Tips WaiterBell: Advice, Ideas, and Resources for Restaurant Owners

excerpt:
‘Recently I was in a seminar styled meeting and the topic was the art of the email. When I went in I thought I was aware of most of the email tricks. The guy who was leading the email discussion was a magician. He knew how to design an email so people respond.

He spoke of the psychology of the email and we discussed what gets people to respond. And, he had minimalized the science so non-tech people, like us, could get behind our key boards and accomplish something without the fear of failure staring us in the face. It’s a great, quick, easy, smple, rapid, yada, yada, yada, way to promote.

Here are a few tips:”

source: “The Art of the Email” by John Foley (The Restaurant Blog,Jul.19,2006)

related links:
Marketers still ignoring e-mail best practices (thewisemarketer.com)
Article: “Jump Start Your On-line Marketing With An E-mail Newsletter” (techwaiterbell)
Tool: Restaurant Newsletter/Email Marketing Services (techwaiterbell)

excerpt:
“Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. Ferociously tracking more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.”

link: Springwise - Food & Beverage ideas

sample posts:
Happy Healthy Meals
Dessert-only Restaurants
Indian Fast Food

excerpt:
“Architects may spend millions designing a restaurant, but if you’re staring at a wall — even if it’s an elegant glazed plaster wall — does it really matter?

…This feeling of isolation can easily be remedied by incorporating a strip of mirroring above the booths, which allows the diners facing the wall to view the room and feel a part of the action.”

source: “Staring at the wall” by Michael Bauer (Between Meals, Jun.16,2006)

excerpt:
“David Scott Peters, restaurant expert, is offering a weekly Web log, or blog, for independent restaurant owners.

“Independent restaurant owners are some of the hardest working individuals out there. I want to reach them in a variety of ways, and logging on for a quick message once a week is usually something these business owners have time for,” said Peters. “I give them quick and effective tips for their time.”

To read Peters’ weekly blog, visit www.davidscottpeters.net. Although Peters does offer several members-only products, his blog has no restrictions on who can view it.”

source: “David Scott Peters Provides Free Restaurant Profit Tips for Independent Restaurant Owners on Blog” (PRWeb, Jul.7,2006)

link: David Scott Peters’ “Restaurant Profits” Blog

excerpt:
"When Nell Ingerman recently discovered that her favorite neighborhood restaurant — a Mexican place in Manhattan called Baby Bo's Cantina — had boosted prices and swapped enchiladas for wild salmon, she was outraged. She planned to collect complaints and present them to the manager.

But she didn't have to. The restaurant's owner, Bo Quijano, emailed her and promised to bring the old menu back. He'd read a message she'd posted on a popular foodie Internet Web site called Chowhound.com. He even posted an apology, confessing that in a good-faith effort to improve the menu, "I simply got carried away."

To the chagrin of some restaurants and professional food critics, a lot of the most influential — and opinionated — advice on where to eat these days comes from Web sites and blogs…"

source: "Laptop Critics:Where the Web's Foodies Dish" by Steve Stecklow (Wall Street Journal, Jun.17,2006)

excerpt:
"1. Where Reporters Shop for Stories
When I worked as a newspaper reporter in Ohio in the seventies and eighties, I loved to eavesdrop during my lunch hour.

I'd go to a local restaurant with another reporter and order lunch. Then, instead of making idle chatter, we'd just sit there listening to the conversation in the next booth…"

source: "Publicity tips/Where reporters shop for stories" by Joan Stewart (The Publicity Hound, May 30, 2006)

link: The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week
link: Other free Publicity Hound resources

excerpt:
>(Blogger's Note: On Monday's we will answer questions submitted by other restaurant owners. If you would like to see your question answered here, email us at editor@sonomanapafoodie.com.)

Note: First post in this series is titled "Nobody is tipping, what should I do?" (Jun. 5,2006)

Background on John Foley:

"…Today, Foley owns an internet site, works as a culinary consultant, a public speaker, and has recently completed a manuscript about his decade-long experiences that will be published in 2006…."

link: The Restaurant Blog

excerpt:
"ServU Blog Central is an archive of the latest developments in restaurant equipment and supplies, bar equipment and bar stools and supplies. Below are some of the latest blog entries that our staff has put together for your reading…"

link: The Restaurant Guru (provided by Serv-U)

note: pre-2005 posts can be found here.

Here are titles of past blog posts:

• Pinholes/corrosion in your stainless steel sink?
• Is There Value Buying Scratch and Dent Equipment?
• How Much Ice Do You Need Per Day?
• Cleaning Wood Furniture

excerpt:
"Reviewing a restaurant is much more than gathering a group of friends, ordering different items on the menu and then telling readers what you liked.

A committed critic has dozens of checkpoints. These help determine the star rating used by The Chronicle. And after the first visit, there are at least two more. Each has to be considered before the final stars are awarded…"

source: "Questions to ask in evaluating restaurants" by Michael Bauer (Between Meals Blog, May 8, 2006) [via Slashfood]

How do restaurant critic's evaluate your restaurant? The long answer is provided by Michael Bauer, critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, on his new blog "Between Meals". The list of questions is worthy of printing out and being used as an operations checklist. Your customers may be using the same questions in evaluating their dining experience, however may not articulate it and just say "poor service".

excerpt:
"How do you get the boost? That’s what every restaurant owner is thinking this time of year. After a slow, mundane, stressful winter- one that ate up most, if not all and them some, of your cash reserves, we suddenly want the bank account, customer count and sales counts to soar. Sorry. That won’t be happening too soon. As a matter of fact, it may not be happening as quickly as you want or need it too.

…The first thing every owner needs to do is to protect their biggest assets- the staff that has struggled with them for the past months. Frequently frustrated owners, especially those without the experience of facing a bear’s style winter of customer hibernation, react foolishly and look to blame the lack of business on staff performance. This is pure ego foolishness on an owner’s part."
source: "Give a Boost, Get a Boost" by John Foley (The Restaurant Blog, May 9,2006)

John Foley's blog is one of the few free restaurant resources that provides restaurant owners with fresh advice on a daily basis. "The Restaurant Blog" is hosted by AllBusiness.com, which is filled with free resources on a variety of business topics.