ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - January 18, 2002

I get back on the road Sunday night for a two-week trip that will be interesting to pack for -- a week in northern Michigan for staff and management programs with a long-time hotel client, then to Florida for a series of staff programs and the Winter Roundtable in Orlando.

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH WITHOUT LEAVING HOME
I have often said that there are not a lot of new ideas in our business . . . but there are some VERY innovative combinations and adaptations of ideas that have worked before! The Internet offers us incredible opportunities to learn from people all around the world and Max Hitchins, Aussie marketing guru, has elevated this to an art form. Max makes my travel schedule look sedentary, regularly speaking in over a dozen different countries a year. He is never without his digital camera and captures interesting marketing ideas whenever he sees them. Best of all, he posts these on his website. Check them out -- they are well worth looking at . . . and learning from.

A note from the Doc:
Max will be our Management Insight Series interview for February, a presenter at the April Super Conference and will be joining me on the program of the National Restaurant Show in Chicago this May.

WHO'S ON FIRST?
Awhile ago, someone asked me if I had any insights on the idea of team service. I responded

Not really. In my experience, however, if more than one person will be serving the table, it is important to let the guest know early on what is happening and make it clear who they can look to if they need help. I remember having dinner in one team service restaurant where four different people asked if we needed more rolls (we said yes each time) and nobody ever brought them! It was an unsettling experience.

Properly executed, team service can result in a guest being processed more efficiently, but the danger is that efficient processing can be quite different from effective personal service. At the end of my team service experience, I did not feel that I had been well-served because no personal connection had been established . . . and this is a business build on personal connection. I go back to the places where I sense that somebody actually cares that it was ME who was dining with them.

RAISE A GLASS TO SUCCESS
This little tidbit just arrived in Troy Brackett's RestaurantNews.com e-letter. Perhaps it is an idea you can adapt.

Little did Christian Schneider know that a half-priced bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay would help his restaurant -- Lucy's Grill and Bar -- return to pre-Sept. 11 sales. Actually, many bottles of wine are helping the 1-year-old eatery regain business on an otherwise slow night for restaurants. Lucy's Wednesday Wine Nights, a 4-month old event, has brought nightly sales from a flagging $1,500 to about $3,500 by offering bottled wine at half-off the menu price with a minimum $15 purchase of food.

LAST CALL FOR A DISCOUNT
The early registration discount for the Hospitality Industry Winter Roundtables expires at midnight tonight. If you are planning to attend, fax me your registration or send an e-mail and save a few bucks! The sessions set for Orlando on February 4-5 and Las Vegas on February 9-10. Orlando is filling up nicely but frankly, Las Vegas is in question at the moment. I will know better at midnight!

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