ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - December 1, 2000

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
Selling a restaurant is always a little tricky. On one hand, you want to let people know the place is available and show them what a wonderful business they are buying. On the other hand, you don't want the staff to get nervous and quit . . . or worse yet, just stop caring and alienate all your regulars. I suspect there are several right answers to this question and at least one subscriber would like to hear them.

"We have owned our restaurant now for 11 years and are considering retirement. In the event we do decide to retire we will want to sell the restaurant. I would like to ask your readers if they have any suggestions on how we can go about selling the restaurant IN CONFIDENCE? We don't want anyone to know we are selling -- for fear of losing good customers and employees. I'm hoping there is some kind of agency or forum (in Eastern Pennsylvania) that handles confidential sales of restaurants. Please e-mail suggestions to <mres@chesco.com>."

There are two questions here. One is who can help her actually sell a restaurant in Eastern Pennsylvania. The second, and the one I think will be of most interest to the group, is how do you market an on-going successful restaurant without losing either staff or guests in the process? If you have been through it, I would like to hear your experiences, both good and bad.

JUST CHECKING
How interested would you be in highly secure software that would interface with the POS system of a restaurant and allow you to view the stats on the Internet IN REAL TIME? Not only would this provide information to absentee owners, multi-unit owners, district managers and the like, but it could be rigged so that each restaurant manager could see where every other restaurant in their group was at a given instant regarding sales, payroll percentage and the like. The possibilities for real time management and inter-unit competition are interesting.

I ask because it appears that just such software is about to go into beta testing and they have asked me to give some advice and counsel as to how to make it most user-friendly. If you would like to be part of that discussion, let me know.

EXCUSE ME?
This from the weekly e-letter of Max Hitchins, my marketing guru colleague in Australia. If you do not already receive Max' letter (it's free!), you can sign up the Hospitality Doctor Web site, http://www.hospitalitydoctor.com/hospitality.html.

You are at the reception desk of a hotel, restaurant, or any sales counter for that matter. After waiting (and waiting) it is finally your turn to be served. Just as you begin to speak the telephone rings. The person behind the counter immediately answers the telephone and proceeds to take an interminable amount of time looking after the needs of the caller who, you feel, has effectively just cut into line ahead of you!

My Canadian friend Jeff Mowatt recently solved this problem for me. He put it in a slightly format but I think you'll see where he's coming from. Jeff asks, "Who gets priority when you're talking on the phone and a visitor walks in?" The answer should be the visitor who took the time to arrive in-person. He says this means interrupting the caller and suggests that the quickest way to get the caller's attention is to start with their name. "Pat, excuse me. Someone just walked in. May I put you on hold for a moment?" Then greet the visitor explaining that you're wrapping-up the call. Conclude the call and take care of the visitor.

A note from the Doc:
Simple format...simple idea. I thought you might want to incorporate it into your staff manual and/or mention it at your next staff training session.

ROUNDTABLES
Finally, a status report. The industry roundtable conferences are shaping up for January and early February. The short list of cities includes Denver, Austin, Columbus and Orlando. I would also entertain proposals from restaurants that have a private room that could accommodate a group of up to 100 (at round tables, of course!) on a Monday and Tuesday during those months.

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