Thursday, March 2, 2017
Today's Specials:
EVENTS: A Ball Pit in a Bar? Grosser than You'd Expect!
A ball pit in a bar sounds like a lot of fun, but we're also a little grossed out by the idea. Do we even know what lies beneath the ocean of plastic balls?
TECH: Getting Started with Restaurant CRM: Selecting a Vendor
Even with your regular customers, you can’t be sure if they’re fans of your Facebook page, or if they’re on your email list or not. You may not even remember that they like a particular variety of cheesecake that you serve. That needs to change.
DID YOU KNOWS…
You Stupid @$#%!
Ever wonder why your staff swears so much – and we don’t mean because your guests can be kinda rough sometimes? There are a few reasons. One being that they’re taboo breaking. Swearing itself is a taboo, so swear words exist to break that exact rule. It’s liberating! Learn more about the history and culture of cussing.
Wendy’s Turns to Self-Ordering Kiosks
While illegal immigrants are holding the attention of the current political landscape, a new threat is has been slowly growing and stealing jobs away -- machine automation. Wendy’s becomes the latest fast-food restaurant to turn to kiosks to take guest orders. They announced they’re installing order kiosks in 1,000 of their locations by the end of 2017.
Express Pizza Delivery
Papa John’s is letting guests with money to burn in their pockets to skip the line. They’re introducing “Papa Priority” which lets guests pay an extra $3 to jump the queue and get their order faster. Time will tell if customers will embrace the idea or feel alienated if they can’t afford the extra few bucks.
2017 MAY SEE THE END OF UBER
Why it matters to you: Learn from this major leadership fail.
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO and billionaire messed up big time. But at least he’s acknowledged it with the statement, “I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.” As a video now viral is circulating showing Kalanick as an Uber passenger in a verbal disagreement with a driver for the company, we couldn’t agree more.
The driver tells Kalanick, “I am bankrupt because of you.” Citing lower fares for drivers, to which Kalanick responds, “Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own s**t.” Trouble seems to be deepening for Uber at the moment as they’re being accused of mishandling sexual harassment complaints. This coming after #deleteuber. An apology is obviously a solid first step, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to restore the public’s faith in the rideshare company.
YELP BUYS NOWAIT
Why it matters to you: customers will be able to make transactions faster than before.
Yesterday Yelp wrote off a fat check on another major business deal. According to TechCrunch, Yelp has purchased the restaurant waitlist app Nowait for roughly $40 million to incorporate into their app. The move will make Nowait’s seating tool available via the Yelp app to complement the existing Yelp reservation product as well as its mobile food-ordering system. Instead of making reservations, Nowait essentially makes a waitlist for restaurants that don’t take reservations.
Now that the waitlist system has already been integrated, users can share real-time availability with Yelp. This a huge leap for both companies as well as the restaurant industry because it allows the massive Yelp following to make a faster transition from the “search and discovery processes” to the actual transaction at the local business.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Why it matters to you: Pricing strategies are a way to tune your business to your location.
Pricing has long been a simple affair for operators. Just pick your ideal food cost and work from there. While simple is good, it sometimes misses the bigger picture that all business must paint for their success. Take the new concept in SoCal called Everytable. They are varying their prices by the demographic of the locations neighborhood. Wealthier communities have higher pricing that poorer ones. It’s not a perfect model, but it does account for the local affect and ensures your business is responsive to its constituency.
If you are a multi-unit operator, there is at least food for thought in this strategy. If your prices are too high for your neighborhood, you would easily alienate your guest base. At least, you should factor the local demo into your pricing decisions. Add that to pricing popular items at better margins and allowing for higher costs of goods sold on your most expensive menu options. Pricing is a complicated business, but doing it without thought is a universally bad choice.
