Making Dough Show | Restaurant Show

What would happen after this pandemic lockdown? Probably, this is the biggest question most restaurant owners have right now.

We've been observing that there could be some things that will become the "new normal" even after this crisis is over.

Social distancing, strict disinfection of public places, wearing face masks, working from home, etc. could all be part of our daily routines.

As a restaurant owner, have you already thought of how these "new normal" can affect your customers, your people, and your business?

Maybe it's only a few weeks from now until the rules start to ease. We won't know exactly, but I do hope that right at this very moment, you are already preparing for that day.

And as you do your planning, I want to share with you these practical sales tips for you to increase your restaurant traffic and re-open with a bang!

#restaurantowner #restaurantindustry #restaurantmanagement #restaurantmanager #restaurantbusiness #beatcoronavirus #makingdoughshow

10 Tips to craft a SUCCESSFUL Restaurant Meal Kit and market it https://youtu.be/R8AbJkKJ2Bo

GROW your restaurant sales with Text Marketing | Restaurant Marketing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb3mBF1zoY&t=1s

Hey, fellow restaurant professionals, how are you doing now? I hope you are well and still thriving.

Today is another special Q and A episode of Making Dough Show! We are answering an email inquiry from the owner of 2 locations of Joe and Pie Cafe Pizzerias in Pittsburgh, PA:

"Currently, we are using simple texting for our text message marketing, what you suggest for text marketing as we find simple texting is costly for us... Also can you please advise me on other things we can do during a pandemic?"

I'd be happy to share my thoughts on this. For text message marketing, I'd like to share what we've been doing in our company since we have our own SMS marketing platform that we use for our two pizzerias.

Generally, I want to tell you that Text Message Marketing is a tool, and for it to work successfully, you must have a strategy.

It's like using a knife from a Michelin Star restaurant, using that tool doesn't guarantee that you'll become a Michelin Star restaurant, too, right? Perhaps it's their recipes, experience, and so many different factors.

I would also love to give you three practical tips you can do to grow your sales during this pandemic crisis:

1. Show GRATITUDE to entice those who came in the last two weeks to come back. Write THANK YOU cards! It’s cheap and effective.

2. INNOVATE and create an experience at home.

3. Make them an offer they cannot refuse and market to your EXISTING customers

#restaurantowner #restaurantindustry #restaurantmanagement #restaurantmanager #restaurantbusiness #beatcoronavirus #makingdoughshow

GROW your restaurant sales with Text Marketing | Restaurant Marketing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDb3mBF1zoY&t=1s

7 Tips to GROW Your Restaurants Sales out of a Sales Dip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-wcF2RnsoM&t=1s

Today, I'm responding to an inquiry from John of North Carolina. He's asking, how can TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING help him in promotions for his restaurant.

I want to tell John and you, my fellow restaurant professionals that there's no efficient marketing tool, like the text message marketing, without the proper strategy.

In other words, a marketing tool (like Text Message Marketing, Email Marketing, Facebook Ads, etc.) will only work when you know how to take the right plan and approach.

There are three ways to create a successful restaurant promotion using TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING, these are:

✔ GOOD WORDS

✔ TIMING

✔ PRICING

Which would you prefer:

Finding ten customers where each of them orders ten pizzas from you?

Or

Get one catering deal from one company that orders ten 6" pizzas at once?

In today's show, we are centering on the power of catering to boost up your restaurant's sales.

If you're looking into growing your catering sales, you must have a strategy in place. So here are seven tips we can share with you:

1. Always be on time and provide accurate orders.

2. Create a menu offering that stands out.

3. Stay professional.

4. Make it personal.

5. Provide an excellent presentation (food, packaging, staff, etc.)

6. Conduct food drops on businesses within the 3-5 mile radius of your restaurant.

7. Pursue partnerships and long term relationships.

10 Steps to a Successful Restaurant Promotion: https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

How we’ve been promoting our Pizza Kit:

If there's one good thing that this pandemic has brought to us, it is to witness how resilient and optimistic we are despite all the chaos. That even in this darkest time, we see our fellow restaurant owners trying their best to stand tough and continue to fight in this battle.

I've seen a lot of restaurants coming up with new and creative solutions to serve their customers in the face of this crisis. One of these is creating meal kits.

As a way of helping my colleagues in the restaurant industry, I would like to share some tips to craft a successful meal kit and how to promote it:

1. Put yourself in your customer's shoes -observe your menu and choose an item that is popular and easy to prepare.

2. Consider the cost, specifically, the packaging.

3. Study how you are going to price your packages based on the customer's perceived value.

4. It should pass the Friday 6:00 PM test -make sure that execution is not too complicated.

5. Make creative content, like funny videos, enticing photos, and engaging stories, and promote through:

6. Use Text Message Marketing to communicate with your customers, it's fast, and has high open-rate.

7. Include the promotion in your email marketing.

8. Utilize Google Posts to highlight your product -it's a free feature on Google that allows you to publish your stories and goods/services directly to Google Search and Google Maps.

9. Use Facebook ads to bolster your reach and continue to build your brand.

10. Go for bulk orders -reach out to schools/teachers, churches, companies, etc.

REDUCE Order Taking MISTAKES | FOH Manager Tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boAfD-zpprA&t=01s

RESTAURANT SWOT ANALYSIS - How to conduct a swot analysis for your restaurant https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

In this special episode of Making Dough Show, we are answering a query from our friend, Sol, who's the General Manager of El Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Sol is asking how to communicate a more accurate wait time for their customers, especially that things have changed immensely since the corona outbreak. Here are some tips I would advise him to do:

1. Observe the new pattern -the sales pattern and distribution of sales have incredibly transitioned between lunch and dinner.

2. Reduce your menu.

3. Create daily specials.

4. Get rid of prep delays.

5. Observe your kitchen design -perhaps there's a need to refurbish some things in your kitchen to execute tasks easier and smoothly.

6. Always communicate a wait time that is "in range" -never say, 15 minutes, instead, say, 15-20 minutes.

7. Give courtesy calls or send a text message when the food is ready for pick up or on its way for delivery.

8. Monitor your labor percentage by using a VCB or Visual Control Board.

9. Lead more with gratitude than being apologetic on your social media platforms.

10. Delight your customers and exceed their expectations even during this tough time.

#restaurantowner #restaurantindustry #restaurantmanagement #restaurantmanager #restaurantbusiness #beatcoronavirus #makingdoughshow

🔥 Restaurant Owners: Control the Controllable 🛑

Let's talk about what we CAN control today and this week in our restaurants:

🛑The EXPERIENCE

- We've got to remind our people to show GRATITUDE to our customers more than ever.

- Communicating a more ACCURATE wait time!

Come up with better systems for this so the customer does not have to wait for their food! This heavily affects the customers experience. It matters to them, so it matters to us!

- Give COURTESY calls

When the customers food is ready for pick up, get your servers to give customers a courtesy call. It'll show your team cares and they are pros!

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🎁Download our FREE

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🛑VCB Board

Equip your managers with a system that makes it easy for them to monitor and baby sit the Labor % like a new born baby! (see the video for more details on this)

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🛑 2 Ways to REDUCE Food Cost:

Through reducing your menu offerings, and reducing Waste!

#NoWaste is our restaurants first core value actually!

Your team may need to be reminded that you cannot afford food waste!

Stress can KILL YOU!

How are YOU handling this stressful season, friend?

Turns out we’ll be dealing with this Corona issue for longer than we thought... So, we have to get a handle on the STRESS of the season for us to continue to think clearly and make wise decisions for our businesses and our people... Especially at a critical time such as this.

Here are a few things I am working on:

Comment and share how YOU are handling this stressful season?

I know things get tough each day.  But it is not the time to slow down for us, restaurant owners. You have to step on the gas and have a plan of action!

It's time for you as a leader of your business to strategize and re-envision how your restaurant is going to look like when we get through this challenging season. 

I firmly recommend you to do a SWOT Analysis of your operations. 

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis, can be a useful framework for you to have systematic and precise planning for your restaurant.

You must plan things now so you can come back strong. 

How are you going to do things differently when things go back to normal, and your restaurant reopens again? 

Maybe, you can plan to host a party? Or have a community get-together? 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. What are you working on during these hard times? Do you have any takeaways? How are you strategizing for your restaurant's comeback? 

I wish you well, I understand it's hard, but remember, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

-RESTAURANT SWOT ANALYSIS - How to conduct a swot analysis for your restaurant: https://youtu.be/vePk26r5aA0

-Crank Up your Restaurants Gratitude Department | Restaurant Owner Tip:

 https://youtu.be/R7JoWiU4lGg

-Restaurant Owner Voice Your Opinion | Restaurant Owner Tip: https://youtu.be/l3SVUgyYY60

-Restaurants with Record SALES During Corona | Restaurant Owner Tip: https://youtu.be/27HEhzuwJ3A

#restaurantowner #restaurants #restaurantindustry #restaurantmanagement #restaurantmanager #restaurantbusiness #beatcoronavirus #makingdoughshow

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide  and all our FREE Resources at https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources

Every day, since the flare-up of this pandemic coronavirus disease, we hear different stories of fear and suffering of people from all walks of life.

But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. 

For instance, as a restaurant owner, what could be the best learning or realization you gained from this trying time?

I want to urge you to observe your numbers and get aggressive about it. Track what you have been investing your money on and cut back on some of your spendings. 

Perhaps when things are doing well, you don't care as much with what goes out of your pocket. You became too complacent.  

But now that we are facing this crisis, you turn out to be more vigilant and sharp, looking vigorously at where things are going. And I admit, we weren't like this before the corona fiasco. 

My advice to you is to shift what you do as a business owner even beyond this strenuous season. Continue to be obsessed with your numbers. Track where the money is going. So when uncertain things happen again, we are more ready. 

Please stay tuned for another Making Dough Show episode tomorrow! We're in this together! 

#restaurantowner #restaurants #restaurantindustry #restaurantmanagement #restaurantmanager #restaurantbusiness #beatcoronavirus #makingdoughshow

-Crank Up your Restaurants Gratitude Department | Restaurant Owner Tip:

 https://youtu.be/R7JoWiU4lGg

-Restaurant Owner Voice Your Opinion | Restaurant Owner Tip: https://youtu.be/l3SVUgyYY60

-Restaurants with Record SALES During Corona | Restaurant Owner Tip: https://youtu.be/27HEhzuwJ3A