The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 9, 2001

I am back on the road in the morning to San Francisco, South Bend, Toronto and Phoenix. That's a lot of ground to cover in ten days!

THE HOLIDAY DILEMMA
My colleagues Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia had the following note in their weekly trend report

"As we approach the holidays, corporate leaders are carefully considering how to celebrate. With lower sales and profits, they have neither the cash nor the mood to pay for gala parties and gifts that have been enjoyed in previous years. Yet, it's important to have holiday get-togethers to keep morale strong.

The answer for a lot of employers will be family events. Open houses, potluck family gatherings, and similar activities will be popular this year. This approach is congruent with employers' concerns about building closer relationships with their employees, to hold on to them longer. This year has been filled with motivations for people to become closer, more cohesive. Wise employers will build on those natural feelings to create more opportunities for workers to come together, be together."

A note from the Doc:
If holiday parties are a big part of your December business, what are you going to do to counter this trend? What comes immediately to my mind is offering more "do-it-yourself" party trays and payment plans (unless the company is on shaky financial ground). Any other ideas? Also, what are you going to do for your own crew during the holidays to keep morale up?

Note: A subscription to the Herman Trend Alert is free. To join, use the form on their Web site at http://www.hermangroup.com/trend_alert_signup.html

SURVIVING THE DOWNTURN
Subscriber Van Glaman offers the following advice for those caught with eroding sales volume

Don't Panic and pull all your ads . . . but don't panic in reverse and advertise everywhere. If you do, you will either be wasting your money or not be on peoples' minds when they do return. If people aren't buying, a gazillion $$ ad campaign may just bring you more of nothing and strap you further for cash. Be selective, and advertise where you know you'll get results. Also, don't discount yourself into extinction with lots of deals and coupons that devaluate your operation in the minds of the public. If you are cheaper than [your competitors] you may gain market share amongst those who are stingy (and possibly alienate regular customers in the melee with sub-standard service) but in the end, most of those customers will go to someone else with a better coupon next week and all you'll have is higher margins to cover. Value added, to your regulars is much better.

Another note from the Doc:
You may want to lower your price points, but do it by adjusting your menu items so that you do not erode your margins. If it costs you less, you can sell for less and still put the same amount of money in your pocket at the end. Have you made any adjustments to your menu yet?

TELE-ROUNDTABLE
I will be conducting a tele-roundtable on Monday, November 26th from 330-530pm EST. This will be an opportunity for operators to share what has worked (and what hasn't) during the current recession (yes, that's what we are dealing with!) This program is free to Coaching Program Members and those in the Gold Group. Information on how to join the coaching program are on my website at http://www.restaurantdoctor.com along with information on how to sign up for this idea exchange.

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