ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - March 19, 2004

What a week! I am in Phoenix today at Rory Fatt's Restaurant Marketing Boot Camp -- my seventh program in as many days. Good thing I am still young and resilient!

I head for home tomorrow and have a few weeks of relative calm. The project then will be to get the taxes sorted out ... but there is still time for a brief consulting assignment before we head to France for the corporate meeting in late April.

Speeding up the Table Turn
If you run a wait on Friday and Saturday night (or any other time for that matter), you know how valuable it would be to get folks in and out a little faster. One way to pick up a few minutes (and perhaps another turn in the course of the evening) is to make sure that all waiting guests are given a menu.

The menu will help keep them occupied while they wait, but it does more than that. Explain that you are giving them the menu (and explaining the specials) so they will already know what they want to order when they are finally seated. This bit of pre-planning can save you as much as ten minutes per party over starting "from scratch" each time a group is seated. In the course of a busy evening, it might even mean an additional turn.

There are some enhancements to this idea that will virtually guarantee the extral turn ... without making your guests feel rushed. In fact, they will love you for it! I will explore these additional ideas in more detail with members of the Coaching Program and Gold Group.

Super Summit in a Box
If you missed the Super Summit held at Disneyland last January, you are probably kicking yourself ... but there is good news. We recorded the entire event and I expect that the editing will be done sometime this week. Watch the EHC for information on how you can capture this amazing event on audio CD and DVD or VHS.

Restaurant Doctor Forums
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The Perpetual Question
What did you learn from your staff today?

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