The Web and Your Restaurant/Hotel Business

Today, sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp (among many others) are transforming the way service businesses operate. 

Here's how it works: at first, a business might try to ignore the system, but then they notice their customers talking about the reviews and their competitors.You'll see many diners entering a restaurant while they review dishes on Yelp. Some will post an instant restaurant review on Foursquare.

Can you continue to ignore reviews or let your competition excel while you keep providing average food or service? Probably not because today everybody is online and uses social media. There is nothing you can stop. You're in or you're out. You live or you die!

The only alternative? Amazing and flawless service. Memorable dining experience. When the guests leave they will only remember how you make them feel. And if you accomplish just that, they will be your raving fans, your advocates. Working with customers in such an extraordinary way that people feel compelled to talk about it, post about it, and yes, review it. It's not an accident that some companies are among the highest rated in your industry.

 They didn't do it with the perfect building or sumptuous suites. They did it by intentionally being remarkable at service. Amplifying stories causes the stories that are built to change. Ignore the web and you'll be punished. Ignore follow ups with your guests and you'll be punished. Ignore social media and you'll be punished. Ignore their needs and you'll be left out.

The web changes everything it touches, sometimes in significant ways. Travelers ranted about poor service for a generation, but once the internet makes it easy to rank and sort and connect, the service has no choice but to change. Some businesses see Yelp and others as a tax, a burden they have to pay attention to in order to stay relevant, and they grumble about it. Others see these sites as the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to deliver service to get distance yourself from the increasing competition.

If you want to stay in business, or stay ahead of your competition, you must deliver an unparalled service that guests will remember and talk about to everyone they know. And believe me, they will.

Word-of-Mouth is Still your Best Source for Increased Business

According to recent consumer polls, a customer’s choice of restaurant is primarily due to word-of-mouth  referrals from previously satisfied clients within their family, friends or social network.  When a satisfied customer visits a restaurant of choice and has a great dining experience (food + atmosphere + amazing service), the referral from them to their friends, co-workers, family members and social networking groups reaches a lot further than any advertising campaign could possibly reach.  

This is why it is so important for restaurants to nurture and maintain unique relationships with their customer base.  When a restaurant stays in touch with its own customer base, customers feel more attached to the establishment.  It is also important to always acknowledge the clients when they come in and to emphasize on the farewell when they leave. Today you can say goodbye to the old inefficient and costly way to market your business using newspapers. It never really worked anyway.

 

When you nurture your relationships like any salesman would do by following up and staying in touch customers will likewise communicate with their friends, relatives, and co-workers about how delighted they were with the service and food quality offered.  They will also communicate just as quickly with that same extended network when they are unhappy with your establishment. 

Keeping great word-of-mouth referrals going is important, and there is no better way to do this than to give your customers a reason to spread the word about your restaurant.  Feel free to encourage your customers to spread the word about the great food. superb service and unique atmosphere your restaurant offers.  You can be sure that once they are satisfied with your food and services, they will certainly tell their friends about it.

Engaging Your Customers To Share Their Criticism

Engaging Your Customers To Share Their Criticism
It is always better to encourage your customers to share their opinions about your products and offers as opposed to ignoring them and then you find out later that they used YELP, or other social media tools to vent their frustration and criticize you openly on the web with thousands of people having access to a bad reviews on you

1- If you defend yourself to the customer, you are pushing the criticizer away because you're telling them they're wrong about their opinion. And they might indeed be wrong, but they may choose another route to express their frustration. That could be dangerous to your company.
2- If your front line people (customer service) restate the criticism in their own words and are grateful to the customer for sharing it, everyone will benefit. You can always choose to ignore the input later.
3- If there's no way for your staff to easily send the criticism up the hierarchy, it dies before it reaches someone who can do something about it.
4- If upper management follow up with the customer with specific acknowledgment and thanks, you multiply the benefits.

Restaurant Managers CANNOT RECEIVE TIPS

What many employees do not know is that tips belong to the employee, not the employer. This means that supervisors cannot share in tip pools. Essentially, tips can only be share with employees who do not have the authority to hire or fire employees or to supervise or direct the actions of other employees. Furthermore, employers cannot deduct money from wages because of earned tips, nor can tips be used to compensate business owners.

California Tip Law

Yes. According to a California court, Labor Code Section 351 allows involuntary tip pooling. Therefore, your employer can require that you share your tips with other staff that provide service in the restaurant. In this regard, it’s DLSE’s position that when a tip pooling arrangement is in effect, the tips are to be distributed among the employees who provide "direct table service." Such employees could conceivably include waiters and waitresses, busboys, bartenders, host/hostesses and maitre d’s.

Employees who do not provide direct table service and who do not share in the tip pool include dishwashers, cooks, and chefs, except in restaurants where the chefs prepare the food at the patron’s table, in which case the chef may participate in the tip pool. Additionally, tip pooling cannot be used to compensate the owner(s), manager(s), or supervisor(s) of the business, even if these individuals should provide direct table service to a patron.

California Tip Pool Law

California law protects employees from having to share their tips with the owners or managers of business. Employers are allowed to implement certain types of mandatory tip sharing arrangements, but these arrangements must conform to the law.


California Labor Code Section 351 states that:
No employer or agent shall collect, take, or receive any gratuity or a part thereof that is paid, given to, or left for an employee by a patron, or deduct any amount from wages due an employee on account of a gratuity, or require an employee to credit the amount, or any part thereof, of a gratuity against and as a part of the wages due the employee from the employer. Every gratuity is hereby declared to be the sole property of the employee or employees to whom it was paid, given, or left for. An employer that permits patrons to pay gratuities by credit card shall pay the employees the full amount of the gratuity that the patron indicated on the credit card slip, without any deductions for any credit card payment processing fees or costs that may be charged to the employer by the credit card company. Payment of gratuities made by patrons using credit cards shall be made to the employees not later than the next regular payday following the date the patron authorized the credit card payment.

Typical Violations

The most common violation is a "tip pooling" program that keeps a certain portion of tips for the employer. Any person who has authority to hire or fire employees or supervises, directs, or controls the acts of other employees is considered a manager and may not receive any of the tips given to those employees.
Another common practice that is illegal is the "tip credit" system. This is a pay program in which tips replace your wages. For instance, if the employer pays you $7.50 per hour (minimum wage) or your tips, which ever is greater, this is a type of "tip credit" system that is illegal in California. Under California Labor Law, your tips and your wages are separate. One can not be used to pay the other.
If the employer charges a credit card processing fee, an "accounting fee", or any other type of fee, deduction, or charge, for handling or processing your tips, this is illegal. The law is clear that you must be paid all of your tips without such charges.

Legal Tip Sharing Arrangements

Many types of tip sharing arrangements of legal, even if they are mandated by the employer and even if the employee has no real way to bargain for different terms. As long as no manager or supervisor is participating in the pool, the employer is allowed to split the tip up in a "fair" manner among all people who are normally part of the "chain of service." This has been interpreted to mean any waitperson, busperson, bartender, hostess, wine steward, or "front room" chef. The tip can be split with the bartender even if that particular patron did not order any drinks. However, requiring tips to be paid to people who have little or no connection to the "chain of service" is illegal. The most common violation is using tips to pay dishwashers or other types of employees.

AP Cnsulting Service

Excellent service will undoubtedly set you apart from all your competition. It’s the fastest, simplest way to be ahead of everyone else in your industry who has a similar offering. What constitutes great service in your industry?, Contact AP Consulting for a FREE CONSULTATION your company isn’t accustomed to delivering great service. LIVE OR DIE!!!

Tel: 310-266-9463

How the Hospitality Industry Can Use Pinterest

Pinterest has emerged as a social platform to watch as more businesses jump on board. It lets users organize pictures they find on the web by creating pinboards then “pinning” items onto boards of each corresponding category. You can even make comments and re-pin pictures.

My first thought upon learning about businesses trying Pinterest was that it’s a perfect platform for hotels and restaurants since you can show amenities, features on your hotel, market your hotel, prices, deals etc...

A restaurant can display new dishes, deals, happy hours, cocktails, new wines etc...

Pinterest for Hotels
Like destinations, hotels and resorts can also showcase their various offerings through Pinterest, via creating boards for topics like in-house dining options, amenities, spa services, meeting space and weddings.
Four Seasons hotel in Austin has created boards for the city itself, weddings, adventures, day trips, travel tips and tools and more, allowing their potential visitors to evaluate what features they would want to include in an upcoming vacation.

Another angle hotels could utilize is targeting a specific niche. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago made a Pinterest page specifically geared toward the wedding market.

Pinterest for Restaurants
Restaurants can create pinboards of various categories (food, wine, events, cocktails, etc.), similar to the way they might with Facebook.

Sharing your Passion

One way of capturing the interests of your guest is to share some of the same passions, and values that you have for hospitality or your business. It’s a lot easier to sell something you have an interest in, you are passionate about or that you value.  If you don’t love what you do, or feel it’s important, the guests, prospect will see it. It will be very hard for you to deliver a great service if your staff has no values, interests or enthusiasm. This is the winning formula for your business! Excellent customer service should be your main focus!

What is the most important in hospitality

Hospitality is all about service and service requires attitude and a genuine interest in people both customers who use your services as well as staff who provide these services and who must show their deepest care.

Its the staffs of the restaurant or hotel ,who interact with guest and its them who provide unique experiences and ultimately provide the place's competitive edge. 

The economic success of an establishment is therefore in direct proportion with the level service and care rendered.

So despite all the new technology, innovation, social media tools, comfort, amenities, decor, and exceptional cuisine provided, the personality and commitment to quality service remain the most important.Hospit

How to Turn a Complaint into Raving Fans

It is very important to establish effective customer service mechanisms to improve competitiveness, and, build customer loyalty through positive customer service experience to increase customer retention, attract new customers via word of mouth and reduce marketing costs. Every company and restaurant should focus on increasing service efficiency to reduce complaints and develop a system to handle the complaints appropriately.

With all these customers flowing through your doors, you are bound to make a mistake at some point.

On occasion you may;

• Overcook / undercooked a meal
• Spill something on a guest
• Hair, plastic or something else in their dish
• Have a meal / drinks take too long
• Employ an unprofessional, or uncaring server
• Have a wobbly table
• Have bathrooms that are out of paper towel or dirty
• Have a server that checks back too late or when the customer’s mouth is full
• Have a full parking lot
• A reservation that wasn’t ready when the guests arrived
• Wine that is too warm / cold
• A draft over a table
• A table that is too close to the pass-through / washrooms / front door for a guest’s liking
• Slow service
• Lost orders
• Wrong order
• Billing takes forever
• Mean employee (manager, busboy, host etc.)

Even great restaurants, at one time or another will get any of these complaints. Now, please don’t take this as an excuse. A well developed system and a genuine concern for the customer will solve many of unwelcomed situations.

So, plan for the possibility that you and your team are fallible.

1. Decide on a desired end result. You want to have this guest come back to your restaurant and give you another chance. You want your guests to leave happy and impressed, so they come back and tell the whole world about you, your excellent food, and amazing service and how much you care.

2. The customers want you to listen. They do not want you to explain to them about the cook that didn’t show up to work or that there are too many people and the restaurant is at full capacity. They pay for something and that want their money’s worth. They work hard too. They want you to acknowledge that their complaint is legitimate.

3. They want empathy. They want to know that you take their complaint as seriously as they do. They want to feel as though they are dealing with a professional establishment and that you can solve their issue as soon as possible.

5. They want options. Sure, they may just want a replacement meal. Or they may not want to pay for the overcooked, or a meal they did not like. A free dessert may suffice. If you have not empowered your servers or simply have hired unprofessional servers, a visit from the owner / general manager has been enough to satisfy a guest. But the best thing is to read the client’s concern and level of dissatisfaction, be proactive and see what will solve his/her issue. I found that a professional server who shows concerns, and can reassure the client can solve the problem, so that it doesn’t get out of proportion. But your staff must remain highly professional, shows concern, apologize for the situation and solve it immediately with full confidence.

A simple freebie without empathy and some reassurance that it won’t happen again, will not buy customer loyalty.

As an example you may go to the customer’s work place to drop off a gift certificate and personally acknowledge their complaint to get them to come back. That will certainly give them a lasting impression on your establishment and seriousness to solve their dissatisfaction. You may follow up with a phone call the day after. There are countless of ideas to salvage a situation. It is up to you to show the level of professionalism of your establishment and your employees.

How to Grow in Your Company

A determining factor that limits our potential and keeps us from being all we can be is the opinions of other people who put us down in life and at work. It is sad to say but there are many negative people in this world who are not successful, and they would prefer that nobody else be successful, either.

If your manager or boss is bitter, unsuccessful, has personal problems that he/she brings at work, they will LIMIT YOUR POTENTIAL TO GROW at your company and in your career by annoying you all day long.

You must escape this negative world if YOU WISH TO BLOSSOM AT YOUR CAREER and find your full potential.

Great Customer Service

Customer service with a sense of warmth, genuine concern and personality will make a favorable impression on guests who come in contact with your company.