How Servers Represent Your Restaurant - Some Tips on Tips.

Now that I’ve covered why you should work on dealing with allergies, and I’ve covered how you can do so in the back of the house, there’s just one last frontier to deal with…though it’s the first frontier to face your guest. Your server. Or, well, at this point it becomes their server. And according to restaurant marketing firm You Got Meals, for better or for worse, to your customers their servers are your restaurant. So it’s absolutely no use taking the greatest of care in the kitchen if it isn’t reflected out on the floor.

Almost all critics and patrons agree that service will often prove more important than the food. A caring and passionate staff can even erase the memory of an overflowing plate of culinary missteps. So you can imagine how powerful that might make a problem-free kitchen! Moreover, that server pride usually ends up having a positive effect on customers’ financial appreciation as well. So it should be easy to convince your front of the house to adopt a positive attitude. According to the critics (and founders!) of ChefSeattle.com, a great site dedicated to food and foodservice in the Northwest United States, there are eight key tips to stand out, service-wise, from the rest of the culinary crowd. Here are the ones I think we most often forget, but you should definitely head to the article for the complete list: 

-       Your opinion as a server does matter: If the guest asks for your opinion they probably actually want it!

-       Learn your wines; surprisingly, people drink wine without knowing that much about it, which means that they’re going to look to you for expert advice. Be ready with some.

-       Learn how to handle the negatives. Lord knows that customers are going to complain, sometimes with validity, sometimes not. Handling these moments with verve and professionalism is the mark of a truly great server.

-       Smile! 

Deciding on Menu Prices – How to Jet Yourself into Profit.

Everybody knows that the restaurant industry has one of the greatest fail rates of any service-related field. Think about it; when was the last time you heard of the immense attrition facing massage therapists? Taxicab companies? Movie theatres?! So why not start taking a page from one of their books and adapt our, considerably less-successful, marketing and pricing schemes?

One of the more lucrative and unique of our peers is the Airline industry. Even with the ever-increasing, ever-confusing, regulations related to the ‘war on terror’, companies such as WestJet, British Airways and Delta still manage to fill a remarkable amount of seats. Restaurant Business magazine recently broke down four great high-flying promotional pricing approaches that could easily be redesigned for foodservice. Of course, they do warn you not to take it too far…Don’t forget what the meals up there taste like!

And once you’ve decided HOW you’re going to price your menu effectively, you can actually choose those prices. Here’s a great description of the four most commonly applied pricing formulas. Just determine what it’s going to cost you, or decide how much you want to make, plug the number in, and ta da! Instant menu prices.

Happy Pricing!

(And, remember, if a Captain Kirk look-a-like tries to push you into some sort of priceline negotiation, just stand your ground!)

The Better to Convince You With – Understanding what Makes Us Say “Yes”

When it comes to sales and marketing, it’s hard, sometimes, to realize how similar we all are. At heart, we each want to be seen as likeable, as reasonable, as an authority on our given product, as committed and consistent. Surprisingly, this is true whether you’re the seller…or the buyer. Understanding these frequently unconscious desires can help you better position yourself as a quality purveyor, and, more importantly, better your chances of convincing your customers to make appropriate purchases. The principles of persuasion are simple and finite and, thanks to Dr. Robert Cialdini’s seminal work Influence: Science and Practice, easy to put into practice.

Written in 2001, Cialdini’s book reflects the three years he spent working, undercover, with restaurant servers, car salesmen, and pink ladies, trying to determine how the best in the biz close their sales. Additionally, the just-recently-retired Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University assembled an enormous amount of empirical research supporting these same methods.

My personal favorite? The principle of social proof or consensus: When uncertain, people tend to look around and mimic what other people – similar to them – are doing. Just watch an indecisive table all order the same entrée! Practically, this means that we are susceptible to sales pitches that invoke a comparable majority. Think of Amazon.Com’s “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought…” link. Cialdini himself found that just by adjusting the wording on a sign requesting hotel guests to reuse their towels – from ‘Help Reuse for the Environment’ to ‘The majority of People who stayed in this room Helped Reuse’ – nearly 20% more guests complied.

Ultimately, Cialdini defined a total of seven persuasive principles that, when properly employed, tend to color the bottom line black. Here’s a great summary of all of those techniques; you’ll be amazed at how recognizable they are! Truth is, they’ve been probably been used on you before…Or, you can watch the Doc explain them himself in the video below.