Monday, April 24, 2017
Today's Specials:
MARKETING: Technical Restaurant SEO Help So You Can Rank Higher
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about making it easier for search engines to find out about your restaurant and classify it properly — so when somebody searches a relevant term or word, your site will show up in the search results.
DID YOU KNOWs…
McDonald’s + Mindy = #Unbranded
McDonald’s is the latest brand to use Google in their advertising. Their new unbranded campaign features hilarious actress/comedian Mindy Kaling and does not mention the chain’s name. The ad encourages views to Google the “place where the Coke tastes soooo good” to solve the mystery of which Ad they’re watching. Click here to see.
Coffee’s Evil Step Sister
While the world hasn’t stopped talking about Starbucks’ new Unicorn Frappuccino that looks like a 70s lava lamp, baristas are not so happy when customers order it. Recently a video went viral of a barista ranting about how difficult it is to make while others are calling it the “Frap from hell.” Unicorn Backlash.
Olive Garden Secrets via Tweets
A Twitter user decided to help to the internet learn Olive Garden’s secrets with an impromptu Q&A after learning that his date for the evening used to be the general manager at Olive Garden in Times Square. So yes people, sometimes they do run out of bread sticks.
“IS ANYONE GOING TO EAT THAT?”
Why it matters to you: would you let your staff eat the leftover food on the guest’s plate?
Most restaurants have policies that prohibit servers from eating in front of guests or even in BOH. MNS featured an article on the controversial topic of whether waiters ever eat the leftover food off of the customer’s plate. They found that the answer isn’t so simple because the debate over whether snacking on scraps is “contentious within the server community.” The article goes on to document server’s experiences with whether they eat leftovers after the guest leaves, or in some cases snag the remaining bottle of wine. Celebrities including Chris Pratt admit to eating from customers’ plates after leaving when he worked as a waiter.
Working in the restaurant industry, we all have experienced serving delicious food while hungry. At the end of the day everyone’s line of boundaries are different, and usually, the server’s code of conduct depends on the place they work. It technically is not our call as operators to interfere with what our servers do “behind closed doors” if they are not harming the food or the restaurant’s reputation. Many servers follow their own personal set of rules for when it’s appropriate to eat off plates and when it’s not. However, it does remain a controversial topic in the restaurant community.
MENU MAKEOVERS
Why it matters to you: many restaurants are switching to smaller menus due to minimal profit.
Changing up our menu options helps to keep our restaurant fresh while also offering guests a new variety. Unfortunately, many restaurants are actually switching their longer elaborate menus for more traditional smaller ones because they have contributed “little to nothing” to their revenue. According to new research from Upserve, many restaurants, both quick service, and full service have too many items on their menus. More specifically, the restaurant management platform found that “80 percent of a restaurant’s food sales come from only 16 percent of menu items.” Similar research from the National Restaurant Association has seen similar results and supported the data.
Many restaurant operators believe that keeping food costs low will increase profit margins. However, the NRA claims the issue is much more complex than food costs, but more so the gross profit dollars the menu items generate. Therefore, a larger menu with elaborate ingredients could be detrimental if people aren’t ordering them. As noteworthy as this data is, it doesn’t account for every important aspect of each restaurant’s menu. Most likely there are signature items on our menus that serve the purpose of “establishing the restaurant’s niche or building its brand,” and do contribute to revenue. If revenue is impacted negatively, then the trend is that the more elaborate menu items are the first to go.
