Usually, one of the least enjoyable parts of going out to eat is paying the bill. With all of the creative ways you work to “wow” your customers, from signage to social media to redesigned spaces, what are you doing to impress guests at the close of their meal? The Restaurant Hospitality magazine talked to a few operators who are thinking outside of the traditional check presenter.
Geraldine’s, on the fourth floor of the Hotel Van Zandt, in Austin, TX, delivers its checks inside vintage books that highlight Texas history and Austin Music. Geraldine’s Director of Food & Beverage, Tobias Peach, says, “Guests love it and often comment on the books being a charming surprise at the end of their meal.”
The notebooks started as just a fun and easy presenter, but soon guests were writing mini reviews, notes to servers and chefs, and it just kind of took off.
At Honey Salt in Las Vegas, owner and founder Elizabeth Blau says that when Honey Salt first opened, they were looking for new ways to connect with friends and guests and chose notebooks as check presenters.
“The notebooks started as just a fun and easy presenter, but soon guests were writing mini reviews, notes to servers and chefs, and it just kind of took off,” says Blau. “We have a whole cabinet of them in the office, and sometimes it’s great to flip through and be able to relive the stories of the restaurant. I much prefer them to reading Yelp reviews.”
Digital bill folder made our table servers more efficient, and as a result, we’re able to turn tables more quickly.
Emory’s on Silver Lake in Everett, WA, uses a digital bill folder to cleverly disguise a high-tech RAIL payment terminal inside the otherwise normal looking check presenter. G.M. Robert Frost says the main reason they made the switch was for customer card security.
“We didn’t want to be the restaurant that had a customer’s card information breached,” he says. “The system has helped us from both a labor standpoint and from an efficiency standpoint. It’s made our table servers more efficient, and as a result, we’re able to turn tables more quickly.”
The ones who go on Yelp are either angry or love it; in Saylii we see many happy or neutral customers.
Several restaurants in San Francisco are testing a new app called Saylii, which asks customers to share their experience via writing, voice recording or video at the time of check payment, according to Saylii CEO Esther Kuperman.
“We’re seeing that the restaurants are getting reviews from people who generally never post reviews,” says Kuperman. “Usually, the ones who go on Yelp are either angry or love it; here we see many happy or neutral customers.”
More check delivery ideas
Utilize branded wooden clipboards and attach postcards showcasing local artists or upcoming events at the restaurant.
Use an item that represents your brand, such as a miniature pizza paddle, a mason jar, or a coffee cup to deliver the check.
Attach the check to a personalized photo album that highlights the buildout—or history—of your restaurant.
If you run a hospitality business, marketing yourself is a large part of your success. To do that, you’ll need to be active on social media. With so much going on, it may be difficult to know just how to get started, but there are nuances that make each platform stand out–use the best practices for each platform in order to truly grow your business without extra effort, with these tips below:
Facebook
With the largest digital population of all social media sites, Facebook is where you will reach the largest segment of your customers and potential customers. Facebook also has the largest variety in terms of content you can post.
Facebook also has the largest variety in terms of content you can post.
Take advantage of the easy shareability the platform provides by posting an enjoyable mix of entertaining posts, from special event announcements to fun foodie facts and behind-the-scenes photos, and encourage your followers to share with their friends. With a small budget (starting at $5 a day), you can boost your posts, which will spread them to a much wider audience, outside your own internal network.
Facebook also allows you to source reviews and post them on a special tab. Since word of mouth is the best way to find new customers, don’t miss this chance; invite customers to review your business on Facebook as often as possible, including messaging on flyers, posters, your website, and more. Include these reviews on your website as well.
Twitter
Twitter is an of-the-moment platform. Followers see your posts in real time, so Twitter is the perfect place to react to customer comments and provide statements on relevant events as they happen. You’ll show that your business is up-to-speed, responsive, and attentive.
Make Twitter your forum for public service.
Make Twitter your forum for public service, and ensure that you respond to any customers’ mentions, tweets, or comments about your brand as soon as possible. By quickly reacting and offering commentary or assistance, you’ll be able to set your business up as a leader in the industry for client needs.
Instagram
Instagram is a highly popular platform that works best when the images do the talking for you. Use this platform to let your products shine! Showcase beautiful images of your business’s food, set-up, and fun employee moments as well, since followers love to see original and enjoyable behind-the-scenes snapshots and feel a connection.
Use Instagram to let your products shine!
Instagram is also a great place to source user-generated images, as people love to post their own material. Use this to your advantage by hosting contests on Instagram: invite followers to post an image of dining at the restaurant (or their favorite meal, or activity perhaps), then tagging your profile in order to win a free meal.
It’s an easy-to-enter and fun activity that will generate wonderful brand awareness to your followers’ followers, as well as a plethora of fan photos that you may be able to share and use, too.
Social Media Tools
By focusing on the aspects of each channel that will work best for your hospitality business, you can grow your brand without too much exertion. To make it even more seamless for your marketing team, consider using a social media scheduling tool or monitoring tool, where you keep an eye on all platforms at once.
To make it even more seamless for your marketing team, consider using a social media scheduling tool.
One of the best tools out there is Hootsuite, where you can schedule posts and track all of your activity at once. To watch multiple topics and conversations in real time on Twitter, you can also look into Tweetdeck, which will easily show you all topics, accounts, and conversations of interest in one simple layout.
Another option, if you’re looking to automate any posts from one channel to show directly on another, is IFTTT. If you’re looking into this, consider the relevance of each post for multiple channels to be sure you want to post that content widely.
With these platform-specific tips, you can begin to post and share to social media now, growing your business strategically – and enjoyably!
The restaurant industry may suffer from high turnover, but you don’t have to. If you work on these aspects of your restaurant, you will find more employees staying for longer.
While some people look forward to summer as a time to relax, go on vacation, and maybe hit the beaches, for many others, it’s the time to look for work. So how do you maximize your hiring efforts during this time? Let’s look at 7 ways to make this summer your best hiring season yet!
The US wastes about 30% to 40% of the food supply, and that uneaten food goes right to landfills, where it produces methane gas and takes up space. How you decide to stop food waste is up to you; just remember that every little bit counts.
Being a manager in a restaurant, or in any hospitality business, is a constant juggling act. From supervising staff to heading business operations, it can be a struggle to keep up. So that ‘s why January’s Hacks Series is all about management tips and tricks. To kick it off, we’re sharing our list of the best apps, online tools, and digital solutions to help streamline your management processes.
Number of reservations by party size and seating arrangement by table size
Cost: Free
The tool from the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) allows restaurant operators and managers to optimize their reservations and seating by inputting key parameters into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then using the Solver add-in to view the outputs. The tool’s creator, Gary Thompson, explains that it does so by determining the “best mix of tables in a restaurant, while simultaneously determining which reservations should be accepted from forecasted demand.” The inputs include party size, table size and number, average dining time, and average revenue by party size as well as the degree to which to inflate the amount of time guests will be seated at a table, termed the ‘Round-Up’.
The full description and instructions document depicts the components of the tool and explains how to use the tool by presenting a practical example of table mix optimization for two nights. The tool is provided by CHR free of charge and can be downloaded here.
Maintain an online guestbook to track diner contact info, food preferences, allergies, and more
Available for iPad
Cost: Free trial; $99/month
It should be no surprise that Yelp, an industry leader, has developed a restaurant management tool. SeatMe is an advance management system for your front-of-house needs, allowing you to take online reservations, manage seating, keep track of available tables, and even text waiting patrons when their tables are ready.
Enable ordering on your restaurant website, from you Facebook page, or from within the ChowNow app
Available online or for iOS and Android
Cost: Free Basic Account; Pro Account from $8.99/month
Online ordering goes fancy with ChowNow, a handy app that gives foodies access to your menu via your own website, Facebook page, or the ChowNow mobile app. Allow diners to customize their orders, so your kitchen knows just what to make, and check out online – orders are beamed straight to your restaurant’s main tablet, where employees can check and complete the order, and finally notify patrons when their orders will be ready.
Hundreds of questions cover requirements from the ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification Examination, the American Food Safety Institute (AFSI) Food Manager Certification (FMC) exam, and the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals (NRFSP) Certified Food Safety Professional examination
Choose study mode or test mode
Available online or for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Palm
Cost: $3.99
The Food Safety Exam Prep app from Upward Mobility offers the most comprehensive food prep information, health requirements, and U.S. safety standards of any mobile app. The test module is perfect for keeping your kitchen current on safety standards, and will help anyone prepare for certification or re-certification.
Built-in extras include a barcode scanner, multiple currency support, database backup and restore, password protection, and auto-default values
Filter by item, category, company, location, supplier/client, payment and shipment
Available for Android
Cost: $5.99
For simple inventory tracking – and streamlined bookkeeping and tax reporting – Inventory Tracker delivers with an easy-to-use solution. The handy app makes it easy to track your restaurant inventory, sales, revenues and balance sheet – daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Create reports and transfer data to spreadsheet format.
Wine pairing, not to mention keeping track of an extensive wine cellar, is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the restaurant business, especially without a Sommelier. Enter Uncorkd, an iPad-based wine menu that also keeps track of your wine inventory. Customers can get a comprehensive view of your restaurant’s wine menu including a bottle’s origin, vintage and recommended pairings, while you can easily track inventory.
Publicly accessible business pages that display open jobs
Multi-admin business accounts
Re-usable job listings
Applicant tracking system
Messaging hub
Cost: Free for the moment
Sirvo helps businesses in the hospitality industry hire by connecting employers and job seekers on a platform that simplifies the hiring process, from posting jobs to reviewing applications. With Sirvo, you don’t have to worry about your job listings getting buried under more recent postings because your business page acts as your own hosted careers site. This makes advertising positions easier on you and finding jobs easier on professionals. Plus, you can invite admins to help manage your business page, search and message candidates, and organize applicants using the applicant tracking system.
WorkBright provides businesses that need to onboard new employees rapidly with paperless HR. By reducing the time it takes to collect and process new hire forms and automating the tedious workflows and data entry involved in onboarding new employees, WorkBright virtually eliminates the hiring costs associated with dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Plus, WorkBright ensures that your HR files are compliant, organized, and easily-accessible.
Digital access to staff schedule, from anywhere at anytime
Forecast labor costs with an as-you-schedule dollar tally
Available online from any computer or mobile device
Cost: Free trial; Accounts from $19/month
The purpose of ScheduleFly is to make restaurant staff scheduling easier by simplifying communications between you and your employees. The app turns any mobile device or computer into your communications central: post time schedules, your employees can request shift changes, and you can all coordinate on time off. Best of all, the app makes it easy to avoid costly overtime and forecast labor costs.
Manage your social presence across sites, from one platform
Log on once to schedule posts throughout the day, week or month
Available online or for iOS and Android
Cost: Free Basic Account; Pro Account from $8.99/month
Chances are, your restaurant has gone social and chances are, all that required networking is overwhelming. HootSuite steps in with a simple tool that makes it easy to manage all your social networks, scheduling posts and cross-publishing photos, status updates, and more to multiple social sites. Integrated social profiles include Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, and others.
Magic resize to automatically create images for all social media platforms (instagram, twitter, google+, etc.)
Cost: Free Basic Account; Canva for Work $119.40/year, $12.95/month
Canva makes designing graphics for social media, presentations, posters, and more exceptionally easy. Included are tons of different layouts to get your design started that are available in pre-set dimensions (for social media) as well as in custom dimensions. Build your designs with Canva’s integrated images, icons and shapes, backgrounds, fonts, and photo filters, many of which are free. Plus, you can upload your own images!
To help businesses produce on-brand marketing materials, Canva recently introduced Canva for Work, which allows teams to collaborate, save brand colors, logos, and fonts, and build their own templates. Also included is automated resizing for various social media images sizes.
Fishbowl is not new and is an industry standard, but we wanted to include it anyway because it should definitely be in you business tool repertoire. With several analytics-based solutions available, Fishbowl focusses on helping restaurants optimize their marketing, strategy, and revenue management. From measuring dining behavior and defining target segments to analyzing and optimizing digital marketing efforts, Fishbowl will help maximize your marketing returns.
Integrating digital solutions and apps in your management practices will not only increase efficiency but also improve your processes and save your business money, so take a few minutes to check out your options! Coming up next are tips on business operations, so be sure to check back in.
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.
Linger Eataury, the latest Denver dining establishment to be nationally recognized for its awesomeness, was named 2015 Restaurant Bar of the Year by Nightclub & Bar Media Group earlier this month, and rightly so!
The annual Nightclub & Bar Awards, established to honor “well deserving bars, nightclubs and lounges for excellence in the industry,” announced the 2015 winners in early March following a lengthy two-month selection period. Entries submitted by industry professionals on behalf of venues across the country were reviewed by a panel of recognized experts, who then determined the finalists and winners.
According to Jon Taffer, president of Nightclub & Bar and host/executive producer of Spike TV’s Bar Rescue, “the winners are visionaries who are instrumental in setting trends and forging the way for other hospitality venues,” and Linger most definitely fits the bill.
Situated in the former Olinger Mortuary garage – thus the name, which chef/owner Justin Cucci came up with by dropping the O and substituting Mor with Eat – this wildly popular restaurant/bar is the total package, from victuals to libations to aesthetics; the kitchen serves up a salute to the street food of the world, the mortuary theme is touched on without getting too kitschy (Linger tissues available for weepers, a “Harold and Maude” photo mural hangs over the open kitchen, funeral fans hang from a wall), and last but not least, the views overlooking downtown Denver are absolutely breathtaking.
Yup, it’s pretty obvious why locals and visitors alike haven’t stopped rushing the doors since they opened in summer 2011.
And now it’s official: Linger is the 2015 Restaurant Bar of the Year. Congratulations, it’s well deserved!
