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Newsletter Archives
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E-Mail Newsletter
**** Issue #181 **** August 1, 2005 In This Issue
* Question of the Week: First Year Anniversary Ideas ****Please forward this issue to friends and
colleagues in the restaurant business**** ****You can appear in the next issue of the newsletter. Write in with comments/questions. Submit an article. Place an ad. Email us...****
EDITOR'S NOTE Thank you to everyone who wrote in with employee contest ideas for Nate's restaurant--you'll see some great ideas later in the issue.
We're still having a technical issue with our e-mail newsletter delivery service which is causing the newsletter to only be sent out in HTML format. Our apologies if you are a text-only subscriber. You may click this link
to view the issue on-line.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY IDEAS We are coming up on the one year anniversary for our restaurant. Any suggestions from folks who have been there before on successful promotion and celebration ideas? Thank you - jaxvol
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NEW @ RESTAURANT REPORT
Marketing 101: Neighborhood Marketing Tactics
Great overview from Ron on the solid marketing tenets that drive the restaurant business. A must-read for all restaurateurs looking to build their sales and profits. (Read more...)
Rick tells the story of finding a client's brand identity. There is a great walk away lesson here for everyone that will help focus on who you are, what you do and why it is important.
(Read more...)
It happens--the proof is out there. Hopefully, such an incident never occurs at your restaurant. Jeremy shares some ways to ensure that it doesn't.
(Read more...)
RANT & RUMBLE EDITORIAL: ASCAP ATTACK - by Bob Bradley "An investigator with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns"... There are organizations out there that I have to believe were created for the sole purpose of making the bar and restaurant business even more difficult than it has to be. ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) might be at the top of this list. Yes, I understand that there are licenses required to run a business, and if you play a song in your establishment, it only stands to reason that the artist and the composer should be compensated. So rather than you sending these talented people a check for using their music to entertain your customers (an obvious administrative nightmare), the good folks from ASCAP will send you an annual bill (license) and you don’t have to worry about paying anyone, except, of course, the good folks at ASCAP. A little old restaurant by the name of Frederick’s in South Philadelphia "forgot" to mail in their $900 to the good people at ASCAP, and according to Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer, they are being hauled into Federal Court for this horrendous crime. The actual details are frightening, so I will only present the basics of the incident that actually happened right in the restaurant and was witnessed by a roomful of dining customers along with an ASCAP investigator. On the evening of October 16, 2004, the aforementioned ASCAP investigator reported hearing a pianist and guitarist performing "That's Amore," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "Embraceable You," "Witchcraft," "That's Life," "Edelweiss," and "Speak Softly Love," popularly known as the theme from The Godfather (it might have been the last song that did it). And now ladies and gentlemen, ASCAP’s complaint seeks at least $750 per song and maybe we can all sleep better at night knowing there are people out there protecting all those talented people who bring us all that wonderful music. Please remember to pay your ASCAP fee because those investigators are out there waiting to get you. At $900 bucks a pop, ASCAP can afford a lot of investigators. Bob Bradley is an editorial contributor to Restaurant Report.
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READER FEEDBACK: EMPLOYEE CONTEST IDEAS Regarding last issue's feature question from Nate about contest ideas for his restaurant.
I have been involved with employee contests in the past. I found them to be exciting and fun. The fact that your contest has to be "big" makes me think that your prizes need to be big. In other words, the incentive needs to be big. Let's hope you have access to some nice prizes. Here is what I suggest: Have an employee meeting discussing the contest so that everyone is filled in with the details. Create a large chart with all the employee's names involved in the contest along the side of the chart, and list the days for the contest at the top of the chart. Make sure the squares are big enough to record both liquor and food sales for each day. You might want to consider dividing the sales by the amount of hours each employee works to make it fair. The ones with the highest average sales win. Having the employees see the daily results will inspire them to work harder to win. Be sure to discuss ways to increase sales. For example, discuss increasing sales with suggestive selling. Employees can strengthen suggestive selling by being able to answer questions off the top of their heads. Example: Some people want to know the price of liquor because most restaurants do not list the prices. Employees should memorize the prices so they don't have to run back to the bar to check. I have had this happen before. That doesn't mean the price will deter the customer from buying the drink. Try selling carafes of drinks by pointing out that it works out to less money per glass. Also, employees should recommend meals that are more expensive if you want to increase your food sales. Your employees will be excited about doing something new. Good luck and enjoy the contest.
Heather L. Koppes
Well, I run contests all the time at the restaurant and for a "really big" one, it's best to get the suppliers involved. They love to come in and reward your staff for selling their product. Distributors have ample budgets and collateral to run these types of promotions and are able to donate product, prizes, or server accessories (wine keys, polo shirts, etc.) to build competition. Just let them know you want to involve them in a sales contest. They can also help with wine list covers, table tents, posters, stationery, etc. as well. Tell your rep to come in and talk up the staff and announce the contest and prizes. Use your POS to track sales of the items involved and post running results for the staff to see every week or so (or daily if you wish). This really gets the contest rolling and "creates a buzz". If you have contact with a nice resort-style hotel, try to get some room nights to give away as a grand prize (trade them some gift certificates). Good Luck, I hope this helps.
Mark Gleason
Pick a few menu items that you want to increase the sales of, say for example Chardonnay wine, stuffed mushrooms, a few entrees and one or two desserts. It really doesn't matter how many you pick. Pick a starting and ending date. Track each server and bartender's sales of those things during that period. At the end who ever has sold the most overall wins. (And your restaurant wins with increased sales of these items as, assuming the prizes are truly wanted and valued, the servers/bartenders will be suggestive selling them more.
Good luck!
We have just finished a great contest here. We broke up into teams and asked the crewmembers ("employees") to write a story about how they were upselled. To give you an example - I stopped for gas the other day and when I went to pay the lady asked me if I wanted a carwash or paper. Crewmembers write down their stories and then they get posted on a wall in the back by teams. The team with the most stories won an outing. The person with the best upsell story received a special prize and each team had a manager as their captain and the manager of the winning team received a nice gift as well. This really helped in showing the impact that upselling has and it is received with a challenge to them to try it as well. It is the concept of "I didn't think about it until you mentioned it" philosophy. Upsell! Upsell! Upsell! Soups, salads, bacon or guacamole - whatever you can do to increase your check average make your guest aware and give them a "WOW" experience!
Michael Royal
I always liked the selling game. Take a letter size sheet and draw a pattern on it arranging 9 squares. Place an item that is rarely sold on each square. Could be for example a dessert, drink, app or an entree. Whoever gets 3 in a row wins your price of choice. - O.P.
1) Keep track of food sales and alcohol sales for the duration of the contest on a big poster board on each team member at the end of contest divide sales by total hours worked to determine the highest % of sales and to determine the winner. ( you could have a starting $ amount to beat in each category) 2) Create a bingo card with with high ticket items food, alcohol and appetizers the team member to have bingo wins a prize. You could offer the winner to create his schedule for one week.
Good luck,
I run month long contests where I involve all staff. I put each staff member on a team and for example the last contest we held was to see which team could sell the most packaged beer. The contest we are currently running is a food specials contest. Make sure your computer system is able to track these if you choose to do a contest like this.
Cheers!
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BULLETIN BOARD
I would like to hear from food critics/restaurant reviewers about their policies: visit twice? Visit again if the first visit wasn't so great? Not write about a place if the visit wasn't great? Not write about a new place until x amount of time has passed, to 'work out the bugs'? I ask because the impact a negative or positive review can have on a business, particularly a new one. Also, is this your paper's policy or your own choice?
Thank you,
I'm thinking of becoming a chef. I want to go to school to be a food scientist also. My mother told me that if I want to open my own restaurant I need to take some business classes, too. How long am I looking at in college? Also, what would be the best Culinary Arts school near southeast Texas?
Thank You,
We are building a new reception hall and need to know how much square footage is needed to seat 300 people. Most of our weddings and other events will be smaller but we need to know for the larger size if our building plans will house this many people.
Thank you,
Is it legal to deduct credit card fees from your waiter's credit card tips. For example, amount of credit card tips for one evening is $50.00 minus 3% (discount rate), waiter receives $48.50.
Thank you,
WAYS TO SUPPORT & CONTRIBUTE TO RESTAURANT REPORT If you find RR helpful and believe in our mission of building a helpful resource for the independent restaurant community we would appreciate your help...
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