Restaurant Management – Survival Mode for 2008
Want more bad news for the day? Just Google “closed restaurants”. There are list after list of closed operations from around the country. It’s sad.
The good news is, if you have made it this far, you can keep re-inventing your restaurant during this train wreck of economic conditions to make it stronger. Have we hit bottom yet? My crystal ball quit working many months ago, but there are some strategies that you can implement to build for the future while making changes to survive now.
First, here is a list of what NOT to do:
- Don’t bury your head in the sand and do nothing but complain.
- Don’t listen to the “experts” who call themselves consultants and want you to double your advertising budget. That is their solution for everything and a sure way to spend yourself into early retirement from the restaurant business.
- Don’t believe anything but your own numbers, customer’s habits and trends. The media makes as much news as it reports.
There is no question that the restaurant industry is facing more challenges than it has in the last 30 years. You can keep lamenting about rising food costs, lower consumer spending for dining out and rising fuel costs, but that is old news now. Stop wasting time feeling sorry for yourself and act!
If you haven’t done these things already, do them now:
- Change Your Menu – quickly design high margin items that the consumer will find value in. More chicken, pork and pasta. Even bigger portions that can be divided for a second meal from a doggy bag tomorrow. Make your menu bright, more cheerful and changeable. A menu that can be reprinted a page at a time will allow you to respond to food prices quicker.
- Contact your purveyors today. Get competitive bids on everything. Don’t forget the pest control company, linen supplier, insurance carriers, utilities and cleaning services. Every dollar counts and you may find out you should have done this a year ago before the economic calamity.
- Develop a new marketing plan. One that includes increasing customer visits, increasing loyalty and encourages customer referrals. Implement every low cost idea you can muster to make local contact with potential customers. Beauty shops, car washes, cleaners and even the dreaded gas station. How can you get your message to their customers? Coupons, free food, trades and flyers all will do more than an ad in the newspaper for twice the cost.
- As part of your marketing plan, pay more attention to
customer service than ever before. Look at every aspect of the guest’s experience. Can you lower waiting times for anything? Can you offer food tips to help with their own budget crunch? Train your servers in the art of listening and developing a long term rapport. - Get your staff involved. They are sure to know what is happening throughout the economy, but what can they contribute to your cost saving mode and customer service program?
These five things will not only make you better now, but build strength for the future. Many of these tips should be done in a regular course of running a restaurant. You can turn a bad situation into a whole new profitable operation as the economy levels out.
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