I see it often.  The owners of a failing restaurant can’t make a decision.  Or worse yet; they are too stubborn to make a decision that makes sense.  Or maybe they deny that there is a problem at all. I can see it clearly, and often their partners and friends can see it too.

There is the employee or manager who isn’t the right person for the job, or who just doesn’t do their job. Yet, ownership can’t seem to confront the person and find solutions. 

There is the money gushing out the door due to theft, poor cost controls, poor accounting and a myriad of other reasons.  Yet, ownership can’t seem to implement better accountability and security.

There is a better way of preparing a dish, or serving a table, or handling a customer complaint.  Yet, ownership refuses to rock the boat and change “the way we’ve always done it”, or re-work a family recipe.

There is a major food code violation in the kitchen and the inspector has written it on the report for the last three inspections.  Yet, ownership is more worried about a dollar, than the health or life of a child, or a senior, or a cancer patient.

There is a hard decision to be made, or a decision that really isn't a decision at all. Maybe "it’s just the right thing to do”.  Yet, ownership continues to push back due to money, or anger at the government, or a general disbelief that they need help.

There is a time that all businesses need outside help, or a new perspective, or non-biased input. Sometimes the truth hurts. Yet, ownership doesn’t feel that they need help, or can’t afford it.

There is a cost associated with indecision, stubbornness and denial.

There is a restaurant for sale. Cheap.

Champaign, Illinois lost a successful eatery in March of 2011.  Mia Za’s Italian-themed restaurant was destroyed when a fire swept through the historic building that was home to the establishment.  But the loss of Mia Za’s was short, and what seemed at first to be a disaster, ended up being a fabulous opportunity for a fresh start.

Bruce Hink, Mia Za’s owner recreated the restaurant from the ground up – literally.  He redesigned the décor, changed menu items and added new ones, and embraced technology.  Now, one year later, diners of the new Mia Za’s can influence the music being played by using their smart phones.  Big-screen monitors display art instead of using conventional artwork, and diners can even submit art to be displayed.  And there is a monitor at the entrance so that you can look up menu items that may be unfamiliar to you, and you can view those items and learn more about them. And for all of us who occasionally find our laptops and phone batteries dead, Mia Za’s is happy to lend us a charger to use while we dine.

But as cool as all of the new technology is, this story isn't really about the technology.  This story is about a fresh start. It’s about rethinking and reworking a concept, and challenging the established ideas, beliefs and habits. It’s about changing with the times.

You don’t have to wait for your business to burn to the ground in order to have a fresh start, and I’m certainly not suggesting you get the ball rolling by starting the fire yourself.  What I am suggesting is that you look closely and think about what could be different.  Could you refresh your menu?  Could you redecorate a bit?  Can you find ways to embrace technology? How about new uniforms for your staff? There are a lot of things that can be done to refresh a concept without changing the concept outright and they don’t have to be huge or drastic.

If you’re not sure where to start, maybe it’s time to ask your customers. Better yet, invite some people in the community who aren’t your customers and ask them what they think, or invite a consultant to take a look and make recommendations. You don’t have to wait for disaster to strike to get a fresh start. You can start tomorrow on your own terms.

Very recently my wife and I were invited out to have dinner at a restaurant that we had never been to before. It is an upscale restaurant in the Indianapolis area and it has been around for many years.  It boasts of having an inventive menu and an excellent chef. When we received the invitation I thought, "Great! I've driven by there a million times but never tried them out!" 

Unfortunately for the restaurant, we won't be back. It's not that the food was bad or that the service was poor, it's just that it wasn't good enough to make me into a raving fan. 

Many restaurants put too much of their marketing focus on getting new customers.  The business creates new coupons or promotions to build excitement and buzz in order to get new people in the door.  In fact they focus so much on getting new customers they forget sometimes to take extraordinary care of them once they arrive .

The really tragic thing with our dinner experience was that our server ASKED us if we'd been there before, and we said "No". That should have been the call to action for something special; something to really "WOW" us so that we'd be back.  But it wasn't.  

So what should the restaurant in question have done better?  They should have gone above and beyond:

• At a minimum the service should have been impeccable.  They should have done simple things that aren't seen in many restaurants such as crumbing the table between courses, announcing dishes descriptively, giving me a black cloth napkin so as to avoid white lint on my black pants, refolding my napkin when I used the restroom, etc. They should have done things above and beyond what I would normally expect. Instead, they didn't do anything out of the norm. They weren't even especially fast or overly outgoing.
• The manager or chef should have visited our table and welcomed us and thanked us for our first visit.  They should have made a "big deal" about our being new customers in their establishment. We should have felt like we were special and important to them.
• Offering to add us onto their frequent guest program would have been a smart idea too.  If they don't have a program (and I don't know if they do), they need to start one. This would have opened up a line of communication with my wife and me that could have been used to send us news about promotions, menu changes, etc.  
• They could have sent us an amuse-bouche, or a complimentary treat of some type, as a surprise.  Or, since none of our small group ordered dessert, they could have given a small dessert sampler to the table as a way to say "thank you" to their new customers, and entice us all to return again and have dessert next time. 
• They could have sent us a hand-written "Thank you".  Now, this would have required getting our address information so that they could open up a line of communication as I already discussed.  But, "Wow", that would have made an impact!  Imagine us receiving a "Thank you" via snail mail.  No one does that anymore.

So to all of the restaurants out there spending big money and working hard to find new customers, I suggest this: focus on making the experience amazing for your current customers, and ask them to refer others to you.  And when you get first time customers, make sure you blow them away with great food, amazing service, and let them know you are celebrating their discovering you.  Let them know how very important they really are, and most of all...that you want them to come again soon!

 

In my travels with Hoosier Hospitality Consulting I get to meet a lot of people with a very wide variety of backgrounds.  I've met young people who have a dream of starting their own hospitality business, but have no experience in hospitality industry.  Then there are those who are great cooks whose friends tell them, "You should open up your own restaurant". And of course there are  those with years of experience as a server, or a bartender, or a cook and a desire to strike out and do their own thing and not what some owner, manager, or chef tells them to do.  All of these combined contacts have made me realize some common reasons that restaurants, and businesses in general, fail.  These are my top five.

#5 - Underestimating the difficulty of establishing a new business. Regardless of the type of business you want to create (a bakery, a restaurant, a mobile truck, a catering operation, a motel, etc.) it is a business.  You have to know what you know, and what you don't know.  You have to ultimately know a fair amount about accounting, taxes, licenses, building codes, food safety, marketing, promotion, service, human resources, training staff, managing costs, and much more that has absolutely nothing to do with how good your food tastes. And when you don't know, you need to know someone who does.

#4 -No practical experience. There are those who are book smart, and those who are street smart.  Running a business has a lot to do with being street smart. There are a lot of things that you can read online, or learn in school that ultimately don't filter down to the day to day realities of running a business.  I fly on airplanes, but I wouldn't try to fly one.  Just because someone is an awesome cook at home doesn't mean that they know how to be a restauranteur. Before using your money to open a new business, why not let someone else use their money to hire you.  You'll surely learn about what to do and what not to do...on their dime.

#3 - The business doesn't have"that thing" that makes it special.  Think about what restaurants you like to go to, or what hotels you use, or what stores you shop at. Why do you patronize them?  What is important to you?  Those are the questions that you have to learn about your prospective guests and customers.  You are going to have to have something that makes you different and special; something that makes your customers try your place and then continue to choose you over others that offer the same type of product.  Lots of folks go to a new restaurant once. What is "that thing" that makes them come back?

#2 - They don't understand how to market their business. Do you give out coupons?  Run a newspaper or magazine ad?  Do you have a frequent customer program?  Do people really care about what you Tweet?  What about SEO? Which of your marketing tools are effective, and how effective are they? There are so many different ways to market your business that WON'T work, it's scary. You have to do your research and be skeptical of every Account Representative that claims to have the magic bullet that will make your business profits soar. (See #5)

#1 - They don't have the money. Let's face it, money makes the world go around.  However much money you have available, or have planned to spend, it always seems to take more.  Think about it, how many times do you hear "The project came in under budget and ahead of schedule".  Anytime someone starts a business the odds are very good that it will take longer to get the doors open than was planned...and that means MORE MONEY.  To be safe a new business will need 2-3 years of operating funds available in some form or fashion before opening.  There are so many variables to starting a business that it's impossible to plan ahead for every little circumstance.  A lot of new businesses fail not because they didn't do things right in #2 through #5 above, but because they just ran out of money a little too early and had to quit before success was realized.