The first step in attacking any decline in your business is not to look at any one area until you have a handle on why the decline is happening in the first place. You cannot do this without an ongoing means of garnering and evaluating guest feedback. Therefore having a system in place to garner feedback in “real time” from guests (and staff!) is critical to planning the change that is constantly demanded from both! It also saves you from wasting critical resources like money, as well as staff and guest good will.
So ask yourself…”Self… "
1. Why do you find yourself in a constant state of catching up? (Sales decline, guest count declines, etc…)
2. How do you plan for them? Do you?
3. How does marketing play a part in the response to those declines?
4. What are your conversations with your staff and your guests telling you?
5. What does an ongoing conversation with guests look like?
6. How do you have an ongoing conversation with your guests?
7. What mediums do you utilize? Not utilize?
8. Is your marketing an on going two-way conversation with guests that will tell you about changing preferences?
9. What do you do with the information you get?
How do you avoid this trap of band-aid marketing?
1. Take a deep breath. Avoid any knee-jerk response that could worsen the situation!
2. Involve your staff! Teach them the importance of ANY guest feedback and how to get it. THIS INCLUDES COMPLAINTS!
3. Have a means in place of constantly and consistently seeking and acquiring guest feedback on every part of your operation outside your four walls.
4. Use that information to plan the evolution of every part of your business.
5. Execute the plans in conjunction with staff input and understanding. Remember that they are your guests too!
6. Wash, rinse, repeat on a daily basis!
Too many times we treat the symptoms and not the disease. Make sure this isn't one of them!
About Me
- Jeffrey Summers
- I am the expert you call when you need to learn how to increase top line sales, lower your operating costs, increase your profit margin, hire and train better managers and staff, evolve your operation into more and better ways of doing business, buy or sell a restaurant, improve your service, engineer (or re-engineer!) your menu, market your business better and less expensively, keep yourself from going nuts because you have no life anymore, open more and better restaurants, don't want to have to give up your first born child to pay a consultant and have more fun! My mission is to enhance the quality of life for my clients by providing the best products and services to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. I take great pride in my clients, my company, my commitment to service and the products I sell. I am a recognized expert in the hospitality industry with over 24 years of success at planning and executing strategies for delivering dramatic results, a former "GM of the Year" for 2 major, full-service, franchises, an Award winning Multi-Unit Executive with 2 of the largest restaurant chains in the U.S., published author, husband and father of two.