STAFF: Why Building a Productive Restaurant Culture Matters
Your staff are coming face-to-face with most of your guests on a daily basis. And it’s your staff who will help you shape your business and represent it to your customers, so building positive relationships with them is something that will lead to the whole brand’s success. The better the culture of your restaurant, the more effectively your staff will do their job. Here are some company culture examples which will help you understand why this is so important.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Yelp Shames Burger Joint
Yelp is trying to not only be a restaurant review site, but also a consumer advisor for hungry diners. Their new “consumer alert” feature is one of their latest attempts, and it nailed burger franchise Burgerim. The alert appears on Bugerim’s Yelp page and reads, “We caught someone offering up cash, discounts, gift certificates, or other incentives in exchange for reviews about this business.” They even provide a link to their evidence. Consider this a warning to restaurants looking to purchase fake Yelp reviews.
The World’s Most Spoken Languages
When it comes to the world's ten most spoken languages, numbers tend to vary considerably between sources. According to Ethnologue, Chinese (and all of its varieties such as Mandarin and Wu) is by far the most spoken language across the world with 1.31 billion speakers. That's approximately 16 percent of the world's population. Indeed, there are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of the Chinese language and Mandarin is the most spoken (898 million speakers).
The Connection Between Wealth & Food Waste
The richer you are, the more likely you are to waste food. According to researchers at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, the average person wastes 527 calories of food a day. And consumers start throwing out food when their spending hits $6.70 per day, indicating that people in richer countries are likely to waste more food. It makes sense considering that economic security means it’s much easier to replace rotten or wasted food.
TIKTOK TO THE RESCUE
Why it matters to you: Does posting a pay stub that proves tipping sucks accomplish anything?
The conversation surrounding tipping in general lacks nuance, because it always focuses on the customer’s experience. Well, a bartender in Texas has created a stir by sharing her pay stub on TikTok, the newest viral content platform. Her pay stub showed 70 hours of work and a whopping $9.28 net pay amount. Of course, the reaction was swift with people maligning the tip credit and calling it monstrous that the restaurant only paid her $0.13 an hour. It appears the young woman, Aaliyah Cortez, wanted to both shame people that don’t tip enough and point a finger at our industry. There is no doubt, the discussion around tipping has been front and center these past few years.
Sure, the post reveals an antiquated system that creates and incredibly unfair situation for more than just servers. But what is the solution? Those that have tried going with a service charge have experienced problems. Those that raise their prices and don’t allow tipping find their customers hate losing control. The culture around tipping, it would seem, has no intention of going out easily. So, while we can complain, it’s time for some solutions. For me, this is a conversation we should all be having about our industry. Do you think we would benefit from dumping the tipped individual model and move to a more European-style system, where being in our industry is a profession? We sure do need a solution, so feel free to give us your opinion below.
[Source: Cosmopolitan on Yahoo]
LOYALTY STRATEGY PROOF
Why it matters to you: There’s a formula to building loyalty and these numbers prove it.
We often feature primers in The Daily Rail newsletter. They are a starting point or a gentle reminder on the path to best practices. This infographic on Modern Restaurant Management is a wonderful primer describing 11 ways to make your clients love you. Loyalty is among the most powerful relationships you can build with your customers. Give that retaining a customer if 5x less expensive to retain a guest than it is to entice a new guest to visit should be a great motivator. Add to that the almost 10% reduction in costs you can expect when you increase your retention by as little as 2% and you shouldn’t need any more incentive to work on your loyalty strategy.
This particular graphic delivers its first strategy reminder as a focus on how you treat your employees. Here again the graphic offers evidence by describing how earnings per share can increase by 147% when a company’s employees report being satisfied with their work experience. Treat them well and they will treat your customers well. There are a myriad of other data points to inform your loyalty approach like the value of personalization. Remembering someone’s name when they return is no different than calling their name out when you email, for example. Make your guests feel like you are customizing your offer to them and they will respond with their loyalty. No matter what you do, retaining guests should be a focus in your marketing because it makes growth much easier.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
