ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - March 4, 2005

I am finally back at the old homestead ... getting a serious case of spring fever. I know that winter is still hanging tough over most of the Northeast, but today in the Pacific Northwest was sunny and 60 degrees!

Whether spring has made it to your part of the world or not, it isn't too early to start thinking of how you want to adjust menus when the weather starts to warm up.

SPARKLE, PART 2
Last week I ranted on about the importance of sparkle inside and outside the restaurant. This week I want to continue raising your awareness of the importance of lighting in setting the stage for a memorable dining experience. The comments come from Michael Whiteman, one of the most prominent restaurant consultants in the country. He writes:

Most restaurants are too darkly lit. And restaurant lighting, to me, is probably the most difficult part of the design process. Fifteen or twenty years ago, the food tended to be reasonably dull. We lived in a era with food that was either brown or white, and there weren't a lot of variations.

Today, food is extraordinarily dynamic. Food has become a lot more colorful because our chefs are roaming around looking for new ingredients. Food styling on the plate has become as important as the taste of the food. And food no longer sits flat on the plate as it once did: it stands up. Food has become architecture.

Consequently, there is a need for getting dramatic light onto the table that didn't exist before. The old cliche of a candle in a Chianti bottle for an Italian restaurant wouldn't work today because the candle doesn't throw enough light to create the drama that food now requires.

At the same time, we feel it's necessary to be very considerate about the way people look in a restaurant. Downlighting, which creates drama on the tabletop, creates unflattering shadows under the eyes of diners. Worse than that, it accentuates wrinkles in the skin.

I think an enormous amount of time needs to be spent on having light come from a variety of sources. You need light from the side, and you need light from somewhere two feet above your head. You need light that bounces. You need light that creates highlights. You need a general glow.

Most people can't afford it; most people don't recognize it; most people don't deal with it.

A Note from the Doc: How can you be the restaurant of choice if your lighting makes women look older? The good news in Michael's comments is that if most people don't deal properly with lighting, there is a real opportunity for those who are willing to do the work.

THE MARKETING CALENDAR
Are you anything like I was back in my operating days? I was always so up to my neck in keeping the place going that it seemed that holidays and special events just sneaked up on me. Suddenly it was almost Easter, or St. Patrick's Day or April Fool's Day -- all great opportunities to make money -- and I was scrambling to put something together at the last minute. I usually made it, but my lack of planning certainly added to the stress. I know it cost me money.

The idea behind making a marketing calendar is that it let's you see what is coming up far enough ahead that you can take full advantage of it. By planning out what marketing opportunities you are going to exploit each month of the year, you can more easily budget both your dollars and your time. It also helps you see when you have too many things going on as well as when there are gaps.

Before you worry too much about all this, be aware that whether a particular promotion actually increases sales or not is probably less important than the fact that you have the promotion in the first place.

I always tried to have something out of the ordinary going on ... and it was never a dollars off sort of deal. Some of the ideas worked well and some flopped, but the fact that we always had something to talk about created an energy in the place that keep us from becoming boring to our guests. How are you doing in that regard?

Your marketing calendar should spell out what you want to do in various categories month by month during the year. What is your box top offer going to be? What are you promoting for dine-in? What are you sending to your database and how? By knowing what you have coming up, you can back off the lead times for printing and so forth to be sure that the April Fool's offer forms arrive sufficiently before April 1 to be useful to you.

As we speak, you should (or could) have something already planned for St. Patrick's Day (March 17), the first day of Spring (March 20) and Easter (March 27). You should also be well into planning for April Fool's Day (April 1), Secretary's Day (April 27), Cinco de Mayo (May 5), Mothers Day (May 8) and Memorial Day Weekend (May 28-30).

Are you?

THE MARCH SURVEY
It's a new month ... and a new question, again one that was suggested by one of the January respondents. So in February we will be looking at service -- how you define it, how you train it and how it figures as a competitive factor.

My thanks to those who contributed to the February discussion. I will continue to share their comments at the end of each EHC, so be sure to read to the bottom of the page.

Click here to go to the March survey.

SUPER SUMMIT AND YOU
Does making it effortless seem like too much work?

I always wonder. Most operators I talk with say they would like to be able to work less, get better results and put the fun back in their work. How you can achieve this "impossible" result is exactly what will come into focus at the Super Summit ... so I am puzzled as to why all the (very limited) seats would not be gobbled up on Day One.

You have heard the expression, "Be careful what you ask for. You may just get it." Well, we are offering you a chance to change your personal and professional fortunes in ways you have only dared dream about. Do you have the courage to act when you are offered a chance to make your dreams real? Do you have the courage to let your life be that easy?

If hard work made money, you would already be one of the richest people on the planet. You owe it to yourself -- and your family -- to explore the possibilities. To get the whole story, follow the link below. If what we propose sounds interesting, take the next step and submit an application. We will take it from there.

Click here to get the whole story on the Super Summit.

THE PERPETUAL QUESTION
What did you learn from your staff today?

I was so caught up in my own interest that I didn't take the time to interact with my staff at all. -- Scott Reutner

A Note from the Doc:
Thanks for that, Scott. It takes courage to call it honestly. The question now is what you plan to do to change this.

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