Your Restaurant, Your Brand, your Future in Business

As soon as someone Googles, Yelps, Facebooks, Open Table goes to your web site, parks in your lot or walks through your door, your brand is up for praise, criticism or I don't care. A restaurant can have the most up to date web site, or be the talk of the moment that creates excitement but if someone walks in the door and has to wait to be greeted and seated due to indifferent employees then that guest won't have such a great dining experience.

If the bathrooms are dirty it won't reassure anyone about what else is dirty. If your employees are not cleaned, well shaved or have dirty clothe a guest may questions you even more. If a guest has to wait 30 minutes or more for a dish, it may irritate him/her. If The food is not served at the right temperature you won't look good. If a guest has an empty glass of water you fail again. If a guest has an empty glass of wine, it is not so good either. If your staff is not pleasant you lose again. If the food is to blend or too salty, ouch! If an employee use the wrong word (guys, folks, bro, dude, buddy, hey etc..) you show disrespect towards the guests. If you do not clear the dishes on time or not appropriately you fail again.

I could go on and and as you can see it there are a lot of things that can go wrong during a course of a dining experience. All those things do not even include hospitality. The way your staff should conduct from the time the guest enters your restaurant till they leave.

• What will the guests remember the most? 
• Did your employees go above and beyond? 
• Did your employees impress the guest?
• Will the guest leave with an indelible memory?
• Can the guest live without you?

• If you have not focused on any of those point above, how will you survive in such a competitive environment?
• How long will it take for new and innovative restaurants to knock you off?

Probably sooner than later.

Are you an industry leader with integrity? Do you have a corporate culture?

If you do not want to be knocked off by the competition you should have a strong culture. That's how you achieve, excellent service on a consistent basis. You'll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture can't be copied.

What advantages do you have today, that you will be able to keep forever?

Andre Plessis
Restaurant & Hospitality Consulting