Thursday, December 8, 2016
Today's Specials:
BUSINESS: Are You the Sports Bar of the Future?
Your guests go to your sports bar for one reason above all others -- to watch sports! Are you giving them the best possible experience? Here's what the future of sports bars will look like and how you can be there today.
READ: Five Signs the Manager You Hired Sucks
Getting hiring right is a tough process, but having the right staff can make all the difference in whether your restaurant does well or not. One of the most important things you can do as a general manager or operator is making sure management is up to snuff. Here's how to know a manager isn't making the grade.
TIPS: 3 Tips for a Quick & Painless Inventory Process [Presented by Orderly]
Let’s face it: restaurant inventory management is not what lured you into the business. But are you allowing inventory to be more painful than it needs to be? Here are three ways to make inventory less of a pain.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Bottom Up!
Have you heard of the beer tap company – Bottoms Up? They’ve designed a cool beer draft system that fills proprietary glasses from the bottom up, allowing for faster fills and fewer spills. Check the here.
A Deep Fried Aromatherapy
KFC has released its own candle which can have your house smelling of fried chicken (because who doesn’t want that?). Unfortunately, it’s only released in New Zealand, but KFC has had a lot of fun with their recent marketing efforts – including chicken-scented sunscreen and edible nail polish.
See this Instagram photo by @kfcnz * 378 likes
Trump Loves Fast Food
Donald Trump announced he is considering the head of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr, Andrew Puzder, as his labor secretary. The restauranteur could potentially be in charge of workplace safety and wage theft investigations. Puzder is currently the chief executive of CKE Restaurants.
Emoji-mendations
Who wouldn’t want to communicate via emoji? You can now tweet emojis at Google for recipes and restaurant recommendations. The new system is designed to provide restaurant recommendations based on the type of emoji you send its way (like a taco for example).
WHEN SECRETS AREN’T SECRETS
Why it matters to you: There’s a lot of misinformation about what happens behind the scenes in restaurants.
MSN’s Lovefood recently published a list of 22 restaurant secrets, that were clearly not written by anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant. One claim, pretty people get better seats. Umm, no. Seating is based on server rotation. Many items on the list are broad generalizations like hidden charges being widespread, asserting that diners get taken to the cleaners.
Fallacies are rampant in almost every single point this article makes, which could totally give readers and restaurant guests the wrong impression. With publications like these, it makes our jobs as restaurant leaders all the more difficult. As we’ve said before, the best defense for bad publicity is a good offense with amazing customer service.
AS STARBUCK’S GOES
Why it matters to you: SBUX continues to set the trends and giving you a road map to follow
When Howard Schultz made his bet on coffee dominance by joining Starbuck’s as their Director of Marketing in 1980, he probably didn’t for see the global position the company would achieve. However, now that they are here, he is continuing to drive them to innovate and lead the industry. Today alone, three bits of news about the chain were published that demonstrate their forwarding thinking and can show us all what’s next in the industry. For Starbuck’s it’s all about technology. To that end, they have now enabled a voice ordering barista chatbot to take your order via voice recognition. Their aspiration, which they are clearly achieving, is to remove any barriers to ordering via mobile. Given that they did 6 million mobile order/pay transactions in December of last year they are on the right path.
While technology has dominated their efforts to ease the customer experience, they have also shown a high sensitivity to what’s hot in the market. That is one of the main causes of CEO Schultz’s recent resignation. His goal is to pursue a further expansion of their portfolio to include a more luxe brand approach to compete with newbies like Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia. Starbucks has already opened some ‘reserve’ locations and Schultz will lead a further expansion of that concept.
In straight marketing news, they are jumping on the Pokémon Go craze by adding a Pokémon Frappuccino that can only be ordered via the Pokémon Go app. The lessons here are many. First, technology is the way into your guest’s hearts in the future. Making the experience of ordering and interacting with your business as easy as possible should be a central goal of your operation. However, appreciating current trends is also valuable. Keep your ears and eyes peeled for the various opportunities and latch on. Whether it’s a social media craze like planking or a cultural phenomenon like American Idol was, you can create real energy by hopping on the bandwagon quickly. Finally, you need to always be on the lookout for opportunities to redirect your business. Obviously, an independent operator will have fewer options, but that doesn’t mean you can explore catering, delivery or meal kit programs. The only limit on your business is your own ability to pivot to what’s next.
In today’s restaurant news: how to leverage social media influencer marketing, the restaurant industry collapses under COVID-19, how Congress has failed the restaurant industry, and more.