Marketing Your Chef
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It’s one of the great mysteries of restaurant life. An owner seeks a highly qualified chef to take the restaurant to the next level. The owner pays the chef a boatload of money, and not unexpectedly, the restaurant is better than ever. The place even has the potential to go way beyond the next level. Things are happening and you’ve got to love that winning feeling.
But wait a minute - the owner is pretending that that talented chef isn’t even there. Go to the web site and check the “About Us” and read the menu. Not one word about the chef. What am I missing in this picture?
My guess is that the owner is fearful that the chef is already planning his or her next move. The fear factor has taken over, and the owner is reluctant to promote someone that won’t be there for the long haul. Or perhaps the owner is worried that over time, the restaurant will be unable to afford the new-found talent.
This is a tough business that is now more difficult than ever. You made the decision to pay the money and it’s working. So tell the world about it! You acquired a major asset and you are afraid to allow it to really happen.
Maybe it’s time to get a dog, or perhaps look for something else to do.
My Mechanic is Outmarketing Your Restaurant…
The last thing I really wanted to do after my $400 car fix last week was to think about my mechanic.
Yet, what did I get in the mail three days later?
A nice envelope (can you say marketing…)
It had three pieces: 1) a thank you note 2) a brochure and 3) refer-a-friend coupons, with an incentive for me.
Not bad — some serious marketing going on here.
1. It was timely–I remember them (and the service was great).
2. It told me what else they can possibly do for me in the future.
3. Gave an easy win-win way for me to spread the word.
How did they do it?
Well, they’ve got a system in place. And it goes something like this….
New customer visits with us –> Put their name in our marketing database –> Immediately send thank you / welcome package via mail.
It’s not rocket science. But it’s more than you are doing!!!
Are you capturing the name/address/email of your customers?
Are you promptly following up with a thank you and win-win offer?
Do you think it might help your business if you were?
Don’t let my mechanic outmarket you….
All the best,
- Jaime
Restaurant Superchefs: Do You Know Where Your Chef Has Gone?
I am a big fan of chef driven restaurants. If the chef is in the kitchen, it’s going to be a great experience. If, by chance, the chef is somewhere else that evening, it may or may not be a great experience. I understand that almost all chefs will assure you that the system works even in their absence, and the kitchen won’t miss a beat. I don’t know about that. That’s why so many guests will ask if the chef is in the kitchen when making a reservation.
I understand the business part of it, and if I happened to be a big-time chef, I would do what most do (Bobby Flay; Wolfgang Puck; Todd English; Alain Ducasse; Charlie Palmer, etc., etc.). My restaurants would be in New York, Las Vegas, Atlantic City and beyond. It’s part of the game, and most of the time it actually works. Having said that, I often wonder if people who dine in their restaurants really think the big guys are in the kitchen. Maybe that’s why I have so much respect for the late Jean-Louis Palladin. When he opened in Vegas, he actually moved there.
The successful chefs with multiple restaurants continue to create opportunities for even more success, but the downside remains the obvious. One can’t be everywhere, and the dining public won’t tolerate anything less than great if the chef is too busy to actually be there. It becomes a major balancing act and adding locations can be a disaster just waiting to happen.
My real problem happens to be the concept of “consulting” chefs. The idea is perfectly acceptable, but it goes over the line when an owner pretends the big-name chef is cooking on a daily basis. My town was once filled with consulting chefs and most have now departed. Big names can help, but they certainly won’t guarantee success.
I have to give some credit to Chef Eric Ripert of La Bernardin in Manhattan. His name is now part of the Philadelphia restaurant scene (Ten Arts by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton). He had the good sense to immediately place his sous chef from La Bernardin as chef de cuisine in his new kitchen. Jennifer Carroll grew-up in Philadelphia and she is a graduate of the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. There is no question that Chef Carroll will make it or break it basically on her own. Chef Ripert will undoubtedly make some occasional appearances, but the future of Ten Arts is in the hands of a chef who will be there on a daily basis. There is no pretending, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Automatic Gratuity Disaster
In one form or another, it’s a phrase that appears on menus all over America…”An 18% gratuity will be added to parties of eight and over”. I understand the thinking from the restaurant point of view, and I also understand that it represents a disaster waiting to happen.
A friend (a chef/owner) just sampled the new French bistro in town, and secured an outdoor table for his party of seven that included six adults and a two-year-old. At some point during the meal, an unexpected guest sat down and enjoyed a glass of wine.
My friend is capable of being critical and basically was disappointed in almost everything – particularly the food, and “shocked” would be a better word than “disappointed”. He suggested that his wine (which included four bottles) was overpriced (over $44.00 per bottle; $11.00 in the State Store). His real problem was in the service, which was basically handled by busboys. He claimed that he saw his waiter twice – when they ordered, and when he presented the bill.
A bill of approximately seven hundred dollars included an automatic $140.00 gratuity. His immediate question was somewhat understandable. He asked the server to explain why he should pay him $140.00 when the waiter was hardly involved. The waiter suggested that it was their policy, and that it appeared right on the menu.
The real issue was in the restaurant determining the number in his party (the child and the unexpected guest). My guess is that the issue would have been almost non-existent had they not added the automatic gratuity.
Say what you will about tipping in America because it’s not perfect, but the guest controls the amount of the tip, and I see this as a decided advantage over the European system of automatically adding the tip to the check. And in fairness to my friend, he insisted that he was not in the habit of being difficult in a restaurant, especially when it involved the wait staff… “I’m in the business, and I understand the system – in my mind, this one went way over the line”.
Two managers got involved, and they were unable to solve the problem. My friend paid the bill and left. I don’t think we’ll see him back in this particular spot anytime soon. It’s a disaster that should never have happened! In terms of the concept called “word of mouth”, this one is working in the wrong direction.
Yelping Out Loud
The writer said it best – “Is this a Service or a Shakedown”
(San Francisco Business Times article)
The good folks at Yelp in San Francisco have taken the public restaurant reviews to a whole new level, and it’s not a pretty picture. When the media encourages the public to literally hold a gun to the heads of the restaurant community, and in so doing, ask the restaurants to pay ($150) to guarantee a positive review to be posted first, I see this as major league problem.
Yelp calls the $150.00 a “sponsorship” – I would call it something else (the word blackmail actually comes to mind). Of course, it’s outrageous on the part of the web site, but sad that the restaurant community in San Francisco is not only allowing this to happen, they are supporting it with their hard-earned dollars.
I can’t say it often enough – as interesting (and profitable) as the public reviews might be, how can you trust them? How do we know that the latest review that slams a given restaurant was submitted by someone who was ever in the given dining room? The answer is that we don’t know, and by definition, the entire process is not to be trusted.
The restaurants continue to support the very sites that are helping to put them out of business. I actually see this as a bigger problem than the Yelps of the world asking for so-called sponsorships. You can rationalize all you want to and even conclude that these reviews help the restaurants get better. You are also allowed to believe in the Easter Bunny.
It’s a bad situation that continues to get worse, and the restaurants have it difficult enough without the public assaults. Each and every time you write a check to one of these sites, you contribute to the demise of the restaurant business as we know it.
