Saturday, October 29, 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011

#853: The "Lessons from Restaurants" Issue
According to the National Restaurant Association, there are 960,000 restaurant locations around the country. That's a lot of small businesses, franchisees, and entrepreneurs to learn from. A few ideas to get you started:

1. Take reservations
2. Be available
3. Focus on the atmosphere
4. Check it out: LEGO remakes of classic photos


1. Take reservations

Add an element of exclusivity and potentially increase your efficiency by asking customers to make a reservation. Many restaurants do this, but it's always interesting when a fast food brand tries it. That's what Chick-fil-A did for the launch of their new breakfast menu. Through the campaign, they asked fans to take reservations to claim a time to come in and try a complimentary sampling. The result was tons of fans scheduling sessions to taste the new menu -- and dragging friends with them.

The lesson: How could you use reservations to boost your product launches, special events, or customer service?

Learn more: IBTimes

2. Be available

A fundamental way of building a brand is establishing reliability. When customers can rely on you, they trust you. We often think of great customer service brands like Rackspace, Zappos, and Southwest for this. But did you know Waffle House has become legendary for always being open? They're so reliable, FEMA actually uses them as an indicator of how bad a disaster is. If they're closed, they know they've got a lot of work to do. And even when something does force Waffle House to close, they have a mobile command center they bring in to get things up and running as quickly as possible. When things go bad, everyone has learned to rely on Waffle House for a hot meal, coffee, and a sense of "normal."

The lesson: If you can earn a sense of reliability among your fans and customers, you can be the first place they turn (and the first they talk about) when they need help.

Learn more: The Wall Street Journal

3. Focus on the atmosphere

For a restaurant, atmosphere can be everything. We all know that no matter how good the burger is, it can be hard to ignore psychedelic carpeting and questionable cleanliness. Take Boston Market for an example of how some fundamental changes to an atmosphere can make a big difference. Never really known for their ambiance, they recently tested using real plates, more staffers per shift, and even outfitting their cooks in chef whites. The result: Double-digit increases in guest counts and sales. It's been so successful they hope to roll out the overhaul to all their restaurants this year.

The lesson: Maybe it's not your product that's holding you back -- maybe it's the delivery. Try a few tests and see what gets your customers excited.
Thank you everyone for coming to our fantastic event tonight. It was a sassy good time. Congrats to Amy Gayhart for winning "BEST HIGH HEELS". And shockingly, our runner up turned out to be Jenny Bruemmer Sparks. (only because she only owns this one pair)

Special thanks to Rachel Elsberry for putting this event together and Flemings for being the host with the most. Cheers!!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Rachel - Congratulations on making Michael Barnes' list of Austin's 500 movers and shakers, the AMERICAN STATESMAN OUT AND ABOUT 500.  You were included under the STYLE section, and Fleming's was listed along with Pickie Pie in the newspaper.
 
Congratulations to you, and thank you for the exposure.     Darryl, Boyer, James & Erick.