INFOGRAPHIC: Digital Statistics Restaurants Should Know
The world’s gone digital and despite the restaurant industry’s resistance to change, it also has mostly gone digital. From email marketing and social media content creation to online reviews and tableside ordering to third-party delivery and staff scheduling in the cloud and more, there’s a ton of digital options for operators to consider. But knowing what digital services to invest in requires knowing two things — what will fix pain points in your business as well as what your restaurant’s guests expect from you in terms of service.
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Worst Supermarkets for Plastic Use
In most supermarkets, it's hard to avoid single-use plastic. Whether it's plastic cutlery and plates, straws, meat wrapped in plastic, shrink-wrapped fruit, water bottles or the rings holding a six pack of beer, the stuff is literally everywhere. Greenpeace looked into the supermarket chains with the most and least plastic packaging on their shelves. The index was determined across four factors - plastic policy, reduction, initiatives and transparency with a score closer to zero worse for plastic usage.
State of the Paris Agreement
Announcing the move on Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that pledges under the Paris Agreement lead to an "unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers." As the following map shows, the U.S. decision to withdraw now makes it the only country not participating in the accord, a huge blow to combating climate change.
Nearly 20% of Adults Have Tried CBD
According to an NPD Group study, roughly 20% of American adults have tried CBD products (where legal), and of that group 40% use CBD for health reasons. NPD Group experts, however, don’t think CBD will “materially change” why guests go to restaurants, but thinks it could open the doors to additional snacking and specialty beverages.
ORIENTAL NIGHTS
Why it matters to you: P.F. Chang’s wants in on the late-night action.
The revenue/rent ratio is one of the most important measures of your restaurants value. This is the sales/square foot metric that tells you how much you are getting out of your buildings potential. One of the ways to increase that is to add operational hours or drive a tired revenue period. This is a pretty normal tactic for an independent operator, but this story tells us that Asian food titan P.F. Chang’s is adding late night entertainment and has built a craft cocktail menu in their Miami location. This is noteworthy because, as a chain operator, they must believe there is an opportunity to maximize revenue. It shows they are aware that the market and demographic matters.
When you can’t serve breakfast (which just wouldn’t fly for an Asian concept in North America), you have to turn to micro revenue periods like happy hour or late night. In this instance, the operator just happens to be a chain player, but it certainly reminds you that there are some times you can work to build traffic.
If you don’t have activity late night, start by doing some informal polling about what your guests are looking for on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. Do a monthly experiment where you host live music or comedy to start your marketing engine. Using social and your email list, you can inform a long with some printed materials. Here’s the one trick: If you get excited about it, your team and guests will, too. Make it special and you just might find that extra revenue during the tough times that gets you through.
[Source: Restaurant Business Online]
MCDONALD’S ENTRES NOUS
Why it matters to you: What we can learn from McD’s CEO’s ouster!
Our industry can deliver national news with the best of them. Steve Eastebrook’s firing from McDonald’s surely merits that status. The successful CEO was terminated for having a consensual intimate relationship with a subordinate in the company, which is technically anyone working for McD’s.
Here’s the thing: this guy was really good for McDonald’s. He nearly doubled their share price during his four year tenure. And they still fired him. Now that’s zero tolerance. I have to be honest, we should all be celebrating this, and not to further diminish a person that made a mistake -- more so because it represents true equal treatment.
Sure, McDonald’s is still a pretty oppressive employer in some situations, but they really have made strides in the past few years. But this firing says no one is above the law and helps us all enforce our discipline more easily. It’s the lesson all of us can better heed. We’d suggest discussing this openly with your staff and reinforcing your own identification with the precept. But avoid the topic like the plague if you’re not prepared to actually enforce in that manner. The one thing you can always be assured, your team will know whether you are being authentic and respond accordingly.
[Source: Time]
