At an education session at the 2013 National Restaurant Association Show titled “How to Make Concessions Part of the Guest Experience, Not Just a Transaction,” Steve DiPrima, president of leisure services at Sodexo, moderated a panel discussion with three executives who manage guest experience at venues.

DiPrima opened the session by talking about the importance of venues in consumers’ live. “Think about your life experiences. I would think that many of them involve things that include venues, maybe your first ballgame, going to a concert, an exhibit at a museum, going to the zoo,” he said.

Then he asked the audience to recall food eaten at these events, saying, “It really is something that should contribute to and even enhance what your visit is like.”

Andy Zakrajsek, vice president of operations and experiences at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio, recalled a time when concessions were considered a “necessary evil,” and concessions were mainly quick, cheap food that didn’t add much to the guest experience. Today, top-notch foodservice is something consumers expect. “People are looking for healthy alternatives,” he said. “People are looking for a comfortable place to sit and recharge.”

Zakrajsek returned to the topic of healthy options later in the discussion, emphasizing the importance of offering nutritious food and beverages to meet rising consumer demand. “Those of us who have been in the business for a while remember the days when you would put something healthy on the menu and no one would buy it,” he said. “Now, if you don’t put it on the menu, they won’t come in.”

All of the panelists agreed that consumers are more discerning about food and have greater expectations than before, and vendors must adapt to keep up with increasingly sophisticated tastes. Most foodservice operations are more than a team of line cooks, with many headed by executive chefs.

Although venues might hire foodservice employees with only concessions in mind, it’s important to make sure foodservice workers are integrated into the operation, said Amy Ritter-Cowen, executive vice president of marketing, guest experience and sales at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Harriet Resnick, vice president of visitor programs and operations at the Chicago Botanic Garden, agreed, saying that all Sodexo employees at the garden “wear Chicago Botanic Garden T-shirts; they wear name tags. We make sure they know what programs are going on. The customer does not care who the paycheck of the person they are talking to is from. It all needs to be seamless for that visitor.”

Resnick said it’s important to make sure foodservice employees know and espouse the company’s values, further giving the impression of one cohesive staff. Initiating foodservice employees into the company culture is vital because food is an essential part of the guest experience. As DiPrima said, “We’ve gone from a time that you were hoping the foodservice experience didn’t mess up your visit to expecting the foodservice to make the visit better.”

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Concessions are an integral part of the guest experience originally published by SmartBlogs

Schultz first joined Starbucks in 1982, when the chain had only four stores. His dream was to create “the kind of company that our parents never got to work for,” he said. When the company went public in 1992 with 125 stores, it was the beginning of a long period of success for the coffee chain, during which “everything we touched turned to gold.” But speedy growth coupled with the nation’s unstable economy eventually led the company to put most of its efforts into growing same-store sales and stock prices. “The company began to measure and reward the wrong things,” Schultz said.

In 2008, Schultz gathered all of Starbucks’ store managers for a meeting in New Orleans, during which he laid out his plan to bring back the focus on strong customer service and community engagement on which the company had been founded. In 2009, all stores were closed briefly for retraining in an effort to make sure all employees were properly trained and that product quality was consistent across all locations.

“Great brands, great companies, great store experiences are very resilient, because the customer can remember what it was like. And they’re longing for it to come back,” Schultz said.

After renewing its commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, the company’s sales began to rebound and 2011 brought “record revenue, record profit, record stock price — the same in fiscal ’12.”

Here are three key lessons from Starbucks’ overhaul:

Connect with customers.

“We want to create a connection with our customers that’s not based only on trying to ring the register but demonstrating a heartfelt commitment to communities we serve and where our customers live,” Schultz said. Social responsibility efforts, such as the company’s Create Jobs for USA campaign, are a cornerstone of Starbucks’ culture because they make the company’s values apparent to the customer. “The customer wants to support those companies whose values are compatible with their own.”

Store managers are essential to the company’s success.

“The store manager sets the tonality of his or her store. And I think that starts with the people that he or she hires. … We have to be sure that we’re hiring the kind of people that is consistent with the brand of Starbucks,” Schultz said.

“We want happy people, we want people who like people, we want people who drink coffee.”

The importance of staying relevant.

Schultz said we are experiencing a “seismic change in consumer behavior, primarily because of technology. Every company represented in this room and every company in the world, no matter what industry, must make a significant investment in the capability and relevance in their own business in social and digital media and in mobile platform.”

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Starbucks CEO talks about the importance of customers, social responsibility originally published by SmartBlogs

The Coca-Cola Company proudly sponsors this blog post and invites you to click here or visit our NRA Show exhibit (#4402) to learn more about how we can work together to make your business better!

The National Restaurant Association’s NRA Show in Chicago kicks off Saturday with an anticipated 58,000 attendees from all 50 states and 100 countries, and a trade show floor featuring an array of exhibitors showing off new products from more than 900 categories including beverage, food, uniforms, equipment and furniture.

The show’s four-day agenda includes a keynote from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and a talk and book signing with Anthony Bourdain, along with a slew of sessions and features aimed at addressing hot topics in the industry, including health care, sustainability and nutrition.

The Affordable Care Act puts health care on the front burner for restaurant companies as they navigate new rules and work to calculate the costs. In addition to three educational sessions on the topic, the Health Care Knowledge Center at NRA Show will offer one-on-one sessions with restaurant consultants who can help operators craft personalized plans to cope with the changes.

Also on tap at this year’s show

• “They Gave Me Food Poisoning — What to Do When Your Restaurant is Attacked Online.” This session takes on the often-troubling topic of how to address negative and often unfair comments that come with the territory for restaurant operators in a digital age, with experts sharing advice from legal and public relations perspectives.
• “Re-Thinking Corporate Social Responsibility” with Denise Lee Yohn and Don Fox, a session to help restaurant operators figure out how to get the most bang for their charitable buck by creating shared value for all stakeholders.
• The show floor will feature a fully functioning hydroponic garden to demonstrate how relatively easy it can be for restaurants to grow fresh, sustainable food on site with a very small carbon footprint.
• Sustainability will also feature prominently in the education agenda, capped by a panel on “The Evolution of Sustainability” featuring Ted Turner, Ted’s Montana Grill CEO George McKerrow and “Last Stand” author Todd Wilkinson.
• Several sessions will center on creating healthier menus,  making your restaurant more kid-friendly and catering to patrons with food allergies. One session will feature Healthy Dining president Anita Jones-Mueller and executives from Darden Restaurants and Silver Diner Restaurants on how to adapt nutritional trends for chains of all sizes.
• A packed session schedule addresses a slew of other topics, including menu design, franchising, food trends, management and marketing.
• The World Culinary Showcase will feature demonstrations by celebrity chefs including Rick Bayless, Cat Cora, Marcus Samuelsson and many more famous faces from the culinary world.

Which sessions and features hold the most interest for you? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Nutrition, sustainability and health care are hot topics at NRA Show 2013 originally published by SmartBlogs

The company announced last week that it has signed 49 new franchise agreements, and Smoothie King is seeing signs that the post-recession funding shortage is starting to ease, Kim said this week. We talked with him Tuesday to get his thoughts on franchising and hear about what’s next for the New Orleans-based chain.

On motivating franchisees

I told my team “I think like a franchisee, I know what they need.” So for less than a year, I have been telling my team that whatever we do, we should be able to translate it into sales or profits to the franchisees, then they will understand why they have to do this. I think our company is getting there. I think a lot of franchisees see where I’m coming from. A lot of franchisors don’t realize what franchisees have to do, they think protecting the brand is like policing it.

This year, for the first time, for our 40th anniversary, for existing franchisees opening up to 40 new stores, we waived all the initial franchise fee if they opened this year. We wanted to show we appreciate their spending these years with us. And we sold out the 40.

On franchising versus organic growth

I think the previous owner, the founder of the company, didn’t want to take the risk. But right now we are not going that way — for the next five years, we will add an additional 1,000 stores in the U.S., and 200 will be company stores. I’m telling my people we need to set the examples and show franchisees how we can do better with company-owned stores.

Also right now, there is a project with WD Partners, we have almost finished our new brand strategy, and based on that, they’re going to come up with a new store design, probably in a couple of months. I think we will test it with company-owned stores first, make sure it works, then open it to franchisees. I really believe we need to be a good example. Without having company-owned stores, it’s really hard to say this works. For example, with quality assurance. At the store level, they’re trying to make more money. A lot of the time, franchisees forget that a good QA score, will lead to better sales and better profitability.

When there are new products or new tools we want to test, the company-owned stores should take that risk. If it fails, it should fail in company stores.

On the changing way consumers see the brand

There was a seasonality issue in some places, but from 2008, that changed as our menu really focused on moving from a snack to a meal. Right now, surprisingly, about 50% of customers who come in take our smoothie as a meal, that’s an amazing number and with that, a lot of the seasonality issues are gone.

We realized that we had products with proteins, complex carbs and good fats from almonds, so when you drink it, you get a full balance of nutrition, it’s a great meal. And when you have it, it stays in your body for four to five hours, so you don’t get hungry.

On competing for new franchisees

I will say, yes, there is more competition, but still I don’t think there are many brands that can claim a healthy business and still make money. Here, you see many franchisees who are health conscious, who like our concept and mission. You see a lot of great looking people, because they really live with the concept and believe in it. They work out, take care of themselves and care about what they do, that’s why they chose our brand.

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Smoothie King turns 40 with growth plans in place originally published by SmartBlogs

Spirit prices increased between 4.5% and 11% in the six months through April at eateries where the average check is $40 and at high-end restaurants where the tab totals $90 or more, according to one study, while bars, nightclubs and family-dining chains haven’t seen a similar bump. The report cites a combination of mild price taking by independent eateries and increased demand by consumers for premium spirits and experimental cocktails.

A look at wine sales shows a steady increase in prices, with family-dining chains booking the biggest jump, followed by fine-dining establishments. That increase stems from a shortage, coupled with increased demand as wineries work to win over more young people, the Chicago Tribune reports. Worldwide, wine production fell to its lowest level since 1975 last year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Bad weather that damaged grape crops in key winemaking markets, including France and Italy, drove down volume. Winemakers were expected to turn out 6.4 billion to 6.7 billion gallons in 2012, down from 7 billion in 2011.

Meanwhile, craft beer’s star continues to shine. Growth stayed strong during the recession and its aftermath, and casual restaurant chains such as Chili’s Grill & Bar and Keystone Bar & Grill are finding ways to tap into the trend, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

Also on tap

Craft-brewing success story Mitch Steele started Stone Brewing in 1996. Today, the company ships to 37 states and books annual growth of 43%, according to a Las Vegas Weekly interview. “I think when there’s good local beer, people are going to gravitate toward that. … We’re seeing an explosion in the number of breweries that are opening right now, and it’s been very interesting to watch,” Steele says.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a beer

Digital Trends reports on techies trying to perfect a drone that will deliver not bombs but beer. The gadget from a team working with the OppiKoppi Music Festival in South Africa is hand-guided by remote control, but the developers aim to eventually automate it using a GPS grid.

Last call

Anheuser-Busch InBev will roll out a promotional batch of LandShark Lager with a label featuring the Zac Brown Band, paying homage to the country group that so often sings of brew, CNBC reports.

Image credit: esolla, via iStockphoto

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Rising cocktail costs and other spirited stories originally published by SmartBlogs

The National Retail Federation expects Americans to splurge a bit on consumer electronics for mom — in addition to flowers, candy and cards — and they’ll also spend about $3.5 billion on outings and meals including brunch and dinner.

This year, the holiday, historically the busiest one on the calendar for dining out, may be even more important for restaurants seeking to melt the deep freeze of the first quarter and warm up to what they hope will be a busier spring and summer, as the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. Restaurant sales rose a mere 1% in the first three months of the year, compared with a 6.3% jump in the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters, which attributed the slowdown to frigid weather and economic uncertainty that had consumers spending less at restaurants or staying home altogether.

Slower restaurant sales in the first quarter spurred some chains to redouble efforts at promoting budget-friendly value menus. And, while price is likely less important than the experience when it comes to special occasions, promotions and special deals can still play a key part on the Mother’s Day menu.

Marketing experts shared some tips recently to boost Mother’s Day traffic, including restaurant marketing blog eateria, which offered tips including giving mom a free drink, appetizer or entree to celebrate, as well as hosting a brunch or otherwise making an event of the day to draw in more traffic.

Another blog, this one from East Coast Chair & Barstool, offers a longer list of tips for making the most of Mother’s Day, including using social media to promote your restaurant’s events beforehand and offering rewards for moms who take to Yelp and other review sites to say good things about their experience at your restaurant.

Online reservation and review site OpenTable has released its list of “Top 25 Mom-Friendly Dining Cities” in time for Mother’s Day, ranking markets based on diversity — those that offer eateries suitable for date night as well as family dining. OpenTable calculated the list based on 2012 data showing the percentage of people who dined out for Mother’s Day last year, with Long Beach, Calif., Tampa, Fla., and Boulder, Colo., topping the roster.

How is your restaurant celebrating Mother’s Day this year? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Restaurants depend on Mother’s Day originally published by SmartBlogs

We might never know the reason May was chosen to celebrate the meaty sandwich, but RestaurantNews.com has published a fun history of the burger, from its origins in the 1600s as steak tartare in Hamburg, Germany, to cooked beef patties on a bun that grew popular among U.S. workers at the beginning of the 20th century because they were easy to eat on the go, to today’s proliferation of chains and independent burger joints with offerings including fast food and gourmet burgers.

Meanwhile, at BurgerBusiness, it’s always about burgers, but editors have shared specials for National Burger Month, including regional, 10-unit chain Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant’s plan to introduce a different burger each day and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville’s competition to have chefs’ creations featured for one of the five weeks in May.

Hard Rock Cafe has shared stats in honor of the month, starting with that 73% of burger fans worldwide eat at least one burger a month. Meanwhile, 22% top their burgers with cheese, and 60% choose french fries as the perfect accompaniment. The chain also is holding a monthlong photo contest, with a four-day, three-night stay at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic as the grand prize.

More National Burger Month bites

• WUSA-TV has created a slide show of specials in the Washington, D.C., area, starting with a giant bacon cheeseburger at Bobby’s Burger Palace.
• Philadelphia City Paper calls it a made-up holiday but nevertheless will celebrate with spotlights on the city’s burger joints all month.
• Also in Philly, Zagat shares five ways to celebrate National Burger Month, including the city’s Food Truck Mecca and a special burger menu at Paramour that includes a mac-and-cheese burger.
• The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has tallied up the 10 best burgers in Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach counties.
• Pounds & Ounces in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood will offer a different burger every day this month, the Daily News reports.

How are you celebrating National Burger Month? Tell us in the comments.

Image credit: ValentynVolkov, via iStockphoto

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How do you do National Burger Month? originally published by SmartBlogs

A bill proposed this session would unfreeze the tipped minimum, a move called for by President Barack Obama. Supporters say the change is necessary to give restaurant workers a wage they can count on and may actually save restaurants money in the long run because it will reduce turnover and keep highly productive workers on staff. Detractors say the measure will push down job creation, put workers out of a job and drive up meal prices for consumers.

The provision is part of a larger bill to raise the overall minimum wage to $10.10 in two years and provide for annual increases thereafter. The tipped wage would rise to $3 per hour in the first year and increase by 95 cents annually until it reaches 70% of the untipped wage, and would stay at 70% thereafter.

This is one of those issues with studies that shore up both sides of the argument, as Bloomberg reported, and no shortage of experts eager to argue their positions, which typically fall along party lines. Given the political divisions over the issue, it’s not likely the measure will pass in the Republican-controlled House this year — but that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. In fact, on some fronts it seems to be gaining steam.

There’s evidence that the effort to win a living wage for restaurant workers may be gathering momentum, from recent strikes by fast-food workers in New York City and Chicago to the announcement earlier this month of the launch of an alternative restaurant association spun off from Restaurant Opportunities Center United. The Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment or RAISE claims almost 100 business owners as members, all of whom are committed to winning higher wages, paid sick days and affordable health care, according to a news release from ROC United.

Many states have instituted higher minimum rates for tipped workers since the federal rate was frozen, but 13 states still use the federal minimum and 34 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage for tipped workers that’s less than 70% of minimum. That came as a surprise to former waitress Gina Deluca, who told Bloomberg her wages and sense of economic security fell significantly when she moved to New Mexico from California, which at the time had a minimum wage for tipped workers of $6.75. “The difference in San Francisco was that I felt valued,” she said.

Would a higher minimum wage for tipped workers work at your restaurant? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Can restaurants afford a higher minimum wage? originally published by SmartBlogs

Both of these issues can be relatively easy to address. Naturally, most of the dirt in an entryway is carried in on customers’ shoes. Some of this debris can be removed by industry mats or carpet specially designed to act in the same way as a bristle-brush boot scraper at a domestic doorway. A sturdy but discrete carpet sweeper can be stored within the host’s lectern for quick, discrete cleanups once customers are seated. If the restaurant entry opens directly to the outdoors, the outer mat should be exchanged daily for a clean one under an agreement with an industrial-carpet service.

Cleaning the restroom before each shift’s opening and after the establishment’s closing is standard and expected. Moreover, it can be conducted thoroughly without rushing, as might be required during a busy dinner shift. Regardless of the inconvenience to staff and customers, restrooms should be monitored frequently throughout a dining shift and cleaned as needed. Restaurant-hygiene specialists recommend that restrooms’ cleaning equipment be color coded to ensure it’s used only in these areas to avoid contaminating another area of the establishment.

What health inspectors notice

Health inspectors also notice the overall cleanliness of the floor and bathrooms, although the restaurant probably will not receive a red X unless the entryway and bathrooms are obviously dirty and lacking necessary materials. While patrons notice the quiet, hopefully attractive and comfortable front of the restaurant, it’s the busy, hot and noisy kitchen that garners most of a health inspector’s attention.

According to Respro Food Safety Professionals, health inspectors use a checklist to assess these areas.

• Overall cleanliness of facility.
• Temperatures.
• Proper food storage.
• Food labeling and date marking.
• Proper hand washing and glove use.
• Equipment washing and storage.
• Chemical management.
• Overall operations.
• Proper sanitation procedures.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service classifies the failure to meet some of these expectations, depending on the extent of failure, as “critical violations,” or ones that can result in a threat to close the establishment until the violations are corrected. Four critical violations are temperature related and include:

• Failure to reheat already cooked and refrigerated food to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Failure to completely thaw frozen chicken or other poultry before cooking.
• Keeping a cold food item at more than 41 degrees Fahrenheit for an excessive period of time.
• Failure to cool prepared food to at least 41 degrees Fahrenheit within four hours of production.

Technology and training help restauranteurs keep it clean

Despite the myriad factors a health inspector evaluates, technology is making it easier to comply with state and federal laws. Freezer, refrigerator and salad-bar temperatures can be monitored from afar, and notification of violations can be texted to an owner or a chef. Longtime employees should be educated as certified food-protection managers and should be encouraged to train newer staff. That can make compliance as high as 70%, compared with about 50% for restaurants without specially trained employees.

Restaurant owners must exercise due diligence to ensure their establishment maintains practices friendly to health inspectors and customers. This involves proper research to understand standards long before the annual inspection.

Felicia Baratz-Savage is a contributor to “Professional Intern,” freelance graphic designer and social media addict living in Indianapolis. When she isn’t discussing career development, Felicia enjoys writing about employee retention & work safety protocols such as: offering praises, listening to employee feedback and keeping your workplace “up to code” with proper sanitary equipment and practices.

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5-star shine: What customers and health inspectors notice first originally published by SmartBlogs

But now it’s a digital age and patrons and restaurant owners alike have Twitter and other digital channels to rely on when they feel the need to vent, although the jury’s still out on the advisability of restaurateurs calling out guests for behaving badly. A few weeks ago, the media was abuzz with the story of frustrated restaurant owner of Red Medicine in Los Angeles, who called out patrons by name on Twitter after several failed to show for their Saturday night reservations.

The reactions were mixed, with most in the industry empathizing with the frustration that led to the outburst while opinions varied in terms of whether the public shaming was appropriate. It also led to helpful advice and tips like Eater’s article this week on how to minimize the impact of no shows.

It’s less clear whether the latest story of a restaurateur taking to Twitter to vent will lead to any such productive fallout. At the popular and bustling Black Hoof in Toronto, owner Jen Agg drew attention and plenty of criticism when on a recent Saturday night she tweeted: “Dear (almost) everyone in here right now. Please, please stop being such a douche” to her 7,300 followers, The Globe and Mail reported. The tweet came after a few patrons were treating servers rudely, she told the paper.

It wasn’t Agg’s first time calling out patrons for their behavior on the social site, and her actions have drawn harsh comments from consumers and those in the restaurant world who see them as unprofessional and potentially bad for business. The Globe and Mail story drew more than 130 online comments from readers, most of whom disagreed with Agg’s actions.

Chris Nuttall-Smith, who wrote the story for the paper, later gave an interview with CBC News delving further into the reasons why some restaurants seem to be more willing these days to publicly shame, starting with the changing economics of the industry. Years ago, eateries were in it for the long haul, looking to curry favor with consumers to create a dependable stable of repeat customers. Now, he said, eateries are experimenting with innovative concepts that change quickly and make their money turning tables so fast that they might not have time for the niceties.

“Restaurants are not the same today as they were five years ago or 10 years ago,” he told CBC host Matt Galloway on Friday’s edition of “The Current.” “Everybody’s trying to figure things out. It can be frustrating; it can be confusing.”

Are your customers always right? Would you tweet about the rude ones? Tell us about it in the comments.

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How digital channels are changing the dining conversation originally published by SmartBlogs