Treat Employees with Respect or Else!!!

December 21st, 2008

It may sound like a scary title and you may be wandering why we are writing this. Well this is a major factor overlooked by many restaurant owners who feel like they are “The Boss” and have full control over there employees. That is far from the truth, and we will begin to answer how so?

People naturally may be a bit spitefull, and that goes to saying employees are not any different from the rest of us. Hurt an employees feelings and what can happen; Many factors including one that the employee will just stay quite towards you but the second you are gone you do not see what goes on with the customers. We even dare you to try it out and you will notice within one month how food costs start to rise, more food is wasted, and you will notice a steady decline in customers.

We have stated previously that the restaurant industry is the largest service industry in United States. Training employees does not mean hurtin one’s feeling or using an unprofesional tone which happens with many restaurants over here on Staten Island. More then one might think. Things that can arise from this if you single out one employee over the others and keep using a certain conduct towards one specific person/employee can actually result in a lawsuit as harrasment. Thining otherwise as that being the last result. The main thing that does happen is all the above mentioned before, I know as I personally have worked in a restaurant for many years and see the difference of the way employees work (including myself) on the way we are treated.

Final Note: Remember your employees treat your customers the way you treat them.

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Winter is Almost Here - Advertising throughout the Year

November 12th, 2008

Hey the Title Rhymes… You have (Two months Until the new Year), and you need to figure out quick and fast ways to advertise and remind your customers that you are there, they need to see your name every single day next year. How? your marketing campaign has to start now, Create/Order calanders & magnets, be the first one to give them out and now is the time to start. Your customers will put these up and you will be part of there house. You may already do this, but this year start early! We mean NOW! Many restaurants give these out and you probably were planning, but if you are the first one to give it a customer they may refuse the next restaurants gift.

Prizes for Holidays: Create an Address Bank, Emails & Phone Number list, give away holiday prizes or gift certificates, E-mail your specials to customers through the full year (monthly) is good and not annoying. Send out holiday cards too everyone on the list with Gift prizes ranging from (5$ - 30$) These are minor advertising expenses and will be remembered forever and told to family friends. Figure you send it out to 100 Customers (100x Average of 10$ a person = 1000$) You are guarenteed to get these 100 customers back and make much more of the bill. Offer free Wine, Desserts and many other special prizes during the holiday season.

Seasonal Greetings: Put the spirit of the holidays into your restaurant, buy Red Holiday Wear for the employees, decorate, make it feel like a Fresh New Year, make your place warm and cozy. Why is it that during the holidays all families get together and celebrate, they like the cozy feeling of Christmas, Even if they don’t celebrate it. You need to create that *Extra* homely atmosphere in December. Staten Island has many families eating and ordering catering from local restaurants, even though you should be preparing excellent meals the entire year, These catering orders usually are seen by many more people so it is the time to give freebies and gifts with every order, the full family/friends will be seeing this and remembering this for the full year.

Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years Dinners: Really thoughtful, Prix-Fix packages prepared by your best chef. I once had dinner at a Un-Mentioned Staten Island Restaurant last year for the Party after, Prix-Fix, This restaurant usually served great food. I figured we go for the dinner, stay for the dancing/club (95$ + 40$). I still taste the (Waste) from that restaurant and would never think of going back just because of that one bad experience.

Anyways here is a quick sum-up if you can’t read the whole package post: During the holiday season, Staten Island Restaurant’s need to work harder to leave a great aftertaste for the entire year and use marketing and advertising tools that will remind your customers you are there for the entire year.

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To Buy, Sell or Hold Off?

October 17th, 2008

A few potential restauranters have been contacting Whereyoueat (In person & online) wandering if they should buy a business now. We have came up with some tips to help you decide and make your life a bit simpler.

The first reaction to everybody would probably be: We need to hold off until we get out of these damaging times. That may be very true but right now is the time to hunt for bargains. I know many places that have lately went out of business (With contracts, leases, terms) who are litterly giving the place with equipment for free as long as you take over the lease. I have personally seen a 140k Valued Restaurant going for 45k. So now do you run out and buy a business? This here is a point, in many different senses its like a home market value, Homes have hit an all time low, do you buy? OF COURSE! Business is different allthough, They have lost the value because it costs to stay in business, the reason it has dropped is that it may cost you out of pocket to stay open. But of course if you are able to come in and finance yourself through (not making high/any profit for the next 2 - 3 years) you will definatly be buying a bargain.

I do not mean to discourage anybody but it is lately I see restaurants open and close with 2 - 3 months and I wish I could have helped them. Of the top of my head here is a list of the few restaurants that have closed or changed owners in the fast few weeks. (Fabozzi’s pizza will open under new management La Bella, La Pica pizzeria is currently for sales, Pazzo Pizza on New dorp has been closed, Dominics Bakery on Hylan/Seaview is also closed, New Sushi on Victory Blvd closed, Emilia pizza closed) Ok I am not trying to make this sound depressing and remember this is a buyers market, so if you can buy now cheap and hold through the economy return, you may be successfull: Our Last Reminder if you chose the buy method: Low Overhead, Low Employees is the engine of your success.

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Still on the Economy (Reccession is Here)

October 7th, 2008

Is the Depression Coming?
Special Note to Restaurants on Staten Island, or Anywhere for that matter:
We have possibly hit a recession, in the coming weeks we will be putting together a plan and forecast to get through this mess. We will be providing you with more tips on decreasing costs, please remember we care about you. (Actually our business is based on yours, if there wasn’t you, there wouldn’t be us). The posts on this blog will help you tremendously and don’t want you to take it for granted, they come from real life experiences and are here for your benefit.

Since we have been noticing a tremendous amount of restaurants closings on Staten Island and people are still looking on buying business and closed establishments trying to make something better themselves, we have some suggestions on increasing profits by lowering costs, so most of you can stay in the game until the economy resolves itself:
• Use a better technique by serving portion sizes. (Customers actually prefer to get the same constituently then one time receive a large portion then a smaller one)
• Close on your Slowest Days, Many Restaurants are closed for Mondays and Sundays.
• Cut Hours, Remove employees that are not necessary at certain times.
• Have Drivers do some of the things that removed employees used to do.
• Decreasing Quality??? Yes this one has a big question mark, Is it possible that you can decrease quality by cutting enough costs but not decreasing quality of service, food and presentation. This is in consideration only for takeout places such as pizzerias and Chinese foods, American and fast food stops. Customers can understand that you are trying to do this because of the economy, and they probably prefer you cut costs somewhere rather then increase your prices. Here is a list you can cut the quality but still remain it not noticeable to the average customer and counting up these things from an average restaurant can save you about 300 a week, 1200 a month.
(Plastic Bags, Utensils, Ketchup served in containers, Conserve on Napkins, Paper bags, Teach your delivery team and counter people to use the right bag instead of wasting more larger bags when not needed. Giving crackers for Soup, slow down, don’t give utensils when not necessary, ask the customer if they need utensils instead of just putting it for everybody.
These little tips will help you get through these hard times, we are there to support you and care about the local restaurant community which was why this website has been created.

We understand the economy is very bad, we are hitting a depression and my personal opinion, it will take us 3 - 5 years of conservation for us to get out of this. So lets all hold tight, keep our budgets together and we will get through this.
Staten Island owners we are beginning to offer advertising options for our main site http://www.whereyoueat.com And we understand your pockets are tight. We will work with you till you are satisfied, we will offer advertising that works for a great price.

The post is filed under both “Profit Tips” & “The Restaurant Economy” for a reason, we are talking about the current economy as well as giving a few tips on saving and creating better profit for yourself.

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Restaurant: Your Own Business or Service Industry?

October 2nd, 2008

Restaurant Owners and Future Restaurant owners may think (They do not want to work for anybody else) so this is one reason that many people go into the restaurant business thinking people will be working for them.  Well if you think that you are way off.

Restaurant Business is a Service Industry, each “Client” Customer comes in, you work for them to prepare and service the food to there needs, hoping they are satisfied and come back for more. The Restaurant Business can not be outsourced, people want there food now, hot, fresh and fast with a little extra “Oomph” on the side to make them go back to your place instead of the one next door.  Yup Staten Island, we have 16 Pizzeria’s in one zip code (10306) so this especially pertains to you, There was a restaurant that went through 4 different owners in two years. 

“The Customer is Always Right” everybody heard of this rule but many seem to ignore it.  The customer does not have to know they are always right, but they have to be shown this.  I will continue with the “Service” part.  Many restaurants are failing these days because people aren’t willing to pay extra for the service that they can provide themselves. Shoprites sales are up at an all time in the past 4 years, Shoprite has began to deliver food with ordering online. A person cooking themselves on average will save 70% of food cost. What is your restaurant going to do to make up the persons mind in spending an extra 70%? This is where Service comes in.

One it starts with:
->Providing Napkings, Plates, Utensiles, Salt, Pepper, Ketchup…
->Include something to have customers in easy cleanup
A Customer is willing to pay extra not to have the setup, but a customer will remember you at the end of the meal if it is easy for them to clean everything up and make this process as smooth as possible for them.
->Easy setup of everything
->Time to lower the prices
(Yes sometimes this is better, rather to lower the prices and not make a profit but stay in business, than to go out of business) Restaurants are closing, I personally have seen multiple closing every month since this economy has struck and it makes me feel very sad as it is effecting the Staten Island Community.  Many times I see a new place open up and I take a quick guess of how long it will last. 
I can see quickly if the place offers the service that will attract a customer or if they are just there to sell something and go home…

Dining Room Service: To make a person feel like they want to eat out, Where do they rather go, Living room style or Restaurant Room Style? A Combination of both is the best, people want to feel like they are somewhere different, but also if they are comftorable and feel like in there house they will come back more often. 

Lounges & Late night Parties: Where & how to? Yes you have to have a bar for this, but these parties keep many restaurants open especially if it is a safe proven place not to get out of control.  Yes it is good to have a “Bunch of People” in there, drinking a lot, yelling, screaming and etc… But place like this will last for 3 - 6 months.  Better to provide a comftorable homely atmosphere to allow it to last permanantly. 

Topic Overview (Chapter 3, Alex Dushkin: Restaurant Advisor)
Think of yourself as providing a Service, just like accountants, programmers, mechanics.
Try to be the Service Leader in this Industry (Providing Easy Set-up’s as well as Easy Clean-Ups)

Service is way more appreciated then taste and is remember more then the taste, anyways the service makes food taste better as well as can kill the appetite.
Provide a good service, Lower your prices a bit, Keep up with latest Technology and you will succeed. 
Till Nex’t Week! -

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Giving away Freebies, While locals Smear your restaurant!!!

September 25th, 2008

Ok so you are a local restaurant on Staten Island and you decided to have a grand opening special for the local community by giving away “Free Food” to attract customers to your establishment, offering a special meal at the same time that other customers can not get anywhere else for a small price. Sounds like a good idea? Probably Not! (This article is not filed under profit tips).

Let’s say you do it anyways and realize another local Restaurant starts calling/visiting or standing in front of your restaurant telling your “Hungry People” not too accept any food from you and using Sneaky Tactics to drive those people away from you. What do you do?

It is truly hard to say, Staten Island usually can’t find itself in that position, but off the bat: You get angry, upset and hurt that all that work goes un-appreciated. *Especially if that customer tells you they don’t want your ‘Free Food’.

Well the answer to that question ‘what you do?’ is simply nothing!
The customers are usually not stupid and can understand that there would be one reason why a person or a competitor starts trying to smear your name because they see your local Restaurant as a major threat in the Restaurant Food world.

Your relationships will only become Stronger with your potential customers if you actually have one of these ‘name samearers’ who do not know how to do business ethically.

Anyways we are not telling you to open up giving away free food, that is not a good business Model and we all know that. But if you decide to run a promotion, do not worry, people will try to smear your name, even if you are doing it from your heart, but your customers will in the end appreciate you and understand why others are saying this against you. Till Next week’ Good Luck Staten Island…

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The Economy with more Technology, Restaurant Factor!

September 20th, 2008

What happens to the local community with jobs are outsources or removed to new technology.  People think, The Restaurant Industry: Especially on Staten Island, Can never remove jobs since this is not hit.  Guess what folks, we all have to prepare for the future and even the Restaurant Business is part of removing jobs slowly due to new technology.

An example already includes “Online Table Reservations” such as the website OpenTable.com, Yes not as popular and not used by everybody, especially anybody on Staten Island but it can easily flow into our borough. Before we needed a phone person to take reservations, confirm and everything of that nature, now a little icon pops up on the restaurants computer “You’ve Got Reservation!” Simple click, Confirm and E-mailed back to customer. 

Another great example which is already beginning to effect the local community: Online Ordering.  http://www.whereyoueat.com is currently not part of this trend but we are holding off on the sidelines until the general public is ready for this.  But on the community side, depending how fast and how much of the community it targets and spreads, many restaurant owners may choose to cut a few shifts, cut some hours, save some bills. They don’t need as many phone people when most of the orders are coming through the Fax Machine or showing up on the Restaurant’s POS System. 

Where does this lead us? To a further damaging economy.  Can we prevent this? Whoa, I am not an economist, I am only a Manager/Marketing Major but basic common sense tells us is we are in a very rough position, I was doing some research online and you know what I found? OUTSOURCING JOBS OF basic Data Entry positions to the phillipines for 3$ an Hour!! Soon Doctors office, dentists, surgeons, and probably even accounting jobs will be outsourced!

Why am I writing this? I personally got scared after realizing closely what is going on in even the smallest sectors of the business world. 
Do I have a solution: It is impossible for one person to come up with a solution but as a whole community we can try… How? Find out more in the next article under the New Category  

For now: Make sure your Menu is up to date at the http://www.whereyoueat.com Main Website..

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Employee Hiring while Lowering Turnover

September 10th, 2008

The Biggest headache in running or managing a restaurant is employees not showing up, employees quitting on short term notice, Coming in late, Leaving home early.

This is very costly to any business especially restaurant since you are doing transactional selling, on a one time term and trying to sell as much food as you could in a given time, an employee missing in action can decrease the profit margin by so much its unpredictable.  Customers order less food, return a lot less if there is a longer wait.  This is still New York City, even though it may be the lost borough we still have NYC in our blood and want things fast, Now and Hot. 

 

How can we decrease Employee turnover, this all starts in the hiring process and the training, a new employee should never feel scared or overwhelmed by a job, especially in the first few days.  If they start knowing the first day they come in the job is stressfull, no matter how easy it becomes there phsycology will tell them its stressfull. Same thing happens vice versa, if they start and its easy, even if it gets a big stressfull they will not feel it and mind it too much. 

 

Your sign on policy should include that you dock 30min of pay if they are late, is this legal?  No An Employee has to get paid for the amount of hours worked, The better policy for this is you give there working day to another employee, they lose on Avg 6 hours of pay the next week. They know they should not be late.  Write this big in company policy when the potentiol employee is signing on.

Training is very important, the most important part of hiring the employhee and should be taken very seriously.  There should be a plan drawn of things that need to be went over and possibly even tested on at the end of the course.  A Poorly trained employee is a stressed employee who is looking for another job as I write.

 

The Plan; Should include everything from register, phones, credit card machines, packing.  Why? Many places have only one person who knows how to cash out a credit card machine. This is a proven fact which was researched deeply by the whereyoueat media Crew with Staten Island Owners. 10 Restaurants were part of this and in 8, Only the owner and manager or one counter person knew how to fix problems on the credit card.  Credit card machines are the most vulnerable to things that may go wrong, people get rung up twice, a customer wants to cancel but there is nobody authorized with knowledge to refund a credit card. Heck, I would even teach drivers how to operate it. 

 

Another Phsycology Lesson: a person wants to feel productive, even if the pay is not great, they want to feel important, “I can fix that, I can do the cc machine”  Hey we all want to be important.  The more they know the more they will want to stay.

 

Stop Total Turnover: Not Possible. People are always leaving, moving, finding new jobs, starting their own oppurtinities… But if you have a design plan to hiring and training new employees, this will be down to a minimum and your employees will be more likely to tell you they are quitting soon and provide you with a two or more week notice if you need it.

 

Anyways good luck.

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Advertising Helps New Business “Bobz Ribz”

September 9th, 2008

Bobz Ribz, Formely located on north railroad, there is actually a blog post on our main website it being filed under grand openings. Lets get to the details.

Before Bobz Opened on staten island everybody in all the towns knew who they were, Why? It was the most seen menu on whereyoueat, Why? No they did advertise with whereyoueat, but they were the most searched restaurant menu on staten island using Google, Yahoo and many other search engines, Why?
Answer: They knew how important advertising was part of any business. They invested a huge load of money which not every business is able to do, But I can guarentee they got there money back and retained some permanent customers.

advertising is important if not the most important part of a business, everybody has to have it even if you are so established that you can’t handle your business already. your name has to be Seen here, there and everywhere after initial advertising you could cut of many but still keep a few, keep a commercimal running, keep a b us advertising, or finally staten islanders have an oppurtinity to advertise to hungry locals using whereyoueat.

This case study is actually dealing with Bobs Ribz and their commercial, Time Warner Cable did a great job advertising them as I a person who has no time for tv whatsoever have sen a few of their commercials ‘bobs ribz, they’re that great’ for the few weeks go come Bobs Ribz was accounted for of about 1% of all restaurant Menu Clicks, Its very rare if a restaurant recieves more then .5% Percent remember there are 450 Restarants on Staten island on average a restaurnat recieves about 30 - 40 Hits unless they are featured on the front page, bobs ribz have received a whopping 350+ Menu views for the month of there commercial.

Case Studies will be given every Week, At least once.

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Make Millions Of Billions Dollars

September 9th, 2008

This is a Sample Profit tip and if you read a few you will wake up rich the next morning? No we are joking, we have a bunch of comedianse here who have nothing to write so we make this stuff up, Anyways overhere you will find tips on expanding business, buildling local clientile and retaining customers. Wait one last thing before I forget the most important aspect of any business, Decreasing Turnover.

Good Luck!

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