful, if it weren’t for . . . “.

These managers can give you a long list of reasons for their operation’s poor performance, but offer very little in the way of solutions. To them, there is always some other reason “out there” that holds them back.

• Secrets of Effective Leadership: A Practical Guide to Success

What they fail to understand, or chose to ignore, is that they are the ones who are responsible for producing results. Even worse, there are some of them who do realize this, but are uniquely skilled in playing “the blame game” in order to draw attention away from the fact that they aren’t effective leaders.

Stop for a moment and honestly consider your current situation.

When your food cost runs out of standard, is it your employees fault or is it your own?

When your sales drop, is it because your prices are too high, or have you been neglecting your service program?

When your employee turnover skyrockets, is it because you can’t find good help or is it because you haven’t been following through with your team building responsibilities?

As manager, do you play the part of the “victim” when P&L time rolls around, or do you stand up and hold yourself accountable?

The restaurant industry is filled with managers who make excuses for their performance, but the successful managers are those who won’t tolerate that behavior in themselves.

Why?

Because they have a strong sense of responsibility, not just to their company, but to themselves!

Because they have an overwhelming sense of pride . . . not just in themselves . . . but in the results they produce.

Because they have a have a deep desire to bring about success . . . not just for the company they work for . . . but for themselves.

Accepting personal accountability doesn’t mean that you will always be successful, but it does provide you with the tools necessary for future success. It enables you to evaluate you own performance and actions and say, “Hey, I messed up but I’ve learned something from it, and I won’t make the same mistakes again.”

To bring it all to the bottom line:

Excuses may sound good, but they never make you a profit!

(c) Troy Brackett, RestaurantNews.com

There’s no question about it: If you own a restaurant, you want repeat business. Consistently serving good food and providing excellent service is a huge part of fostering customer loyalty. However, it never hurts to stay in touch with your customers and remind them to come back. E-mail marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to do just that.

Larkin’s on the River
Constant Contact Restaurant Success Story

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Consider this: A study in 2009 by Direct Marketing Association found that every dollar spent on e-mail marketing yielded a $43.62 profit. No other form of direct marketing they included in their study performed this well, not even direct mail catalogs.

People have become so accustomed to most forms of advertising that they’ve learned to tune them out. In some cases, the ads aren’t reaching them at all. Devices like Tivo, for example, filter out commercials so they can watch their favorite TV shows without interruption. Direct mail often ends up in the trash before it even gets opened. Telemarketing has been crippled by the National Do-Not-Call Registry. But nearly everyone is online now, and personalized e-mails are getting their attention.

If you make a point of collecting your customers’ e-mail addresses, you can easily invite them back for a free slice of cake on their birthday. You can also send coupons, tell them about something new you’ve added to the menu, offer your catering services, and let them know about special deals. You could dress up your e-mails with eye-popping pictures of your most delicious entrees. Maybe your customers weren’t even thinking about going out to eat before they received your e-mail, but now that you’ve reminded them of your fine cuisine and made them hungry, there’s a good chance they’ll show up at your restaurant for dinner.

It gets even better: E-mail marketing is much cheaper than direct mail. Let’s compare: At 28 cents a pop, mailing postcards to 500 addresses would run you $140. That’s not even including the expense of having them designed and printed. But how much would it cost to contact those same 500 people via e-mail? Using the tools of an e-mail marketing service such as Constant Contact, it could be as little as $15 a month.

In short, keeping in touch with your customers through e-mail is powerfully effective and costs very little. If you’ve been searching for a way to dramatically increase your restaurant’s business without breaking your budget, you don’t need to look any further than e-mail marketing.

Having your own restaurant is one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable business ventures. Food is a renewable commodity. This means that people won’t stop looking for different sources of food because dining out is entertaining as well as functional.

Every business needs a business plan. Business plans are meant to lay down the different conditions and characteristics that should be inherent in the business. The availability of a good business plan which has been carefully formulated is a step towards success. You will find information about creating a business plan in an upcoming chapter, however, some points to consider are:

• Crystal clear description of the concept of the restaurant

The objective and the general description of the concept of the restaurant need to be specific. This will give a general overview of what the restaurant intends to do and for whom it intends to do it. The concept of the restaurant needs to be established because it is the core idea by which everything else will follow.

There are many things to be considered in designing the overall concept of the restaurant (excluding food) such as:

- What type of restaurant do you want?
- What special features would it have which would set it aside from all the other similar restaurants in town?
- What’s the overall selling factor of the restaurant?

• Ownership

An enthusiast may consider creating a small corporation or a partnership or a single proprietorship to be able to give the restaurant a legal entity. You should check the local requirements for creating such institutions

• Target market

The restaurant’s target market needs to be identified. No single restaurant should try to aim at targeting all kinds of people. Even fast food restaurants have a specific target market, even though it may seem at first that it caters to people of all walks of life.

The concept of the restaurant needs to be aligned with the target market. The target market will depend on the owner of the restaurant, and the selection can be based on the type of food or even the personal preference of the owner.

• Food category, food items and their prices

Before starting a restaurant or even before entertaining the thought of opening up a restaurant, the kind of food to be served is usually identified first.

Most owners put up restaurants according to their favorite kind of food. There are also restaurants which are inspired by one-time experiences such as eating excellent foreign foods.

There are many choices that are available for aspiring restaurant owners. The details of the food category should be identified next. The specific items in the menu should also be identified. Of course, the pricing of these items is very important for it will determine the feasibility of the business.

• Financial evaluation

After the prices of the food items have been determined, it’s time to develop the financials of the project. You can hire a professional consultant in determining the financial viability of the restaurant. All the project costs and risks should be included in the business plan.

• Marketing plan

Include a marketing plan because it is integral to the success of the restaurant.

Ray Freeman is the author of How To Start A Restaurant Business Following A Profitable System.

When was the last time you held a really world class staff meeting? I’m talking about a gathering that was so enjoyable and productive that people left more energized than when they arrived! Did you even realize that such a meeting was possible?

If the idea of a truly invigorating staff meeting seems foreign to your experience, you are not alone. The sad fact is that most staff meetings . . . aren’t! In practice, those gatherings we call staff meetings are typically little more than management sermons. Worse yet, they are often presented in a distracted, condescending manner that causes the crew to roll back their eyes, shut down their brains and experience a serious drop in energy. No wonder everybody dreads them.

A truly effective staff meeting is more about reaching a meeting of the minds than simply accomplishing a gathering of the bodies and our old models just don’t work. If you are willing to take a different approach to staff meetings, they can help you head off emergencies before they arise, reduce the number of problems that require your attention, lower your turnover and generally help create a smoother-running, more profitable operation. For the purposes of this article, I am talking about pre-shift meetings as distinguished from more formal sessions devoted exclusively to skill training. At any rate, forget everything you ever knew about staff meetings and let’s take a fresh look:

Goals

The primary purpose of staff meetings should be to create a positive feeling in the group. This may sound strange until you realize that a positive feeling helps people naturally recognize what they have in common. When the feeling in the group is warm and supportive, it is easier to see that everyone is in it together and the success of the group is inseparable from the success of each individual. Without a good feeling, people tend to stay focused on their differences. This close feeling is more likely to result from an appreciative sharing of the good news – and there is usually quite a bit when you look for it. Staff meetings are not the time to address individual shortcomings – that should be done one-on-one in private – and they are certainly not an appropriate time to dwell on group failings.

From a supportive feeling, staff meetings will naturally lead to the second goal – opening a dialogue. A dialogue is a comfortable two-way flow of ideas that leaves all the participants feeling connected and important. The staff can learn from you and you can learn from them. With this sort of rapport, your meetings naturally tend to instill understanding rather than simply passing along knowledge. The difference is significant because understanding “sticks” where information is soon forgotten. Additionally, the flow of ideas back to management helps eliminate the “them and us” mentality and helps your staff feel that it is also their restaurant. By bringing your staff into the loop – by soliciting, considering and valuing their ideas – staff meetings can help establish and enhance the feeling of teamwork in the operation. This is likely to result in improved guest service, productivity and profitability.

The third objective of effective staff meetings is training. Properly conducted staff meetings are a forum for continuous improvement. Even if you have a structured training program, good operators never miss a chance to pass along a few more hints and this is a perfect opportunity to do it. If you don’t train, you deliver one of two messages: either that you are getting exactly the results you want and you can’t possibly get any better or that any ninny can instinctively be successful in the foodservice business without training. I doubt that either case is true. As the founder of a successful midwest restaurant so wisely told me, “My training program is the only thing that makes this my restaurant. If I didn’t train, I’d only be a caretaker for the bank and not an owner!”

Considerations

When you decide to get serious about staff meetings, it is critical that you commit to holding them on a regular basis – ideally before every shift every day – no matter what is going on that day. When meetings are held sporadically or are frequently cancelled because of other pressures (and there are always other pressures), it tells your staff the true importance you give these meetings. If staff meetings are not important to you, they will certainly not be important to your crew.

Ideally, pre-shift meetings should last ten or fifteen minutes. Any shorter and you don’t have enough time to get anything done; any longer and you may start to lose people’s attention. Pick a specific meeting length and stick with it. Make a commitment to start and end precisely on time. Bear in mind that while your service staff may be getting paid during the meeting, they are not receiving tips and it is disrespectful to take advantage of their time. Remember, too, that pre-shift meetings are just as essential for the kitchen staff as for the servers. Daily tasting of specials and new menu items are also important, but it is the type of activity that can easily be handled between the kitchen and service staffs outside of the pre-shift meeting and without the direction of management.

Mindset

The factor that most determines whether or not a staff meeting will be effective is the thinking of the manager or supervisor conducting it. Think about it. Do you approach your job like a cop, finding and correcting mistakes or do you define your job as a coach, identifying and building on inherent strengths? Do you see your staff as bunch of goof-offs looking for a free ride or as a group of intelligent adults who want to do the best job they can? Do you think that management has to have all the answers or do you view your role as helping your crew discover the answers for themselves? What you see is what you get. Recognize that true learning comes from the inside out rather than from the outside in. When you have your own head in the right place, you can finally start to conduct staff meetings that will build confidence and involvement in your staff.

Now that you understand that it is possible to hold energixing staff meetings, you may be anxious to get started. To help you get things rolling, here is a suggested format for a 10-15 minute pre-shift meeting:

Good News (1-2 minutes)

The purpose here is to recognize what is working and set a positive tone for the meeting. You can talk about progress made toward a particular goal, share a success story about one of the staff or read a complimentary letter from a guest. Everybody likes to hear good news and it will help establish a warm feeling for the rest of the session, particularly when delivered with a feeling of sincere gratitude.NEWS OF THE DAY (2-3 minutes)

In this segment you might talk briefly about what is coming up on this shift and in the near future. You could mention special parties or promotions in effect. You could use it to outline your not-on-the-menu items (specials) for the day. The important thing is that you be very focused and very brief. Don’t get lost in this part of the program or you run the risk of sermonizing and that can kill the mood.

Staff Comments (5 minutes)

This is when you open the floor to the crew. It is the most important part of the meeting because it is when you can really find out what is happening and what is on people’s minds. The critical skill is to listen without judging the comments you receive. Let yourself be really stupid for awhile. Listen with curiosity. Try to avoid preconceived notions about what people might be saying and be cautious about injecting your own thoughts into the discussion. This may take some practice but the results will be worth the effort. Your goal is to create a safe environment for people to share their ideas and to learn from each other. This is where that all-important dialogue we discussed in Part 1 really starts.

At first, you may find that people are reluctant to open up. You will soon discover that the quality and quantity of the input you receive will be in direct proportion to how well your staff feels you are listening to what they say – not just hearing the words but really listening to understand the message. Your willingness to consider their ideas will build trust and you will get more and more involvement from your crew as the level of trust in the organization improves.

If your initial efforts to get people talking are greeted with silence, here are a few questions that may prompt some discussion: Who deserves to be thanked or recognized and for what? What is making your job tough? What have you noticed that is improving? What are we doing that we shouldn’t be doing? What aren’t we doing that we should be doing? Where is the system breaking down? What questions came up on your last shift that you couldn’t answer? If this were your restaurant, what would you change about it? You get the idea.

As people are talking, give them your undistracted attention and really LISTEN for the feeling behind their words. You may want to ask if other people see things the same way as the speaker. You may want to ask a clarifying question to be sure you understand but resist the urge to add too many of your own comments. The purpose of this part of the meeting is to get information flowing in your direction so that you can learn from your crew and start to see the operation from their point of view.

In my experience, if you will only ask for comments (and be passionately interested in the answers), your staff will tell you everything you need to know about what it will take to make the operation more efficient. When you have a consensus, seriously consider what you have learned. See if you can take some action based on their ideas because when people see something actually happening because of their input, they will gain hope and tell you even more. This is not management by committee – the final responsibility for action always rests with management. It is, however, an honest acknowledgement that collectively we can usually make better decisions than one person acting alone.

New Information Training (3-5 minutes)

Every gathering is an opportunity to enhance skills. Particularly in the beginning, I suggest you shorten the time allocated to training by the time that the staff comments segment runs long. It is probably more important that you learn from the crew than that they learn from you.

Once they have confidence that there is a forum where their ideas will be heard and considered, your staff will be ready to receive new information. Use this part of the meeting to discuss a single point you want the staff to focus on for that shift, to impart some product knowledge, to share professional tips or to amplify or supplement material from your regular training program. Again, your own focus is important. Cut to the chase and don’t ramble. People will be watching the time and you will build credibility by being direct and finishing on time.

Effective staff meetings are possible. As your skills and credibility improve, you will see that staff meetings can be an easy way to begin creating a feeling of teamwork in your organization. The exciting part is that they will also let you tap the inherent talents of your staff which will, in turn, help the manager’s role evolve into one that is more enjoyable and less stressful.

Bill Marvin, The Restaurant Doctor™
http://www.RestaurantDoctor.com

The continuous mission for every restaurant owner, even successful ones, is to increase restaurant sales. With so many dining establishments vying for a customers business, effective marketing measures are key ingredients for attracting customer attention, establishing your restaurants identity and enhancing customer loyalty.

Word of mouth is the most cost efficient way to increase restaurant sales. If you present a wonderful dining experience, patrons will naturally refer your restaurant to others. But word of mouth works both ways. Bad reviews often travel faster than positive ones. Thats why its essential to be consistent in providing excellent customer service, quality food and an inviting atmosphere.

While chain restaurants rely on a corporate formula to increase restaurant sales, independent restaurateurs can be more flexible, giving them a greater advantage. One important strategy is getting to know your customers. Theres a reason why clubs, theater groups, business people, or friends who get together weekly only dine at one particular restaurant. Its because the owner greets them by name, knows their dining preferences and is aware of things going on in their lives. These restaurants have created a trusting, family environment that builds customer retention.

Without a doubt, rewarding repeat customers can lead to increased profits. If you know a customer has referred others to your restaurant or consistently brings in a group of business associates, consider giving a gift certificate for a complimentary dinner or providing a free appetizer or bottle of wine for the table. This is a great sales tactic to motivate your good customers to bring in business to your restaurant.

Your staff is an integral part of building sales. Besides providing impeccable customer service, your staff can increase restaurant sales by up-selling to increase the table check. Rather than ask if anyone would like a drink, appetizer or dessert, they should note which ones are house specialties or offer their personal recommendations. They should also promote higher priced dishes with reasons showcasing their value.

A comprehensive advertising and marketing plan is essential in growing and maintaining a profitable restaurant business. Your advertising needs to set your restaurant apart from others and pique a persons interest to try it. Your marketing efforts should be both in-house with promotions and in the community. Have a presence at community events within your service area, network with business and trade groups, or get involved with a charity that is of interest to you. The more visibility you can give your restaurant, the greater your market reach.

Using the Internet to increase profitability is a must. Your restaurants website should be as interactive as possible, allowing people to make reservations, see current specials and easily get directions. Have a presence on social media sites, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Incentives take on many forms, but all have shown to increase restaurant sales. Some examples of common incentives are discounts, coupons, punch cards, customer loyalty programs, business card drawings, promotions and special events. You might want to try a combination of incentives to enhance business.

Jose Riesco worked in the IT industry for 18 years and owned a restaurant. Jose has brought top proven marketing practices to the restaurant industry, making a unique contribution to this business. By creating a unique client-centric Strategy, restaurateurs will be able to dramatically increase their sales while having happy and repeated clients. To find more about his Restaurant Marketing Strategies visit: MyRestaurantMarketing.com

 Plan your shifts ahead of time

How many managers do you know that have no idea who is on their schedule before that shift actually arrives? These are the same managers who are never prepared for the possibility of being under or over staffed. Likewise, they never set shift goals, Things To Do, or training focuses. They are, however, the same managers who will complain the next day about the tough shift they had.

Assume shift responsibility

One problem that many managers have is the fact that they seem to take forever to assume responsibility or their shifts. They may arrive on time, but they have to first enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee, maybe a smoke or two, and even catch up on the latest store gossip. Some may even wait for the previous manager to leave before accepting shift responsibility.

Arriving a good 15 to 30 minutes early for a shift is more important than they realize. Instead of going for that first cup of coffee, they should be doing an initial brief walk-through, greeting members of their team and making notes for the shift.

Set the mood for the shift

One of the most under utilized methods of setting the mood for a shift is something as simple as a One Minute Team Meeting. It doesn’t take but a moment to pull your staff together (either as a whole, or if a larger operation, by departments) and communicate your goals with a positive mental attitude.

Great phrases include:

“We’re going to have a good time tonight!”

“We’re going to make our customers happy today, and here’s how… “

“We’re going to be out one hour after closing tonight, and here’s how we’re going to do it… “

Of course, you can always set other moods for your shift.

A mood of indifference can be set by not really making an effort to communicate with your staff at all. Likewise, a mood of tension can be set by going all out in your efforts to let everyone know that you’re a hard-nosed jerk of a boss, and that you’re on the warpath.

Part of your job is knowing how to create an atmosphere of excitement. Teams that are excited about what they are doing produce results.

Get organized

While doing your initial walk-through, take notes as to what your priorities will be for the shift. Check your product and inventory. Review your management log and communicate with the other managers. Use your operation’s systems, whether they be work station charts, party books, a.m./p.m. checklists, Things To Do lists or prep sheets… they are all vital.

Float

There is no place for an office manager in restaurant operations. Be visable by practicing Management By Walking Around, however, don’t get in the way of your staff (some managers confuse the two).

Set high standards. Don’t allow mediocrity. Never walk past a mistake. Use timely feedback. Be results oriented.

Provide Ongoing Training

Too many restaurant managers feel that once an employee’s initial training is over, they’re trained. Operators who have this belief usually have an ulcer to go along with it. Realize that training is an ongoing process and is done with each and every encounter with your staff. You should be able to teach something new to each person.

Leadership

Leadership consists of many things, including everything detailed above. But it also includes encouraging teamwork; giving recognition and appreciation; and setting the example. Don’t be afraid to make a decision. Your response may not always be the proper one to make, but at least you didn’t allow the decision to be made for you through inaction. It is much easier to lead someone than it is to push them.