The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - June 9, 2000

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING GUEST
I was tempted to mention this a month ago when I almost walked away from a restaurant in Milwaukee because I stood at the hostess stand like a jerk for over five minutes before anyone showed up to seat me. I am mentioning it now because a colleage and I DID walk away from a restaurant in Toronto last Tuesday night for precisely that reason. The hardest part of the whole scenario is that the management doesn't have the slightest clue that they lost our business, perhaps forever. After the experience of being ignored and walking out, we agreed that the odds that either of us would give the place another try are slim to none. We don't have to -- there are too many other choices.

There may be a reason why there was nobody on the door, but the results are still the same. In my book, you have 30 seconds from the time a guest walks in the door (and it ought to happen faster) to let THEM know that YOU know they are there. How you do that is up to you but if you think you are saving a buck or two by having one greeter on instead of two or asking the service staff to keep an eye on the door on slow night, you are volunteering yourself for a future of slow nights.

I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT
I was just in Toronto to make a presentation to the Coffee Association of Canada. As you may know, I have been conducting a pilot study for the coffee industry in the US on how to increase consumption among younger patrons -- the pilot restaurants have increased the number of coffee products they are selling by as much as 7.5% over the first two months of the program, by the way -- and the Canadian group wanted an update on our progress.

One of the presenters pointed out that most people who use a coffee "whitener" put it in to bring the coffee to a certain color. If you use half & half, it takes twice as much product to lighten coffee to a particular color than if you used table cream . . . and the cream only costs 35% more per ounce. Real cream makes for a better tasting cup of coffee (less dilution), people would typically not use cream at home (which makes coffee "out" more special) and it costs you less money to do it! Something to ponder if you are ready to get serious about coffee.

PROJECT UPDATE
Finally, for those who have been following my new house project, I admit to being remiss about posting progress shots on my website, a lapse which I promise to correct when I get back home on Sunday. Bottom line is that we have the current house sold and will move into Rancho Humungo at the end of the month! Expect a full interior photo spread in early July!

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