Category Archives: Articles
These are articles or other print pieces that contain information I deem very important to independent restaurant owners and other food service operators. They may be written by myself or others.
Don't give your customers what you want
How to make sure your products will sell
Pretty confusing main title, isn't it? I'll bet you're wondering exactly what I'm talking about.
Along with the other biggest mistakes restaurants owners make, offering customers what the owner thinks is good, instead of what the customer thinks is good, is a surefire way to lose money in the restaurant business.
McDonalds McWrap trying to compete with Subway | blog.bodellconsulting.com
New Chicken McWrap from McDonalds
It looks as if McDonalds is making a move to try and keep up with Subway which has outpaced McDonald’s growth by a large margin in the last few year and surpassed McDonalds to become the largest restaurant chain, measured by number of stores, sometime in 2010.McDonald’s latest attempt to defend it’s position as a market leader manifests itself with a new menu item, the McWrap, that is aimed at millenials who gravitate toward higher quality, healthier menu items.
Their thought is that they want to give millenials a reason not to go somewhere else if they are trying to eat better.
Here’s my take:
The good – It’s always a good idea to consider where the market is going. Staying ahead of menu trends can help a restaurant remain a market leader. Making intelligent changes based emerging trends may also prevent the concept from getting stale and protect it from competition from newer, trendier restaurants.
The risk – Rolling out new menu items to compete with other chains can hurt the market position of a restaurant brand. A well established brand like McDonalds means particular things to people. Screwing not just with menu items, but with menu direction can adversely affect a restaurant’s ability to deliver on the preconceived notions that diners already have about a restaurant. Not delivering on your customer’s expectations will hurt any brand, even one as big as McDonalds. A great example is the Angus burger line for McDonalds. They rolled out this line to compete with the emerging high quality “quick casual” concepts that have been dominating new growth in the quick service segment the last decade. The effort has been widely seen as a failure and the Angus burgers maybe on their way out of the McDonalds menu lineup.
McDonalds needs to make sure that any new menu items take advantage of their current market position. They will never be able to rebrand themselves as a ”healthy” concept. They will never be an “upscale” quick casual concept. That just isn’t why McDonald’s existing customers go there, and trying to be those things can alienate those existing customers and confuse new customers who relate to McDonalds one way through their existing customers and another way through McDonald’s own branding efforts.
The verdict – It’s up to history how the McWrap will do at McDonalds. I predict a big, fat flop. First, the McWrap is being rolled out to chase health conscious millenials who are simply never going to see McDonald’s as a healthy place to eat, despite the fact that McDonalds does in fact have healthy menu items. The Angus burgers failed to help McDonalds position itself as a quick casual or high quality option like it’s “quick casual” competitors. It was a waste of time and resources.
The advice – McDonalds would make more money realizing that what it’s customers want most is speed and consistency. People don’t expect the best hamburger from McDonalds and frozen 1/4 lb Angus patty doesn’t deliver it anyways. It’s great to try new menu items to keep your existing market demographic happy. It’s not great to sacrifice your existing market position to chase a completely different market. McDonalds should refocus on who it is most likely to come to their restaurant, trim the fat from extra menu items that don’t speak to that market, then focus on innovative ways to reach new customers that have the same sensibilities and desires as their existing market base.
Brandon O’Dell of O’Dell Restaurant Consulting offers operations and marketing consulting for restaurants and food services of all types. Visit www.bodellconsulting.com for more information and find downloadable spreadsheets and management tools in the webstore at www.bodellconsulting.com/webstore.html.
Should an Applebees server who posted a customer receipt online be fired?
A recent story from my area of the country brings up an important question that will inevitably come up many more times. What should a restaurant owner do if an employee posts a customer’s receipt online? Does it make any difference that the receipt has something rude written on it?
Here is a link to the original story I’m referencing on the Consumerist. In short, the media is reporting that a church pastor stiffed a waitress because they didn’t like the 18% auto-gratuity on their check, the waitress posted the receipt online and then was fired by Applebees. One media outlet, the Huffington Post, is circulating a petition to get the server her job back.
Here is the USA Today version:
There are some major mistakes in most, if not all the news stories I’ve seen about this situation other than the original. Since the Consumerist’s original story had the facts right, it begs the question of intent of the other media outlets in misstating them. Here are the important facts being left out:
- The waitress who posted the receipt online was not the waitress who waited on the pastor. She was not the one purportedly “stiffed”.
- While the pastor crossed out the auto-gratuity and added up the tab without the tip, she did leave the server a $6 cash tip on a $34.93 tab, equating to a 17% tip. The server was not “stiffed” at all.
- Applebees, where the incident took place, charged the 18% auto-gratuity to the pastor anyways, because it is their policy to charge 18% automatically on tables of 8 or more. This is standard in many full service restaurants. The waitress actually made a 35% tip on the table, though that certainly wasn’t the intent of the pastor.
I’m not posting this information to defend the pastor in any way. The pastor wrote “I give God 10%, why do you get 18%?” on the check. Even if she intended it for the restaurant and not the waitress, this sort of activity by a customer is inexcusable. The restaurant should “fire” the pastor as a customer for leaving such a comment on the tab in my opinion, or at a minimum give them a warning, and the church should fire the pastor for disgracing the church as its primary representative in the public. Using God as an excuse to make a negative statement about tipping an individual person is never okay, even if she did leave the server a 17% cash tip.
The real question being raised here is, “Should the server who posted the receipt be fired?”
My opinion is that yes, the employee was rightfully fired by the Applebees where she worked. Customer receipts are private property of both the customer and the business, not the server. As such, the server has no right to post that information online, regardless of what was written on it. Had the server only shared what was written on the receipt, without posting a picture of the receipt, I might have a different opinion. It’s possible there might even be some sort of criminal law broken by the server. The server’s defense is that there is nothing in the employee manual forbidding her from copying and posting receipts online.
I’d like to get the input of restaurant owners and managers out there that could face the same situation in the future. What do you think is the right thing to do as a restaurant owner?
One piece of advice I do have to offer restaurant owners on this type of incident is that you should have a policy in your manual forbidding employees from posting pictures of guests, their personal property, or the property of the restaurant online. I also believe it would be good to expressly allow the posting of food and drink pictures online for the purpose of promoting the restaurant.
Brandon O’Dell with O’Dell Restaurant Consulting is an independent restaurant consultant who offers operations and concept strategy consulting for independent restaurants and small chains. You can learn more about their services at www.bodellconsulting.com.
When is it OK not to comp a meal?
Food comping should only be used in extreme cases. By comping food, you train your customers to expect it. Then when you don't, they're dissapointed for not getting something they wouldn't have gotten at another restaurant anyways.
A customer that simply orders something they end up not liking, not because it was bad, but because it doesn't suit their taste, is never someone whose meal should be comped in my opinion.
What mobile apps are helpful to restaurants?
The potential of apps in business settings is mind boggling. Every time you turn around, someone introduces another fantastic app that automates a process or system for your business or personal life for a very cheap price. Unlike software, apps don’t carry a lot of packages, postage and marketing overhead. An app is hosted on a website and you use it via the internet, making traditional distribution methods for software worthless overhead.
Five years ago, when Microsoft and other companies were predicting that we would all be using internet applications instead of software someday, I thought they were crazy. Now, the writing is one the wall. Great applications are coming out constantly and business owners that don’t learn how to use them face the possibility of not being able to compete with business owners that do. Restaurants are no exception.
The following is a great article I found on mobile apps that are designed specifically for restaurants that really give you a good idea of some of the potential uses for apps. Some of them are already popular and some still have a little growth needed before they become mainstream and really effective. Either way, this article from Software Advice’s Stephanie Shih is a must read for any restaurant owner or marketing professional that wants to stay ahead of the competition.
Check it out here: 6 mobile apps restaurants should know about
Brandon O’Dell of O’Dell Restaurant Consulting offers operations and marketing assistance to independent restaurant owners and small chains. Learn more at www.bodellconsulting.com.
Are you taking advantage of low lobster prices? | O’Dell Restaurant Consulting blog
When prices move significantly on food, it usually worries restaurant owners. There are times when prices going down OR up can offer you a good opportunity to earn extra revenue though.
Currently, Maine lobster prices are tanking. There has been a glut of Maine lobsters caught this year and prices for lobsters on the East coast have hit a record low. While a restaurant owner might normally think “prices are down, that’s great for me“, it can be a double edged sword. You do not want prices on your already low priced products going down, especially if those products make up a large portion of your sales. While initially you may earn more money from lower recipe costs from those items, eventually your customer is going to want some of those savings passed on to them. When you do decide to drop your prices or offer featured items with these low priced ingredients, what you might experience is a skewing of your product mix to those lower priced items. This can actually canabalize sales of other items that may have a higher food cost percentage, but also likely contribute more gross profit dollars to your bottom line. That means less money in the bank.
Low lobster prices are a different story. When typically high priced food items drop in price, they allow you to lower your prices and skew your sales mix toward those items. Even though those items cost less than they normally do, the lobster is probably still going to be higher priced than your average sale and contribute more gross profit dollars than your average item sold. This represents a huge opportunity to improve both sales and profitability. By offering a lower price on lobster, your guests perceive that they are getting an incredible value so more of them order the lobster. Your average ticket goes up and so does your average gross profit per item sold. Win for you and a win for your customer.
O’Dell Restaurant Consulting offers operations and marketing consulting for independent restaurants. Visit www.bodellconsulting.com for more information.
Direct feedback from Robert Irvine on my Poco’s in KC article | O’Dell Restaurant Consulting blog
I recieved some feedback via Twitter from Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible about my recent article Restaurant Impossible at Poco’s in Kansas City.
I posted some pics of the outside of Poco’s in Kansas City while the Restaurant Impossible crew was there giving the restaurant the “Robert Irvine treatment”. In the article, I commented that I didn’t see the “frenzy” of activity I always see on the show and I asked some questions that I’ve been curious about since shows like Restaurant Makeover, Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible have been helping struggling restaurant owners fix their menus, their decor, and even their attitudes.
My questions include inquiries about what happens after the Restaurant Impossible crew is gone. Is there support after the makeover? You can read those specific questions in my article here.
I tweeted a link of my article to Robert Irvine and apparently he read it because he tweeted back to directly answer my most pressing questions. Here is our Twitter conversation, and make sure you are reading my own tweets back to keep everything in context. Also, I believe in full disclosure. I am a fan of the show, though it does not reflect the type of work I do with restaurants, and I appreciate Robert’s willingness to engage his fans.
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