What struck me most about this article was that the primary story was about a restaurant that had been in business for over 25 years. After 25 years in business the owner was contemplating closing the restaurant because of rising costs and a sluggish economy. He went on to say that one night he only had (5) guests spending a grand total of $75 and in a subsequent night he had 40 guests. He lamented about the “boom and bust” and that the bills just keep coming and that he was facing an uncertain future. He also indicated that his food costs have risen over 20% in the last year.

In the article it was also stated that a recent post by “one of the most historic restaurants in…” was “alarming” The post was an interesting poem that essentially announced to anyone that wanted to read it that the restaurant would probably close soon.

After reading this story, I wanted to see if there was anything that I could do to help this restaurant. I found the restaurant on a Facebook personal page, not a Business Page. There was a Facebook Business Page that was neither claimed or updated. I googled the restaurant and found a website domain that was in Japanese, I found lots of business listings on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Urbanspoon reviews. I also found the restaurant’s Google Places which was unclaimed.

What I found most compelling was that although the restaurant had over 600 friends on their Facebook page and had basically announced that the restaurant was closing people were still posting to the page. People were still sending positive comments, posting pictures, and generally wishing the owner well. Equally as compelling were the reviews on the other sites. Many were absolutely negative and regrettably many of those were recent.

Increasing costs do have an adverse affect on restaurants, independents and chains. A sluggish economy also can impact a restaurant’s traffic, but not managing your online presence will virtually assure that generating new guests will not happen.

I am an optimist and I think that with some help this restaurant can regenerate itself. I have sent a message to the owner and offered some resources. Admittedly, I do not know the operating conditions, finances, or other factors affecting this restaurant but I believe that we can rekindle his relationship with the public.

Stay Tuned…

and while you are waiting, please review your online marketing. There are so many things that do not take a lot of time or a lot of money that you can do for your restaurant. If you would like some help just send me a message and I will send you some resource links.

"Tips for Improving Your Tips" by David Hayden

Although there are no doubt endless quantities of books written on customer service, there are very view that are written to the customer touch point that matters most in the restaurant industry…the servers!

David Hayden has done a great job of providing an absolute guide that is not only an indispensable guide for servers but a way for restaurants to ultimately train and reinforce their waitstaff effectiveness.  It is easy to see that David is speaking from many years of practical experience and not espousing theories that are not relevant to the restaurant business.

What is so critical about “Tips…” is that if everyone in the restaurant applied the techniques and principles in this book, not only will your actions produce simply delighted guests who are loyal to your business but you will have a happier waitstaff.  Simply delighted guests love to tell their friends and in this age of “social word of mouth”, and because of the law of attraction the restaurant will attract the best servers.

“Tips..” is a cornerstone of what I like to call “Building Your Brand from the Inside Out” and a must have for any restaurant that has servers that can make or break your business.  Ultimately, any good restaurant owner has already shared these processes with your staff but bringing in “Tips…” will help reinforce and insure that your servers are delivering the kind of service that you expect and most importantly the kind of service that will produce raving fans.

Quick link to buy the book

Disclosure: I am a restaurant guy who works for a food distributor. I share Winning Strategies, Processes, and Innovations for restaurants. “Tips…” is not only a winning strategy, it is a process that your staff can implement to make you and them more money. I am not compensated for this review, but hopeful that you (the restaurateur and your staff) will makes lots of money with this book.

The National Restaurant Association reports that food inflation this year will run at 4% following a 30 year high of 8% in 2011.

Tom Fishburne Marketoonist

Apple states in a television commercial that there are over 500,000 apps and growing! Everybody has a Smartphone! Mobile usage is up, people who own tablets essentially doubled in a month!

And here are some more stats:

According to Nielsen 28% of cell phone users in the US have smart phones
More than 80,000,000 new users are expected by the end of the year this year alone
41% of new phones sold in the past 4 months have been smart phones
More than half of all iPhone users are over 44 years old
According to .com there are 142.8 million smart phone users in the US

Source: Restaurant Smart Phone Apps In the interest of full disclosure, I am a fan of Mark Laux and HotOperator and it is Mark’s recent post on mobile apps that inspired me to write this post. HotOperator is an elite group that understands the restaurant business and most importantly the menu.

So every restaurant needs their own mobile app, right?

In my opinion, NO!

But let me explain, currently developers have been building mobile apps for everything that consumers touch and that’s understandable since consumers are flocking to the mobile devices. Most importantly, one of the largest groups flocking to mobile devices are people over 44. Over 44, are you kidding? Yep, over 44, the ones with the money. So for marketers and developers that is an incredible demographic. But what about all of those kids, aren’t they “app-happy” too? Of course they are and marketers and developers love them too.

Here’s where we are today, mobile apps are becoming ubiquitous for QSR’s (Quick Service Restaurants) and the younger demographic (app-happy) is very active with these. But what about Independent Restaurants? Well with over 180,000 independent restaurants in the US, the marketers and developers are aggressively pursuing them because after all if it works for chains it should work for independents. Many developers have gained backing from venture capitalists after successfully building apps for many chain restaurants. Now, they want to push the model out to independents.

So what’s the problem? In my opinion, many independent restaurants could benefit from mobile apps but only if their brand is buttoned-down.

How about your menu? Is it doing what it should do, is it profitable?

Are people talking positively about your brand in social spaces? Are you happy with your social profiles?

How well is your interaction with your brand in the social spaces? Are you the only one doing the talking?

Do you currently have pictures that you would be proud to share all over the internet?

Are your internal touch points customer friendly?

How about your online profile as it currently exists? Are you happy with it?

Have you claimed your Google Places, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Urbanspoon profiles?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions and probably about a thousand more than you need to get a mobile app. My point is that unless you are 100% sure that you are ready for a mobile application don’t do it. Building an app that does not represent your brand well could have the unintended consequence of diminishing your brand and not enhancing it.

Here’s my bottomline for independent restaurants:

1. Build your Brand from the inside out
2. Never subordinate your brand with that of someone else
3. Never, Never, Ever Discount!

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Mark Moreno

Welcome to Foodsho, the personal page of Mark Moreno. My goal is to find and share Winning Strategies, Processes, and Innovations for Restaurants. Working all the time to help Independent Restaurants Succeed.

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