MARKETING: Using Social Proof to Grow Your Restaurant
Your menu is great. Your staff are expertly trained. So, what else can you use to get top reviews and a fully booked restaurant each night? The answer? Social proof. In this article, we’ll show you what social proof is, why you’ll want to use it and how to do it well. It’ll create a restaurant with buzz in no time.
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Truth of Australia’s 1808 ‘Rum Rebellion’
In the 18th Century, Australia was used as a penal colony, housing more than 150,000 convicts from the British Empire. In 1789, the New South Wales Corps was found to keep order in the colony. The group, closely associated with the rum trade, was also called “The Rum Corps” and, in 1808, launched the only armed takeover of government in Australia’s history – known as the “Rum Rebellion.” Here’s more history to start your day.
Largest Music Festivals in the World
While Coachella trails Moroccan mega event Mawazine and the Austrian Donauinselfest in terms of total attendance, it is probably the most fashionable festival to be at. If anyone ever wrote a “10 steps to becoming a fashion influencer” guide, attending Coachella would surely be near the top of the list. After all, what screams Instagram more than a dreamy selfie in the perfect lighting of the Californian sunset.
Fortnight Beats Major Sporting Events in Prize Money
eSports is legit, y’all. As the following chart illustrates, you could win the Tour de France, the Hawaii Ironman, the New York Marathon, and the Masters Tournament in Augusta and still walk (or limp) away a poorer person than the world’s best Fortnite player. The tournament is part of Epic Games’ campaign of making Fortnite the most lucrative game in eSports. Last year, the company pledged to put up $100 million in prize money for Fortnite events through the end of 2019.
FARMING OUR WAY OUT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Why it matters to you: What is “carbon farming” and what does it mean to me?
Global Warming, climate change, weather disruptions… it doesn’t matter what you call it, there is nearly 100% consensus that human activity is exacerbating the conditions will live under on our tiny planet. One of the key strategies being explored for combatting global warming is “carbon farming”, which involves agricultural practices that draw down carbon from the atmosphere and into the soil and could ultimately help reverse the rise in global temperatures. In San Francisco, Chef Anthony Myint co-founded ZeroFootprint that supports restaurant operators to reduce their individual carbon footprint of their operations.
Myint points out that our industry is generating $800 billion in annual sales, which means we are both contributing mightily to farm related carbon creation. It also means that our industry can be a serious agent for change. Yes, carbon farming will likely be more expensive than factory farming and consequently increase our cost of food, but what is the alternative? Our current trajectory tells us that we have only a dozen years before the change in our climate is so radical that it cannot be stopped. If you want to hop onboard of the movement to combat climate change, then it probably does need to start at the most basic place, farming. If you are cynical and don’t believe there is an issue, you might still consider supporting this, if only to ensure we are good stewards of our environment. IMHO
[Source: Nation’s Restaurant News]
10 QUESTIONS
Why it matters to you: What you ask during an interview can be the difference in identifying the best candidates for your staff.
There are a lot of metric surrounding staffing in our industry that are really important. Although, none seems as important as the almost 1.5 million job decline in the number of people that worked in our industry from 2016 to 2017. That decline is the first time in a decade and is at the heart of why staffing concerns are dominating our management efforts.
The loss of hundreds of thousands of personnel has complicated your already challenging approach to recruiting, interviewing, and selecting. It’s why you need every advantage you can muster in identifying the best people for your staff. This post gives you a list of 10 great questions you can include in your interviewing process that will deliver useful insight into the candidate’s motivations and interest in your restaurant.
Our personal favorite asks how your prospective employee would respond if “a customer wrote something negative about your service online, which you know to be inaccurate, and you later saw them at the restaurant.” The other nine are equally useful and can be wended to your current interview questions to ensure you are truly exploring if this person is the right fit for your team. In this environment, every advantage should be welcome. Toast’s 10 questions are just that.
