Still think you don’t need to utilize a blog to talk to your guests?
The ever-expanding blogosphere still qualifies as the Wild West of the Internet. But at least one weblog-savvy operator has used the online medium to get his new restaurant off to a flying start, attracting everything from a crowd of paying customers on day one to extensive coverage by mainstream media outlets soon thereafter. The total dollar outlay for the publicity blitz that made a hit of blogger Jim Reams’ new Mothership BBQ in Nashville? Zero.Read More
Popularity: 4% [?]
Blame it on Chipotle!
Remember when rapid growth in the fast casual segment was thought to come primarily at the expense of quick-service restaurants? No more. In the current economic environment, a value proposition that combines casual-restaurant-quality food with near-QSR pricing points seems to be convincing many patrons to forego the full-blown casual dining experience and opt for a fast-casual meal instead. Need evidence? Check out the numbers the leading casual dining chains have put up so far this year.Read More
Popularity: 4% [?]
Do you want kid’s in your restaurant?
The number one item posted on the last 4 surveys I have read about bad service is - not surprising to me! - rude behavior of children in the dining room! And I agree! This is even noted above and before rude service from an employee!
I think the day is coming - and not to soon for me - that restaurateurs will begin to find ways to crack down on rude behavior from children. Would you allow that kind of behavior from adults? Not in the least. So why tolerate it from children?
I always coach clients that you make more money from adults who wish to visit you because you do not allow insensitive behavior from the children of obtuse parents. Unless of course you are Chuck E Cheese or a business that is geared toward children. It’s sort of along the lines of the arguments against going smokeless. And once we make the transformation, we will all kick ourselves at not having done it sooner!
Read this writer’s experience! Sound familiar?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Better than they deserve?
Seth Godin
At eight o’clock tonight, the best restaurant in Grand Cayman was deserted. Just two diners, chowing down on an astonishing whole red snapper, caught several hours before by a local fisherman.
Jindi, the owner of the Thai Restaurant in Georgetown, explained to me that they’ve been there for fifteen years and lunch pays the rent. “Every day, lunch is very busy… it’s the cruise ships,” she explained.
Imagining a stream of classic cruise ship turistas invading her restaurant every day made me shudder. The restaurant does well at lunch because it has the perfect location for cruise ships (three blocks from the dock–exactly far enough way to seem exotic). Then I looked over the restaurant and realized that for more than a decade, Jindi has refused to compromise her standards. There are dozens of dishes that would disappear if she was only catering to the lunch crowd. Do the bulk of her customers care about her home-grown thai basil and lime leaves? There are preparations and ingredients that cost her a fortune, and it’s clear why she’s doing it. Not for the bulk of her customers, but for herself, for her staff and for the chowhounds she encounters at random.
Jindi’s refusal to compromise is yet another reason she’s doing so well at lunch, actually. Because taste is starting to catch up with her. People are now ordering the items she would have deleted ten years ago.
And in a connected world, it’s much easier for the chowhounds to leave a digital trail of breadcrumbs to her door.
Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards–and living up to them–is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.
Source: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/07/better_than_the.html
Popularity: 3% [?]
More States Boost Minimum Wage
Lawmakers in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Delaware have recently approved increases to their state’s minimum wage.
In North Carolina, the minimum wage will increase from $5.15 per hour to $6.15 per hour effective January 1, 2007. The new minimum wage law also ties North Carolina ’s minimum wage to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. If the federal minimum wage is raised, employees in North Carolina will receive whichever wage is higher.
In Pennsylvania, the minimum wage will increase from $5.15 per hour to $6.25 per hour on January 1, 2007, and to $7.15 on July 1, 2007. For employers with the equivalent of 10 or fewer full-time employees (based on a 40-hour workweek), the minimum wage will increase in three steps: $5.65 on January 1, 2007; $6.65 on July 1, 2007; and $7.15 on July 1, 2008.
In Delaware, the state minimum wage will increase from $6.15 per hour to $6.65 per hour on January 1, 2007, and to $7.15 per hour on January 1, 2008.
Popularity: 3% [?]
