Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Today's Specials:
TECH: Cel-Fi Can Save Your Restaurant
We live in a digital age. Your restaurant needs to be equipped with the proper technology to keep your guests happy. One monumental mistake that most bar and restaurant operators often overlook involves the cell phone coverage and internet connection in their restaurant.
DID YOU KNOWs…
Eat Like Brady
A brave staff writer from Thrillist attempted the daunting gluten free, dairy free, aka EVERYTHING FREE all organic diet of Tom Brady. In the article, he describes his experience from cooking, to snacking and how the insane diet affected his body. Break out the carrots.
From Food Trucks to Caribbean Cruises
A 46-year-old food truck worker is in the spotlight following an intriguing New York Times article follows his journey as an immigrant from Bangladesh turned food truck owner. A charitable reader started a GoFundMe page to send him and his family on vacation. The campaign has already seen donations from 189 people, raising over $4,000 in two days.
Social Media Wars
Instagram’s take on Snapchat’s “stories” feature seems to be working quite well for the app. Instagram Stories has passed 200 million daily active users just nine months into its existence. This infographic shows just how Instagram has taken the edge over Snapchat. Selfies on selfies on selfies.
“IT’S A CHIC LABOR CAMP VIBE”
Why it matters to you: McDonald’s is in the process of a major rebrand to attract more millennials.
There are quite a bit of changes coming to McDonald’s. The fast food chain has been in the spotlight after they made a change to the brand’s uniforms. Celebrity designers who have dressed Will Smith and Ryan Gosling, created the new looks. Twitter users are not on board, having compared the new uniform to “a dystopian universe.” Despite the backlash, McDonald’s claims “our new collections focus on comfort, fit, functionality and contemporary professionalism, delivering a uniform that crew and managers will feel comfortable to work in and proud to wear.” Very different from the bright red and yellow t-shirts.
Fortune reports that McDonald’s conducted an internal survey that found about 70 percent of employees like the new uniforms and 30 percent do not. Although the look is drastically different to their original, McDonald’s is making a vast effort to rebrand themselves. Specifically, they are trying to attract a younger generation that has seemed to move away from traditional fast food by incorporating new uniforms, mobile pay, and fresher ingredients. Now that the majority of millennials seem to have collectively similar expectations, top chains are bending over backward in an attempt to keep a large portion of their customers.
GUEST CODING
Why it matters to you: some restaurants are taking hospitality to the next level with ‘guest coding.’
We’ve talked about restaurants that take notes on each guest dining in their restaurant. VinePair recently featured an article about how many restaurants ‘code’ their guests as a way of taking their hospitality to the next level. Guest coding involves keeping track of ordering habits, spending patterns and even the food and drinks the guest orders. Most often this process heavily relies on the server because they are the staff member that spends the most time at the table. Essentially, each guest will have a wealth of information in the system so that when they return, the next server can better cater to their needs.
The real asset of these hospitality-driven restaurants is having information readily available to anticipate certain guest’s preferences and habits. ‘Coding guests’ also helps to establish the customer’s relationship with the restaurant and server making them feel more connected. Ideally, each reservation coming into the restaurant will have detailed information informing where they would like to sit and what the server should recommend them based on previous orders. This has also been effective for the guests with complex wine or cocktail preferences so that they don’t need to take the effort to explain what they want. This way, you’re taking away one last task that will benefit their experience.
Hero image courtesy of psfk.com