Oppertunities in down economy just awvesome

When your competition start cutting corners in slow economy you should do the complete oppesite. Spend, Spend, Spend.....let's call it invest, invest, invest...

Market the hell out of your restaurant, hire the best P/R professional money can buy and get a human interest stories about you and your restaurant. Invite your loyal patron for complimetary birthday or anniversary dinner as your guests. Buy frequent patrons a comp. bottle of wine.

Bake extra bread and give to late dinner guests to take home. If Italian, give guests a gift like a mason jar of your secret marinada sauce to take home. Bring dinner guests comp. appetizers and ask for their opinion on yout 'new' menu experientations?

Start building a database of guests won with personal data, birthday,anniversary etc.etc.

and send a handwritten 'thank you' for joining your paronal extended family of friends and patrons. Remember your family and their special days, birthdays and anneversaries, and they will remember you all your long. Be a giver and not a taker. don't cut the size on your baked potato, don't serve old bread, don't buy cheap toielet paper, don't save on the A/C.

If you are an independent upscale restaurauteur call your guests next moning and assure yourself your patrons had a never to be forgotten dining experience. If not, find out why not?

Don't send them a free dinner complimentary gift certificate. Send them all the money plus the tip back on a check along with a letter of appoligies and aske them to send you the change as you over estimated the amount spend in your restaurant...

In no time at all you action will spread by 'word of mouth' in your comunity as people like to do business with someone who is not doing it for the money

THERE IS WISDOM IN LESSONS LEARNED!

Some years ago JOHN GIRAGOS of JOHN G’s restaurant at the Lake Worth pier was honored honored as the Florida restaurateur of the year. A great honor that he well deserved.

He is an old timer who to this day don’t take credit cards, and not until recently did he install an ATM. Guest without money or a checkbook would mail him a check, and according to his according to his daughter, Wendy, he always got paid because he trusted his guests.
His ‘customer trust account’ has never stopped growing. You may wonder why?

By: Jorgen Moller
Chef-Owner Emeritus

I don’t know if John is more known for his generosity, his community involvement, his consistently good food ( ZAGAT Rated for years) or his line of guests waiting around the building, 7 days a week… all year!
John ‘G’s have served only breakfast and lunch for more than 30 years and don’t even offer a dessert menu in order to turn tables faster. Smaller check averages, yes! Higher turn over, yes! More profit, yes!

The reason for Johns phenomenal success and longevity is that it’s all about family and people.
On Sunday morning for more years than I care to remember, John would “WORK THE LINE IN THE DOOR” by passing out complimentary chocolate covered fresh strawberries to his waiting guests. Shaking hands, kissing the ladies and just schmooze with all his guests waiting in line to get in to his restaurant.
John is a gold medal schmoozer…he created more goodwill on one Sunday morning working the line in the door, than most restaurants do in one year. Watching him in ‘operation’ is a sheer joy!

Last week I arrived for another wonderful lunch with my wife Monica, just before closing at 3:00 PM. We beat the line in the door, and it gave me a welcome opportunity to converse with Wendy, John’s daughter who now runs the store together with her brothers Jay and Keith,
About their dad’s 80th birthday coming up soon.

That she loves her dad very much is obvious looking at the sparkle in her eyes when speaking of him. I have known John since we moved to Delray Beach in 1988 and I thought I knew everything about him. Wendy said to me: “You know Jorgen, my dad was in the dry-cleaning business in Detroit before opening John ‘G’s here in Lake Worth.” Well, that in itself is not so unusual, as everyone in Florida comes from some place else before…But, John’s story is very different…let me share with you a little ‘secrets’ Wendy told me:
She said: “My dad had this dream of moving his family to Florida and raise his family in the restaurant business since he strongly believes that a family who works together will stay together.” Family unity, yes!

“One little problem with this dream of John’s was, that there was a lot dry cleaning businesses in John’s neighborhood in Detroit that was for sale. Only the business with large following were selling to fulfill his dream he had to have the most successful dry cleaning business in town to attract a buyer to pay the high price John needed for him to bring his family to Florida and open a restaurant.”

“Being forever the entrepreneur that John is, he came up with a brilliant marketing plan…
Every day for many years, John would hand ONE $ 20.00 bill attached by a safety pin to the clothes of his dry cleaning customer and tell this person that he found this $ 20.00 bill in the pocket of his/her clothes when they brought it in for him to clean.” The “WORD OF MOUTH’ of his ‘honesty’ in this Detroit neighborhood, where honesty was as rare as the Florida sunshine, enabled him to sell his very successful dry cleaning store for enough money to fulfill his Florida dream.” An institution was born. …and the rest is history!

If you can find a ‘legitimate mistake’ and mail your guest a refund check in a window envelope, your guests will remember you all year and the rest of their life’s. But remember, what “happen in Vegas, stays in Vegas” don’t tell your spouse as they think you are crazy! I have done this myself with extraordinary results = $$$$$
Have fun and enjoy the ride. Jorgen
Jorgen Moller is the Founder and President of Sold Out Tonight Inc. Specializing in proven and tested data base marketing strategies for independent chef-owners-restaurateurs and their guests won.. A past lifetime achievement IVY AWARD winner and a **** Mobil Guide recipient as Chef-Owner of Americas 83rd largest independent in Miami, The Prince Hamlet, Danish Restaurant. His Delray restaurant, ‘Out Of Denmark’ maintained a Top Rating by ZAGAT for five consecutive years w/ $ 7888.00 per sq .ft. in yearly sale. You can reach Jorgen at 561.702.6677 or Jorgen@soldouttonight.com (FYI visit his former rest. website@ www.jorgenmollersr.com )

To get the business, you got to give!

When upscale guests, the ones that drop $30./50.00 per person or more for dinner, start cutting their expanses, they will now go out for dinner one or two times less a week than they used to.

Their decision where to go now will be based on many factors.
besides good food, service and ambiance. Price is NOT one of them:

1. Where the greeted as family?
2. Did the chef send over some comp. appetizers for them to try out?
3. Was the A/C comfortable on their last visit?
4. Did someone call them after their last visit to inquire about their experience?
5. Did they get a birthday invitation for a comp/ wine or entree on their birthday?
6. Did they get a 'THANK YOU VERY MUCH' card in the mail after their last visit.
7. Did the owner send over a bot. of comp. wine two years ago when they broth friends to their restaurant three time in the same week?
8. Did the owner buy them bot. of wine with their business card when they met them in another restaurant having dinner ? or buy them a dessert, discreetly paying the tab before leaving, so their guests would not learn about this gesture before they got their check.
9. Did they ever get a refund check in the mail after telling the owners on the phone when called to inquire about their experience, about the only bad experience they ever had?
10. Did the restaurant give their guests a small bag of coffee to take home after guests gave a compliment on their coffee?

and the list goes on and on......for a total great memorable dining experience...

actually, what got these people to make reservation tonight was the phone call from the owner in response to his parking attendant reporting back to him that he had overheard his guests talking among them self while waiting for their car " we will never come back again, bla,bla,bla, and gotten the guests name and phone number so the owner could call his guests in the morning. This incident happen many years ago, but the letter from the owner in the mail with a full refund including tip was never forgotten by the guest who had become the best 'un-paid' P/R people he ever had on his 'Work For Food' payroll. The guests mailed back the check and told the owner "We'll Be Back" and they did, 100's of times, each time with new friends...

These are the kind of things that goes on in peoples mind when making decision on which restaurant to make reservation.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY ?

As a young chef at the Friars Club in Beverly Hill's ( before Wulfgang Puck) where I was cooking for the stars I walked away with many lessons having 'lived' with 700 Jewish Families for three years.

One of the best lessons learned, was that everybody got to have ' a story ' !

They would say to me " We know what your story is !" I had no clue what they were talking about...

And for the fist time did I learn of how the Danish people helped 99 % of their Jewish population escape the Naxi's to neutral Sweden.

It wasn't untill I got back to my native Denmark years later that I confronted my father and 'demanded' to know what all this talk about what the Danes did for their Jewish countrymen doing world war 11.

For 23 years my dad had told no one about our familys contribution to rescueing the Jews from the extengtion in the Nazi concetration camps. He said" Let's try to forget and get on with our lifes"

How to really WOW guests while eating in your restaurant

Implement a system where you (the restaurant owner) on the slowest night of the week select one or two tables to be your guests for the night. You would surprise and delight them with a dining experience never to be forgotten and they would definitely tell their friends.

Here’s how it could work: When your guest asks for the bill, they won’t get one, instead, they receive a personal letter from the owner, saying that in appreciation of their patronage they are your guests tonight and the meal “is on the house”. This letter could also be used as a news story in a local paper on how restaurants can grow their business by giving.

The restaurant owner could also entice his guests by mentioning that this is done the same day every week. You want to select the slowest day. Guests are picked at random so no one knows who will be chosen. This makes for a fun night for guests, waiters and chefs who are in attendance that night.

How Clean Are The Places We Eat?

We all hear the horror stories about eating out, either upscale in a Ruth’s Chris or fast food chain like McDonalds. I’ve heard everything from bugs crawling to hairs in people’s food and sometimes the wonderful story about animal droppings.

Does it really matter where you eat? What can a restaurant do to prevent these?

I watched a TV show featuring Chef Gordon Ramsey called “Kitchen Nightmares” and it had me thinking. How many restaurants do I go into where I can only trust the management on cleanliness, fresh food and that I won’t get sick? Does the food sit out in the open? Does the meat stay cold enough not to attract any harmful bacteria? Each state has it's own way of inspecting restaurants and people should check out the results before eating out. I’m not sure of what the answer is, tours, dining tables in the kitchen, cooking class or some other way to let the public view behind the traffic doors. A great place to start for owners is the National Restaurant Asscoication.

What Kills Resturaunt's? It's the "WE'LL BE BACK" Trick

Having lunch with the publisher of Today's Restaurant News he told me a story of a close friend of his in the the restaurant business.

His friend had asked him what he thought was wrong with his restaurant as the sales were going steadily south. He said; "Howard, I don't understand it, as the guests leave, they shake my hand, kiss my wife and tell us, "It was wonderful, we'll be back..." but they don't come back, why?

This publisher, Howard Appell, said he did not have the heart to tell his friend all the things he knew was killing his business!

If this operator had any brains, he would start calling his guests the very next morning on the phone and ask if they had a good experience in his restaurant last night.

This operator would then learn that most of guests are a bunch of liars as the very same people who told him; We'll be back," had a very different story to tell him in the privacy of their own home.He would instantly learn and understand why his business was going south!

Then, if a guests had a real bad experience, he should send back all the money including the tip that this poor abused guest had spent in his restaurant along with letter of apology.

In many cases his guests would be thrilled to death over his gesture and send the check back, with reassurance that they indeed would be back to his restaurant.
Some of his guests would cash the check and deduct only what they spent and send the balance of the money back.

This restaurant operator would soon find out that his guests 'trust account' would start to grow along with his increased business.
No guest will ever forget a gesture like that!

Years later this guest will not remember the name of the restaurant, what they eat or whom they had dinner with, but they will all ways remember the check in the mail!

In order to using this idea as a marketing concept to grow your business, you need to allocate 1% of sales to be refunded to "unhappy" guests.

EVERYONE LOVES A BIRTHDAY PARTY...

If you are looking for great ways to promote goodwill, increase traffic and sales, look no further than the guest at your tables, because everybody has a birthday.

66 % of all Americans go out for dinner on their birthday according to National Restaurant Association.

"Get this: Eigthty - one percent of those who were send a birthday card redeemed their offer." said Karla Pavese, co-owner of Cuisina di Amore in Liverpool, New York

"Even a poor restaurant operator like me can afford .27cents for a postcard wishing my guests a happy birthday"

"This marketing strategy is cheap to put in place. Get some comment cards out on the tables today. Once your database becomes bigger you will need to automate the process. The first few months of fulfillment can be done by hand, and the money that you will make will help you buy the initial cost to automate your system"

"Do yourself a favor and get into the birthday business. You will gain a friend instead of a guests when you send a card to him or her. And when you make a friend, you have a guests for life."