SOCIAL: 9 Ways to Grow Your Restaurant’s Instagram Followers & Engagement
There’s plenty of hacks and shortcuts and “sketchy” companies out there claiming to be able to double your restaurant’s social media accounts’ following in seconds or share a delicious secret to instant Instagram fame that everyone else just happened to overlook. Don’t believe any of it. When Momma said there’s no substitute for an honest day’s work, she was actually right. Here’s nine ways to grow your Instagram following and engagement the new old-fashioned way.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Labor Union Rebounds
President Grover Cleveland signed Labor Day into law in 1894 after agitation from union workers. Several municipal and state celebrations occurred before it officially became a national holiday, with union leaders organizing many of those early celebrations. Since the late 19th and early 20th century, labor union support in the U.S. has fluctuated. It hit an all-time low in 2009 when Gallup recorded a 48% approval rate for unions. A decade later, unions now enjoy a 64% approval rate, rebounding by 16% points. This is the third consecutive year that Gallup has recorded a union approval rate above 60%.
Economic Fallout of Hurricanes
Of the estimated $125 billion in total damages caused by Hurricane Katrina, just over $60 billion were insured losses. The ratio is worse for Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of the U.S., the Caribbean and Central America in 2017. Here only a third, $30 billion out of $95 billion, was insured.
Altitude Sports Dropped, ACCN Picked Up
A carriage battle has resulted in DirecTV, DISH, and Comcast to drop Altitude Sports which is the home of the Nuggets, Avalanche and Rapids. That’s three big carriers that have all dropped the RSN with the NHL and NBA season on the horizon. Meanwhile, the ACC Network was picked up by Dish and Sling TV time to for Clemson-George Tech blowout.
MAYBE AUTOMATION ISN’T SO BAD AFTERALL
Why it matters to you: Embracing automation training may be your staffing salvation.
We’ve been discussing the real cost of turnover since our inception over 16 years ago. It’s a ubiquitous conversation for restaurant operators, but these days it feels even more urgent. In fact, that urgency has grown sufficiently that even a major international finance channel like CNBC dedicated a serious effort to reviewing the causes of staffing issues and some broad based solutions insights. The basic premise of the article is to convince you that turnover is expensive and best practices dictate you do something about it. Yes, that couldn’t be more obvious to a restaurant operator, but this piece is comprehensive and discusses the role of automation as well as current trends in staffing.
For example, they focus heavily on Panera and their struggles. They shout about how 100% turnover is considered good performance in our industry, as if any of us isn’t familiar with particularly absurd paradigm. What business should be viable that loses their full staff annually? The answer it appears, for fast-casual anyway, might be automation. But not the automation you might think. They are focusing on automating training. Now that your training efforts are no longer tethered to a manual and a live trainer, the future of training can include assigned learning sessions for staff that are lead via video and maybe even wearables to demonstrate the task to be learned. The key here is one serious strategy for mitigating the cost of turnover maybe more automation to enhance worker success and less so to replace them altogether.
[Source: CNBC]
BWW WANTS YOU TO SIGN A PRENUP
Why it matters to you: BWW is focusing on the guest experience and it appears to work.
Full disclosure, Buffalo Wild Wings is our largest customer and as such when we applaud them it may seem self-serving. That being said, their trajectory over the past three years has been nothing short of amazing. Beginning in 2017, they were having some struggles and Marcato, a private equity investor in the company, was pushing for them to totally shake their business up. Things didn’t look so hot for the largest sports-themed operator in the world. Through the intervening two and a half years, they have managed the ousting of their longtime (and successful) CEO Sally Smith, franchisee trouble, and then getting purchased by Inspire Brands. The latter event has served to allow a new re-focus on their core value of creating the best guest experience possible.
To that end, their marketing has been hyper-focused on just that -- the guest experience. This year, they are taking their football marketing to a new spot by “demanding” fans sign a pre-nup. What is a “Football Pre-nup,” exactly? It’s essentially a play on getting someone to allow you to watch football and head to Buffalo Wild Wings instead of other obligations. As the company puts it, “whether it be with your significant other dragging you to a lame gender reveal party or your roommate commandeering the living room to watch a reality TV marathon while there’s a full slate of games underway.” By comparing potential distractions from football watching, BWW is continuing its focus on the guest experience. Frankly, this should be all the convincing the rest of us need to follow suit.
This is especially true when you consider their results over the past couple of years. While they have seen much of the traffic falls that other chains have endured, they have mitigated it by comparison and are poised for a big football season. Consequently, we again beseech you, review your own guest experience and do it from the guest’s perspective. If you find you are kicking ass, well done. If you aren’t, then do well and take steps to address it. That is the only recipe you have to perfect if you want to win in the sports themed segment. Make the guest experience great! Now, go get ‘em.
[Source: FSR Magazine]
