Restaurants are often targets for online critics, so if you’ve gotten zinged by an unfavorable post or two on Yelp or another review site, you’re not alone. Some things can’t be helped, but how you handle the negativity isn’t one of them.
Here’s a game plan for dealing with online critics:
Call a full staff meeting.
Come prepared with a few negative (and positive) Yelp posts that are credible and can offer teachable moments to your staff.
Constructively review the feedback as a group and talk about strategies for improvement.
Solicit comments from both the front and back of the house to get the whole story.
Reinforce the mantra that either “we all succeed together, or we all fail together.” Invested employees are more likely to be committed to the success of the business.
Make sure everyone on staff understands the protocol for handling a customer service issue and has the autonomy to correct a problem in the moment.
Be sure to address positive reviews, too. It’s important to keep morale up by talking about what’s being done well and giving praise.
Claim your restaurant’s Yelp listing so that you can manage your profile and make posts on behalf of your business.
Implement a policy of responding to both negative and positive reviews. Keep replies sincere and gracious: “Your feedback is important to us. We hope you’ll consider giving us another try.”
Depending on the nature and legitimacy of the review, you could invite the guest to continue the conversation offline, and discuss options for correcting the situation.
While none of these steps can undo a negative customer experience, they can be used constructively to fix a problem area and reduce the likelihood of a repeat occurrence. More importantly, addressing customer feedback and learning from mistakes sets you and your business on the path to long-term success.
In a society that lives by the words, “never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today” and in which we are all just an email, phone call, or text message away from the work crisis of the hour, not to mention, in most cases having a virtual office at your disposal no matter where you are, it can be somewhat difficult to stop working and just live for a minute or two. However, experts agree: the compounding stress from the nonstop workday is damaging to overall well-being, and that maintaining a balance between work and personal life is integral for long-term success in and out of the office. Work-life balance looks different for every individual, but here are a few universal tips from health and career experts that can help you continue on the path toward fulfilling professional goals while carving out time for you and your loved ones.
Moderate perfectionist tendencies. The key to avoid burning out is to let go of perfectionism, says executive coach Marilyn Puder-York, PhD, who wrote The Office Survival Guide. Many of us develop perfectionist tendencies during higher education or our first jobs, however, “as life gets more expanded it’s very hard, both neurologically and psychologically, to keep that habit of perfection going,” Puder-York explains, adding that the healthier option is to strive not for perfection, but for excellence. Prioritize tasks and time according to what is necessary to accomplish your endgame, and stay focused on the overarching goal instead of the minute details.
Turn tech off. The ease of communication in this day and age has created expectations of constant accessibility, thereby allowing work to seep out of the actual workday and into time and space that should be dedicated to your personal life. “There are times when you should just shut your phone off and enjoy the moment,” says Robert Brooks, a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence and Personal Strength in Your Life. Brooks says that phone notifications interrupt your off time and inject an undercurrent of stress in your system. So don’t just silence the work phone, actually turn it off. And if that isn’t enough to stop you from checking it, leave it at home. Make quality time true quality time.
Make time for exercise. Even when we’re busy, we make time for the crucial things in life. We eat. We go to the bathroom. We sleep. And yet one of our most crucial needs – exercise – is often the first thing to go when our calendars fill up. Exercise is an effective stress reducer. It pumps feel-good endorphins through your body. It helps lift your mood and can even serve a one-two punch by also putting you in a meditative state, according to The Mayo Clinic. This doesn’t mean spending 2+ hours pumping iron. Even 20 to 30 minutes of walking has major payoffs and can be worked into the busiest of schedules. If the weather is nice, opt for walking or biking to work instead of driving. Take your dog on a walk or stroll through the park with a friend. Even taking the stairs instead of the elevator fits the bill.
Limit distractions. First, identify what’s most important in your life. This list will differ for everyone, so make sure it truly reflects your priorities, not someone else’s. Next, draw firm boundaries so you can devote quality time to these high-priority people and activities. For those sucked into social media or internet surfing while at work, try using productivity software like Freedom or RescueTime. And if you find your time being gobbled up by less constructive people, find ways to diplomatically limit these interactions by politely excusing yourself. Focus on the people and activities that reward you the most. To some, this may seem selfish. “But it isn’t selfish,” says psychotherapist Bryan Robinson. “It’s that whole airplane metaphor. If you have a child, you put the oxygen mask on yourself first, not on the child.” When it comes to being a good friend, spouse, parent or worker, “the better you are yourself, the better you are going to be in all those areas as well.”
Delegate. Sometimes we forget that help is literally just a phone call away. So, instead of trying to do it all, focus on activities you specialize in and value most. Delegate or outsource everything else. Delegating can be a win-win situation, says Stewart Freidman, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and author of Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life. Freidman recommends talking to the “key stakeholders” in different areas of your life, which could include employees or colleagues at work, a spouse or a partner in a community project. “Find out what you can do to let go in ways that benefit other people by giving them opportunities to grow,” he says. This will give them a chance to learn something new and free you up so you may devote attention to your higher priorities.
Start with baby steps. We’ve all been there: crash diets that fizzle out, New Year’s resolutions we forget by February. It’s the same with work-life balance when we take on too much too soon. Start small, find what approach works for you, then gain confidence from your successes in order to make more drastic changes that secure your own definition of work-life balance.
What strategies do you use to maintain a balanced life? Let us know here, or @gosirvo.
Americans may not have the most pristine reputation when it comes to eating healthily, but that may soon change as consumers are increasingly basing what to eat on healthfulness. As the demand for healthy food rises in and out of the home, the restaurant industry must adapt to fit the times.
Healthy Habits on the Rise
According to the 2014 Food & Health Survey published by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), healthfullness is the third leading driver of food and beverage selection, influencing 71 percent of consumers. And this shift towards better nutrition is not passive at all as the same survey concluded that at least three out of five Americans spend some time planning each of their meals.This healthfulness movement does not only apply to what is being eaten within the household, but extends to what people are looking for when choosing where to eat out. Research conducted by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) shows that nearly 75 percent of consumers are more likely to dine at restaurants offering healthful items, and when ordering, half of Americans at least sometimes use nutrition information to decide what to have.
A Few Changes
So what does this mean for the restaurant industry? It means boosting nutrition while maintaining taste. To help, Deanne Brandstetter, vice president of nutrition and wellness for the Compass Group North America, offers a few easy ways to improve the nutrition content of your menu items:
Increase produce on the plate. Fruit and vegetables have a huge water content, are low in calories, lower in sodium, and have no saturated fat in their natural state. The more produce you place on a plate, the less you need of other items. The challenge: making produce as interesting and craveable as your proteins.
Add umami with mushrooms. Mix ground mushrooms into ground animal protein to decrease calories, sodium and fat and increase fiber, selenium and Vitamin D. Let customers know about it. They’re no longer into “stealth health,” Brandstetter says. They want to know that you’re making your menu items more nutritious – and how you’re doing it.
Reduce sodium. Use salt as a “finisher,” rather than in every step of the preparation. Or, explore new salt replacements. In response to restaurant and consumer demand, food manufacturers are developing innovative, new products to reduce sodium. One example: diamond-shaped salt crystals, which are hollow inside and have more surface area than traditional salt crystals.
Improve carbohydrate quality. Use whole grains in pasta, pilaf, risotto and other dishes. Experiment with grains other than whole wheat, such as millet, quinoa and spelt. Get ideas and resources from the Whole Grains Council.
Create interesting, lower-calorie beverages. Offer house-made, healthful beverages, such as ginger water, sparkling water with fruit or tea infused with fruit or herbs. Serve juice made with fruit and vegetable purees.
Consider strategic calorie design. Create plates with a limited number of calories. For example, if you are designing a plate with no more than 600 calories, make sure every element builds flavor, satisfaction and craveability.
Rethink desserts. Instead of serving a large slice of cheesecake with a strawberry garnish, create a miniature cheesecake surrounded by strawberries. “The CIA calls it the ‘dessert flip,” Brandstetter says. Customers appreciate tiny dessert portions rather than low-calorie versions, she says.
Allow for indulgence. But on a small scale. Instead of a platter of all fried seafood, serve a few fried shrimp and many, many more grilled shrimp on skewers. “It balances it out a little bit,” she says.
How are you making strides to improve the nutrient content of your menus? Let us know here, or @gosirvo.
The survival rate of new restaurants is slim to none nowadays, and just about anything from poor food, to sloppy service, to ill-favored decor can be the kiss of death. BUT there are precautions you can take to improve the odds, so do your homework and read up on some tips straight from the experts.
Have A Plan
“It’s way more romantic to think you can open a restaurant by the seat of your pants, but in reality, planning goes a long way. A business plan takes a ton of guesswork out of the startup process.”
Michael Curcio of Pyrogrill and Ray Sidhom of Four Food Studio
Stick to the Recipe
“A lot of restaurant owners or managers will deal with each task individually. Thinking through processes and standardizing is the key to saving time and resources. Write it down, and refer to the steps until it’s natural. This applies most to staff situations too. There is nothing worse than attempting to manage a bunch of individuals trying to do the same thing, each in their own way.”
David Koji of DineAbility
Be A Team Player
“Be willing to do the jobs of other people at your restaurant. Spend a few hours a week welcoming customers or working the reservation desk. Fill in for a server in an emergency. Show your staff you’re part of the team.”
Scott Maitland of Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery
Trust Your Employees
“Early on I realized that I had to hire people smarter and more qualified than I was in a number of different fields, and I had to let go of a lot of decision-making. I can’t tell you how hard that is. But if you’ve imprinted your values on the people around you, you can dare to trust them to make the right moves.”
Howard Schultz of Starbucks
Trust Yourself
“When creating or shaping your restaurant, think about what would attract you as a customer. Be honest with yourself – would you choose your restaurant over the competition? Until you can say “yes,” keep adjusting according to your own personal dialogue.”
Danny Abrams of The Mermaid Inn
Like Danny Said, Be Honest
“Sometimes these things that you care about so much, you look at them and go, “It’s just not working.” You’ve got to be honest with yourself. If you hear a pattern of things, especially early on, about things not working, you have to look at that and make a decision as to whether or not you should stick with it.”
Tom Colicchio of Craft Restaurants
Keep Your Enemies Close
“You have to know who you are up against. The best thing is to make sure you create a unique niche in the industry before you go forward.”
Steele Platt of Yard House
Learn How To Handle Stress
“Stress as a restaurant owner will never subside, don’t kid yourself! Learn some mechanisms to handle stress – create a strategy to stay on top of your mental and physical health.”
Damien Scoditti of Brio Downtown
Patience Really is a Virtue
“You can’t learn everything in a year or two. You have to learn the basics. It’s amazing how little people know!”
Wolfgang Puck of Cut
Laugh A Little
“Especially when dealing with customer complaints or more stressful issues at your restaurant. Knowing how to smile and not take things too seriously keeps a positive vibe. The customer avoids a tense situation, and you deflect some of the pressure from yourself.”
Nicholas Lander, Restaurant Correspondent for the Financial Times
Celebrate the Successes
“As chefs, we are our own worst critics, and we criticize ourselves to death. We don’t often champion our successes so sometimes we have to take a step back, have a glass of champagne and say, ‘look at what we’ve done.'”
Thomas Keller of French Laundry
Stay Hungry
“Hungry means to try to learn more, always try to work hard, try to understand more from others, don’t be afraid to ask questions, make mistakes and learn from your mistakes.”
Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu
Know any other restaurant success tips? Let us know @gosirvo.
What drives behavior? Daniel Pink, authoritative career analyst, explores this question in his bestselling book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, on which he based his illuminating Ted talk “The Puzzle of Motivation”. The highlights are…
“There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”
Said by Daniel Pink, this statement points to the fact that, while scientific research has demonstrated that intrinsic motivators, such as the desire to learn and feel fulfilled in general, are much more powerful than their counterparts, the current business operating system is built around extrinsic motivators, rewarding top performers and ignoring the rest.
So, what does “science know”?
The carrot-and-stick motivation scheme typical in most organizations, in which performance is incentivized with rewards, usually monetary bonuses, leads to increased performance ONLY when the tasks involved require mechanical skills.
When the tasks involved require rudimentary cognitive skills, the carrot-and-stick scheme is not only ineffective, but also DETRIMENTAL, leading to poorer performance.
Humans have an “inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capabilities,” which comprises the ”third drive”– the joy of the task itself.
The conclusion: extrinsic factors, such as material rewards, do not carry enough motivational weight to increase job performance when critical and creative thinking are required. Instead, intrinsic factors that contribute to how much we enjoy our jobs, are what drives performance in these instances.
A novel approach
Based on the notion of the “third drive”, Pink suggests a revised motivation scheme focused on three intrinsic factors that are vital to feeling fulfilled in the workplace.
They are:
Autonomy: permit employees to direct their own work lives by providing a few freedoms such as how and when a project is completed. Give guidance, but avoid micromanaging, and focus on output rather than schedule.
Mastery: provide employees with opportunities to develop and improve skills in areas that interest them so that boredom is not a possibility. However, include clear goals and feedback in order to support this form of professional growth, and ease anxieties about the learning curve.
Purpose: allow employees to fulfill their natural desires to contribute to a greater cause by emphasizing the organization’s overarching goals, not just profit goals, and ensuring that each and every individual understands his or her role in accomplishing these goals.
And about the $$$: pay employees enough so that the issue of money is off of the table, and work is at the forefront.
At the heart of the issue: the drive to work hard stems from the opportunity for personal growth. Provide this to your employees instead of the proverbial carrot-and-stick, and top-notch job performance will be a given.
How do you or your business provide autonomy, mastery, and purpose, as well as other factors contributing to intrinsic motivation?
