Archive for June, 2006

30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Dining on the road an eye-opener about service!

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Alderman Seeks To Ban Trans Fat From Restaurants

After targeting smoking and foie gras in area restaurants the City Council has now set its sights on another target. Gee ,what’s next?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/restaurants/SIG=121ep1881/*http%3A//www.nbc5.com/news/9446752/detail.html?rss=chi&psp=news

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Dessert only restaurants!

The newest addition to the niche restaurant scene is the dessert bar. Room 4 Dessert (New York), Espai Sucre (Barcelona) and our most recent spotting, ChikaLicious, limit their menus to creative concoctions that satisfy even the most ardent sweet tooth.

A tiny 20-seat eatery in New York, founded by husband and wife team Don and Chika Tillman, ChikaLicious offers a 3-course menu for USD 12, consisting of a sweet amuse, the customer’s choice of main course dessert, and petit fours to top it off. The menu features dishes such as Honey Parfait in Blackberry Soup with Tarragon and Lace Crisp, and the signature Fromage Blanc Island Cheese Cake (described as ‘heaven on a plate’ by a customer on the restaurant’s TurnHere video).

The owners explain: “The idea behind an all dessert restaurant was something that we’d been thinking of for quite a while. Here in New York City, if you want a really fine dessert that’s taken seriously, you have to go to one of those fine restaurants. We wanted to create a place that would allow you to go have noodles across the street and then come here for a very nominal price to have a wonderfully treated dessert.”

A fun idea that lets adults live out their childhood fantasy of skipping dinner and going straight to dessert. The dessert bar is also a welcome addition to regular restaurants that work with tight seating schedules and rush customers from appetizers to cheque. Less need to hurry through dessert if it can be enjoyed at leisure elsewhere.

Source: http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/dessertonly_restaurants/

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Why Managing by Facts Works!

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton

Using hard facts, such as qualitative or quantitative data, to make strategic decisions is the clearest path to the best business choices. Yet many executives ignore the facts and make “gut” decisions based on fads or hunches. Although there’s great value in keen intuition and fresh ideas, evidence-based management leads to competitive advantage.

Read full article here.

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Customer entropy partially to blame for poor customer service

Come to think about it, customer entropy (or customer apathy) is partly to blame for the state of customer service. The reason most companies deliver bad customer service is because they can - not enough customers complain or abandon brands after a bad customer service experience.

If more people were to talk back to companies or report customer service abuse to their local local consumer affairs departments, the overall state of customer service would improve.
What do you think? Is there a way to foster consumer activism so that we can finally get the service that we deserve, the right return on providing our personal information as part of buying transactions, and intelligent humans to interact with when facing post sale issues? Or is it like voting - enough people are generally happy enough so that the only thing we can expect is status-quo?

You would expect that a new entrant who delivers outstanding customer service would change the playing field in that sector - but is that really happening? Could it happen?

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Parents Spend Money at Eateries With Child Amenities

TIME TO CHANGE: If you’re not thinking about your youngest customers, it’s time to start doing so.

Not long back, the New York Times ran a story about a guy who shows up at a Hooters in Manhattan and asks the hostess if they have a diaper-changing table in the men’s room. As you might expect, the national chain restaurant did not.

THEY LIKE YOU! THEY REALLY LIKE YOU!

Wondering what’s going on inside your customers’ heads these days? You can learn a lot about what they value in a full-service restaurant dining experience by checking out the July, 2006 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, in which the ad-free magazine ranks 103 casual and family dining full-service chains. There’s good news on many fronts for every operator, chain or not, and even the nitpickers at CR say there is already enough nutritional information and healthy dining options on most full-service menus. But, wow, did they ever have it in for Friendly’s.

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Curbside enthusiasm

Casual dining restaurants are using curbside pickup increasingly, and pizza restaurants are beginning to do the same.

Read the full story

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Geographic proximity spurs WOM recommendations.

According to a April 2005 GfK NOP study. Ranked from the most to the least, people were most likely to pass along a recommendation to:

1. Friends (88%)
2. Family member (87%)
3. People who share the same interests (66%)
4. Colleagues (61%)
5. Neighbors (42%)
6. Community group members (42%)
7. Other consumers (35%)
8. Fellow parents at kids’ activities (27%)

Learn more

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30 June, 2006 by Jeffrey Summers Categories :
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Raising Capital for Your Restaurant - How Long Does it Take?

Most owners vastly underestimate the time commitment necessary to successfully complete a financing. In actuality, an owner seeking financing needs to budget between 500 to 1000 work-hours to the capital-raising process, spread out over a 6-9 month time period.

The key processes in the capital-raising process include 1) perfecting the business plan, offering memorandum, and other company due diligence materials, 2) developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list, 3) contacting this list and responding to investor due diligence requests, and 4) negotiating the transaction.

Completing the business plan typically requires at least 200 hours of work. This time is dedicated to conducting the market research to validate the opportunity, developing a comprehensive financial model, determining the most effective way to lay out the business strategy, and actually writing and proofing the business plan.

The next step, developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list is also very time consuming. There are thousands of potential investors, each of which has very different tastes regarding the types of ventures that interest them. Some invest by market sector (e.g., healthcare vs. telecommunications), stage (seed stage vs. later stage), geography, or a combination of these. Many hours must be dedicated to determine which investors are the right fit for your restaurant. This process involves creating a master investor list, visiting each investor and reviewing their investment criteria and past investments, and determining who is the right contact to begin with.

To see how easily the time adds up, consider that only about 25% of prospective investors who show an initial interest in a transaction actually progress to detailed company due diligence. Only about 10% of this 25% actually progress to a bonafide offer of funds, of which only 25% of these actually result in an investment transaction. So completing a financing transaction requires, on average, contacting approximately 160 pre-qualified prospective investors.
The due diligence process, where investors scrutinize the investment, can also be very time consuming for the company. Investors often request many documents, some of which can be easily retrieved from files (e.g., prior tax returns), while others may take more time to prepare (e.g., additional market analysis, customer lists with past purchases, contact information, etc.).

Finally, negotiating a transaction can take a significant amount of time depending upon the complexity of the transaction and number of parties involved.

Too many companies fail to raise capital since they are unaware of the significant time requirements to do so. Those owners who understand these requirements and budget accordingly are the ones most likely to persevere and end up with the capital they need.

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