LEADERSHIP: Society Doesn't Respect the Restaurant Industry and Its Restaurants' Fault
The restaurant industry employs 8.4% of all US workers, yet restaurant professionals are given so little respect by the rest of society. It’s partly the industry’s fault. If we want society to respect restaurant careers, then we need to respect ourselves first.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Pi Day Battle – Pizza or Pie?
Today marks yet another Pi Day (3.14…). But how should we all celebrate? With a pie or a pizza pie? In the end, we win either way, especially foodies. Here are 8 Pie Day deal and freebies to celebrate.
Over-Reg vs. Income Inequality
A divide is forming between young adults and older adults over what economic issue is more important: inequality or over-regulation. Three quarters of 18 to 24-year-olds surveyed by Survey Monkey said that unfairness in the economic system is the biggest issue at hand. There was less consensus among older respondents over which economic issue was more important.
Sneaker Resale Shop
American Eagle is putting attempting to put its best foot forward with Gen Z but opening a sneaker resale shop. AE has teamed up with trendy Las Vegas consignment shop Urban Necessities for an in-store pop-up shop. Urban will take up a third of AE’s first-floor space in SoHo for the next year. This is just one of a myriad of ways AE is trying to connect with Gen Z.
DO YOU KNOW HOW VALUABLE YOUR REGULARS REALLY ARE?
Why it matters to you: Driving return visits through loyalty is your most effective pathway to growth.
Here’s a stat for you: a 5% increase in customer retention can increase revenue by 25 – 95%.Yes, you read that correctly. Sure, we all believe that customer return visits are valuable, but how many of you knew how valuable? In the age of digital technology, you have to bring value with your loyalty program right out of the gate or guests will dump it quickly. In order to build a loyalty program that will remain on a guest’s device and drive them to your restaurant, operators must understand what motivates their guests to visit.
Take the Chick-fil-A loyalty app that was just released. They have identified tiers for their program and award points that allow guests to ascend the tiers. The guest rewards accelerate as they move through the levels and the basic awards increase. It fits the needs of their regular guests and rewards them nominally for their return visit and loyalty.
Or take Starbuck’s which has the most regularly used loyalty program in the industry. They address ease of service, streamlined payment options, and loyalty with their app. This clear understanding of the guests’ motivation has facilitated their leadership in the loyalty marketing. Here is quick review of four loyalty programs you can emulate and learn from their success.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
STOP HOLDING YOURSELF BACK
Why it matters to you: Identify and address your personality characteristics that are blocking your restaurant from success.
Running a restaurant is a complicated task. There are myriad influences that can sidetrack your success. Unfortunately, among the most power influences blocking you from that success is YOU! No one likes to be criticized, but we are suggesting that you may want to do it yourself to avoid someone else delivering you tough news. There are three specific behavioral effects that can greatly diminish your ability to respond when things don’t work out well. Each requires some self-examination to determine if you are impacted by their pathology.
Starting with Loss Aversion, you literally are more interested in not losing rather than winning. This can obviate itself through uncertainty on how to respond to a specific challenge and are exemplified by a feeling of paralysis when faced with that uncertainty. Additionally, you may contend with the Overconfidence Effect. This effect causes you to think you can match any situation, even when it’s obvious you can’t.
Finally, there is Temporal Discounting where you take advantage of that which seems effective now, in lieu of doing what will actually work later. The need for instant gratification overwhelms the understanding that you may need a different approach. We suggest you read this entire article to appreciate fully which of these effects might be stopping you from making your restaurant successful.
[Source: FSR Magazine]
