November 27, 2024 • 44 mins
We’re delving into one of the biggest challenges restaurant owners face today: driving traffic and keeping customers coming back for more! With so much competition out there, how can you make sure your business stands out from the crowd? Today we’ll explore this topic and discuss some strategies on how to keep your customers hungry for more!
ABOUT THE PODCAST: Kraft Heinz Away From Home presents The Restaurant Roundtable Being successful in the world of restaurants is incredibly hard. But what if it could be easier? The Restaurant Roundtable features accomplished restaurant owners along with special guests where we explore ways to build better businesses, healthier lifestyles and stronger communities.
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Avishar Barua - https://www.instagram.com/dineatagni/
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Shanika and Jomar Sheppard - https://www.instagram.com/marlowscheesesteaks
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's the goal of being The goal is more attention, right,
more business.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The cheesteak could be highlighted in the brand and be recognized.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
It's an algorithm behind it, as we found out. You know,
they're doing research. So they say post it at like
six of the morning. Yeah, because people wake up and
the first thing they go to the bathroom and.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Use their phones.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Is that what you do?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Welcome everyone to the Restaurant Round Table.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Where's the port group for restaurant owners.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
The buy restaurant holders brought to you by craft Times.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
All season all we discussed the challenges, opportunities, the good taste.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And the bad taste within the industry.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
And we're your hosts. I'm Vja, I'm Jamar, I'm Kate,
I'm Abashar. So if you're a chef, an owner or
sprying to be one, you're going to.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Want to pull up a chair to this roundtable.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Welcome back everyone to the Restaurant Round Table, presented by
craft Times. Away from Home. We are a podcast by chefs,
four chefs, and before we get it entire big topic
of the day, we don't really get to see each
other that often, so we start every episode with a
little catchup of the day, if you will, I'll go first.
I wanted to give a shout out to one of
(01:11):
my dear friends, Jordan Anthony Brown and his restaurant Aperture.
They were just named to the New York Times Top
fifty list and I'm just really proud of them. Restaurants
in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you all get a chance to
road trip or we can all go do it together, yes,
that would be really cool.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
So my catchup of the day, we attended the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce clam bake. So that is a fun
raison effort for the Chamber where they raise money for
programs and initiatives.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
How are the clams, man, I don't eat clams, lobster.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Clams. My ketchup of the day is the stink in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Eagles.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
You gotta do better, fellas two hundred and fifty million
and you playing like that. I was thinking about going
home from a for a game and now I'm not
so sure. So Eagles do better.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
My ketchup of the day is more of a shout out.
Speaker 7 (02:16):
There's been a lot of election focus on Ohio because
former President claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating people's pets
in a town in Ohio, and there's a company locally
called Columbus Food Adventures that wrote a really great post
just encouraging people to go out and eat at some
(02:39):
of these Haitian restaurants bytlighting them. And it really encouraged
a lot of my friends to take some road trips
and try some good foods. And it seemed like a
really great way to bring people together through food instead
of fear.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
What is yours too? The quickest catchup is it's the
end smarks end of Hunger Aware, which was a really
cool month because it allows us to remember what we
do so well, which is feed. People got a chance
to work with a mid Ohio food food pantry to
do some volunteering and preparing meals, and it's nice to
remember that we can always get somewhere or another. It's
(03:15):
so easy to do. And just being back in the
shoes of being able to make food and seeing it
impact people that really need it is amazing. So do
you get a chance to everyone to volunteer a little
bit more? All right?
Speaker 7 (03:24):
So our topic today? The NRA website reported that seventy
one percent of restaurant operators are finding that traffic is
down or reporting that.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Traffic is down in their restaurants founder.
Speaker 7 (03:36):
July of this year, since July of last year, and
so we want to talk about driving traffic to your restaurants.
My experience in filling butts into seats is pretty non conventional.
It's usually pop ups, cooking classes, things like that. And
I don't know if it's conventional wisdom or something that
I made up, but I believe the person needs to
(03:58):
be exposed to your business, to your items, your menu
three times before they'll actually take an action step to
follow up on that, to come visit you, to make
a reservation, to find out where you're located. And so
I have found that when I need to post things
like pop ups, bakery boxes, things like that, I try
to have a full schedule at least three things on
(04:21):
the calendar so I can talk about one and if
it doesn't fit the right time, there's others.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
There has always worked for me. What about you talking
about pop ups?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned the like having to
tell someone something three times before they hear it. That's
before I got into restaurants. I was in marketing, and
that wisdom has changed over time, and also the delivery
methods for that. For that, like what we like to
call it as a poke, like you need to poke
someone three times and be like, hey, this thing exists. Hey,
(04:52):
this thing exists, and then hopefully the third time you
poke them, they're like, oh, this thing exists, a good
example of that is we did a pop up dinner,
a guest chef dinner I Guess you Will, with Jenny
from Jenny's ice Creams, who her first shop was here
in Columbus, Ohio. She's kind of a local celebrity, and
she said yes to do an all ice cream dinner
with us. So we actually set up a whole marketing
(05:13):
campaign around the dinner, but we kind of tried to
plan out a week in advance, not just trying to
sell the dinner out, but also a bigger awareness campaign
around our restaurant what we did, et cetera. But we
leading up to it, we did like giveaway for tickets
to the event, then we did a release of the tickets,
and then we did a menu preview and those were
(05:34):
our three like little pokes, and that dinner sold out immediately.
But what we were hoping would happen was that it
would then spark new interest in the restaurant. To your
point about the NRA, which is the National Restaurant Association,
not the other NRA, which I feel me clarified because
we were like, why is this the NRA talking about
(05:54):
restaurants that it's not just that this is down, it's
that patrons aren't going to new restaurants as much. They're
going to kind of their tried and true. It's part
of the recession as people are pulling back. So part
of it is getting guests who've already did into your
restaurant back, But the other part is how do you
do new guest acquisition in a time when people are
(06:17):
admitting that they're not going to new restaurants. So I
feel like, as an example, this Jenny's Dinner, we really
tried to use as a new guest acquisition engine and
it worked to vary degrees, you know, learning opportunity for
share with that.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Did you see any kind of long term benefit afterwards?
Do you have more email subscribers, more reservations?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
So it's funny, that's what we've found. And I'm sure
that we're all going to have a different opinion on this,
and I'm really, really excited to dive into this with
everyone of what your marketing plan is for lack of
a better term on this, but we've found that emails
to our guests. We've been open for four years now,
so we have about forty thousand emails of people who've
opted in. Through that Jenny's Dinner, we picked up something
like four or five hundred new emails of people who
(07:02):
were saying we want to hear from you on things
like this, and that group of people we now know
is a persuadable group that might want to come and
join us. So we found that email marketing works really
really well for that stuff, to varying degree of social media.
But yeah, that's kind of where our focus is right now.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
You said the dinner sold out really quickly, Yeah, within
like minutes of us launching. And it's interesting because in
the last episode you talked about how the story you're
trying to tell is that you can always get reservations
that Chapmans and that you don't have this like shortage.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
You can get seats there.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Do you think that this pop up event is helping
that perception that it's hard to get reservations.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Well, jeez, Kate, I never thought of that. I feel
like that probably worked against our near a little bit
in that way, But I hadn't really thought about those
two things kind of being intertwined with each other. I've
got to think about that for a minute. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We're all here yet.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
I mean some things that maybe could happen in the
future if you experienced something like that, And I don't
know if, like in this particular partnership, it would have worked,
but maybe having some of those menu options as a
special for a month for people with reservations or something
like that.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That's actually a really good idea. There were like two
dishes that came out of that dinner that we were like,
we want these to be regular on the menu going forward,
but for various reasons, it didn't work out seasonality, et cetera.
But yeah, that's a really good point that we could
have used that dinner to drive like continuation of the
concept that I felt like we had thought really hard
about how we wanted to utilize the dinner for our
(08:43):
marketing purposes, and that was not one of the things
we thought about. So that's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Thanks Ken, did there's still time?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
That is true dinner was only likely two months ago,
so we're still alive now.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Met you that you guys got the customer information into
your database, would you send or did you guys send
like a feedback form to like, you know, say what
that they enjoy most, what would get them to come back.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Our system does allow for follow up emails. I haven't
found a good use for that yet, because these people
are already opted into our system and Rezi. If people have
made a reservation, Rezi automatically sends them feedback afterwards. I
really relish that feedback because you actually do get a
lot of Honestly, it's not something people are putting on Yelp,
it's not something the're putting on Google. It only goes
(09:33):
to us. So that Rezi like automated form is actually
really useful to us. People are really honest about what
they didn't like in those and they'll even say, like,
I don't want to post this online, but FYI, this
thing happened, this dish was too salty, whatever it is.
We don't use our typical email marketing necessarily to get feedback.
(09:54):
But I do hear where you're coming from on that.
That's an interesting idea too.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
You have a very different business model for that might
benefit from a different approach. Do you have something that
you find that really drives traffic into your business.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Definitely. When we get like food.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Bloggers that are local that come in, we had to actually,
within what two weeks, we had to step out Columbus
and then we had a gentleman by the name of
Brandon and we're still like reaping the benefits from that.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Like it.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Yeah, So the goal for us is like, yes, it's
bringing awareness to the brand.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
We're getting you know, new customers in, but the goal is.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
To retention retention because even if you know, they come
one time and don't come back, it's really it's like
a one off and our business gools back to where
it was when we wanted to continually grow.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
How are you getting business retention? Is that through emails?
Is that like do you collect out.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Of Yes, yes, we have a loyalty program that you
sign up for their own points. We can give them
a free birthday, give everybody loves free, so they get
five dollars off after they spend a certain amount of
money each time, and then it collects data. So we
use that kind of to get them to keep coming back.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
That's what we're using the third party for that or
is it something that's like built into.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
Your builos, which is toast and pee. They love the
loyalty because they'll come in here and say, I got
to give you my phone number.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It is my birthday.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, where's my free water?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I said.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
So, it's been a little while since I'm supposed to
went viral.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Do you still see the increase in traffic right now?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Like thirty days later, about a month ago now, it's
still Yeah, it's still a resonating.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So you think it's like a kind of like a
foot in the door, like you get them to come
and that you're fishingm in and they're like, ooh, this
this is really good in the product market itself, afterwards
it's more like the initial pull to get.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
And then and then it's also kind of mind bogging
that you kind of think everybody knows who you are,
but Columbus is so big it's only one like one
percent probably really know about us, or maybe less than
one percent, you know, and you think that everybody knows,
but no, so we continuously getting this first time, are
still three years open.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So and word and word of mouth too.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
So because we'll get you know people, it's not just
like you know the post, but we'll get Oh my friend,
you know, or my neighbor told me about it and
I just haven't had the time, you know, to come,
and you know, I wanted to check you guys out
and then just going back to the viral posts.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So both both bloggers.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Came in to the Gahannah location and we you know,
we have another location in bud Dairy, but all the
traffic is coming to ge Hannah. So even we had
some people that live out west like Hilliard West, Jefferson,
and they bypassed bud Dairy and came to ge Hannah
because that was the play.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, so that was interesting too.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
So have you guys kind of seized on that social
media environment? Are you guys like perpetuating that through social media?
Are you finding different ways to communicate with guests? So
you're just kind of letting it do its thing.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
It's a combination of both because not everybody has social media,
so you know, us having that loyalty program and really
you know, making sure that the staff talks up the
loyalty program. That way we can collect that data and
we have them in our database. So that if we're
running up you know, a special promotion. You know, you
(13:38):
can just nudge them a little and we.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Get unfortunate to kind of be on TV or probably
at least about a good seven eight times throughout the
last couple of years where they also drives traffic. Every
time we're on TV they do a feature on it
or us opening up another one. Are the Eagles or
Phillies make this the super Bowl? They where to go to?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Where to go to?
Speaker 6 (14:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
So yeah, sorry, yeah, I forgot your Jets fan.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
And that you really forget.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
And I would also like encourage you know, anyone who
whether you have a restaurant, you're thinking about starting a restaurant,
or just a business in general.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Like your website is a great platform. So if you.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
You know, have a magazine article or if you're on
the news, just making sure that you have that link
on your website.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
We have done a terrible job of that. Like literally
you can't see our footprint anywhere on our website. That
is a really really good point. We have to do that,
Like on Instagram, how you can do the like larger exactly.
We haven't done any of.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
That stuff, and I'm sure you can attest to this
that being on TV or just like a local celebrity
that ads to your business. People want to come and
see who was on TV.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
People love that.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I don't know why, but I mean, I feel like
infatuated with the TV.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So I feel like what happened for you guys is
really interesting because the new guest acquisition is almost through
like the virality of the post. But then you also
have a plan for how to turn those new acquisitions
into loyal guests forever. Avishar is in an interesting situation
right now. You were just named to the Bonappe tit
best new restaurant this How has that affected your new
(15:31):
guest acquisition versus like, I assume you're seeing an uptick
in business right now? Do you have tracking on if
it's more the guest thing you've already acquired coming in sure?
Are you seeing lots of new people?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Kind of both? And I think I'll stand to correct
you a little bit when you say that I got
the recounition and I know this is like a modesty
thing to one to me. But the other thing is
it does have to do with marketing. Our entire philosophies
is a week, so even our staff does within marketing.
They'll tell their friends age come to a restaurant, or yeah,
you know, we look up in this for people like that.
Those are the sorts of things that I think there's
two styles of marketing. There's the foot in the door
(16:03):
marketing and there's a retention marketing. Uh. We're after retention
primarily because we know the stats of like hey, year
one and two, or like getting your new people to
read it for what carries you through as regulars, right,
that's always going to be those And at one of
our restaurants, ADGNY the one that got that specific recognition,
that's say tasting many special occasion restaurant. One could argue,
and they come and not only will they like come
for occasion, but those stackications. I can be like, okay
(16:26):
at a birthday last week, next week is an anniversary,
so this is a reason to come, and they make
an occasion out of the experience. And I mean that
honestly is the majority of it. We don't have any
any specific dollars that we've ever spent on marketing. One
could argue that I am the marketing because of me
as a product, like I go on TV or I
do these things, and I'm starting to kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Accept that as we're currently on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes it's free, so free advertising. But what is fascinating
about that is the best part about marketing in my eyes,
and we've been through this is I've been at a
company that hired a marketing agency that's top tier, one
of the best, and then I've been at a place
that has no marketing. And I've seen success in both ways,
(17:11):
and one of them is for somebody else to speak
about my brand like they made it, or tell me
about some tool or technique that they got on the
internet or school, which is completely fine. I'm sure it's
very very effective. But once somebody comes in the door,
there's no marketing person sitting down and talking about the food.
Just like when you go and get a car, there's
a salesman and then there's your research.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Our job is to make sure that once they come
into that door, like we give them above and beyond,
so we mark it to every guest. So it was
our choice to have forty seats, it's our responsibility to
make sure all forty seats take care. It's not anybody's fault.
And that's like every time, no matter what We're like,
let's reinvest on how do we make this guestics very better?
Can we send them with something? And this is an
automatic marketing you know this site like okay, can I
put a brand into chili oil to give a guest
(17:50):
to take home so they can remember us tomorrow morning.
I think it's fun for me to give as like hospitality,
there's things, And for joy it's like it was the
exact opposite. Joys is very aggressively. We spend zero on marketing.
We spend one hundred percent in branding. So when the
influencer makes a post, if the post shows the cup
and it shows the monkey on the cup and it
says a joy Is and they tag it and I go, hey,
this is our restaurant, I was like, we're trying to
sell a lifestyle. So that's a harder category, but it
(18:12):
seems to work better for us. For caring, like when
people go, okay, how many stuff do you forget to day?
Forget everything right? So if you have a visual cue something,
you can remember it. So just have the visual cue.
It's it's smart.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
You know.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
You also had some experience having National Spotlight on you
in previous years. Did you have a serious similar experience
of a little bit of a burst of traffic, repeat customers.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
You know, it's funny. I've been very fortunate in my
career to have been in three different situations now. The
first one was in Husk and Charleston. I was a
part of the opening team there and we won Best
New Restaurant from Bona Petite. I'm pretty sure they don't
award like the number one. They just kind of do
the list now, which I actually think is better. But
we were the number one best new restaurant at Husk
(19:03):
and we offered reservations just going out forever at Husk
and basically two years where the reservations got booked up
like that. So that was kind of wild the rest.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And I really apologize to you, but it is something
that I saw has been curious whenever I see these things,
and we talked about it with Chapmans people coming up,
how many people show up for those reservation jump of
the course two years?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Does everyone showed up and they still drop? It's a
pretty interesting, to be honest. I was just a line
cook it at Husk at that point, so I wasn't
behind the scenes with the data on that one.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I can find out for you, And I mean,
I'm genuine curious. Some cold sweat for tears, and I
was like, how did I get into this restaurant? It'sen
sweat for te years? Yeah, Like, are you guys deceiving me?
Or did somebody drop? My inclination is like I can't
plan for tomorrow, So how am I supposed to bend
a year?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
As there's probably a good amount of attrition in that
or people who were handing their reservations off. But I mean, yeah,
if you really did look at the books, if you
were going to Charleston and what was it twenty ten
and you looked for a husk reservation, they just didn't exist.
So you really would have to just show up at
the restaurant. There was a line out the door. I
made it there, and I showed up and they were
so bad.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I waited for a whole a whole hour extra And
then I realized I drove from Columbus and actually I
went to Nashville. So I went to the one to Nashville,
and well, that one Nashville is in central Time, So
we were there. We were there, We were there an
hour early for the reservation. I was like, why are
they I was here an hour? What's going on? And
we sat down there and we were sitting at the bar,
We're like, what's taking so long? And we realized that
(20:23):
we were. They were so kind that they didn't tell
us that we were. Now really there was like, oh,
we'll tell you when your table is ready.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
That's really funny, funny. And then Roses Luxury in DC,
we also won Bone Appetite Best New Restaurant. That was
in two thousand and thirteen, so that was a long
time ago, over ten years ago. Both of those experiences,
we saw the restaurants just kind of exploded in popularity.
Roses at that time we weren't taking reservations. And then
(20:48):
that this is what Roses was known for forever is
the line outside you had to wait in line to
get in the restaurants to zero reservations, and that line
after Bone Appetite just went down the road across alleys.
It was crazy. We stuff to go out and take
names and tell people you're going to get intonight you're not.
Then at Chapman's we won the New York Times Top
fifty in gosh, three years ago. Now the restaurant was
(21:14):
busy and that's where we got this thing we've talked about,
the narrative that you can't get in. It got so
busy that I just quit caring about marketing. And I
think the thing that I've learned in the last few
years is when the restaurant is hot, you got to
keep the pedal to the metal. You need to keep
to your point, like poking people, You got to keep
laying you know you're there. I thought this juice would
(21:34):
like last forever, so I kind of took my eyes
off of it. We had waiting lists on Saturday nights
of like two hundred and twenty people just waiting for
a reservation to drop off so that they can get
their name on that reservation list. And I was like, oh,
this is great. This is going to last forever. And
it slowly dwindled down to now where we're not super busy.
We have the stigma of being super busy, and I'm
(21:54):
basically playing catch up from a year of neglect on
our marketing site. How long did the last you know
you guys, Oh, like a solid two years. It was awesome.
But we've been open for four years now. So this
last year, I mean coinciding with the data from the NRA.
We've been down massively year over year this year, and
(22:16):
part of it I put on myself for not marketing
the restaurant correctly, and part of it is just I
think a sign of the times. But I think that
there is room at the top, and I feel like
we're all operating kind of the top of our games
in our field. I think that there's room for us
to always be busy if we're doing our stuff correctly.
If your quality above your peers, then you should be busy.
(22:37):
And I think they're really for our business. It's on
me for dropping the ball on marketing, and I think
that that's why I'm really interested in this topic. And
everything that you're saying is like, oh, we should do that,
Oh we should do that. And I still feel like
there are miles to go on this stuff. But my
recommendation to anybody who's fortunate enough to be in the
situation that we've been in that my friend Jordan, is
keep the pedal to the metal on that marketing because
(22:58):
it can go away really quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You've been surprisingly quiet on this matter and marketing as
if you don't need to market, you don't have a storefront,
but obviously, if you have a business, anything is.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Going to work only out on my weakness.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You could call it a weakness. But from my experience
and maybe all of your experiences, have you been somewhere
and you eat something, You're like, where does this come from?
And somebody within two degrees of separation will not case? Yeah,
why is that?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Because? Is it because you followed these marketings matters or
how did that happen? Because that would be the essence
of what we're trying to achieve. Right, You're known for your.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Products, great question.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I'm known for my product.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
How are you known for your product? If it's just product?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
I think I have worked with you too long, because.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Only like two years, so I wasn't that long because I.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
Just firmly believe that if I can make the very
best product and create some kind of lasting memory, have
a takeaway.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
All of our cakes and the vending machine have a
poem written.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
By a local poet that just feels like a love
letter or a fortune cookie, but it's flirting with you.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I'm not really quite sure.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
But if there's a way to make something that people crave,
then they'll come back. And that's kind of what I've
been leaning hard into. What I am finding though, is
that it's time for me to start picking up my
marketing and telling my story. And I think the thing
I'm struggling with is another topic, but it's really finding
the voice.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
For this particular business. And I don't think the voice
is my voice.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
But I'm also not really quite sure you can about
Please argue with me. You can brag about your business.
It's bragging.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
It doesn't have to be It doesn't have to have
a negative connotation. You know, when you get, you know,
in front of people, you talk about your business.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And it's okay.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
It is okay, and I should be better and more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Anybody that takes it as brain is that's bringing out
their insecurities because it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Product. I don't think you should be buyinary. I think
there's kind of a slider right like on when it's
okay to be confident in your product and when they're
doing for improvement. It's just because somebody says, hey, that's
not good, it doesn't mean it's not good. That's thinking.
It's not right if you said, hey, well I know
what I'm doing. So I don't agree with that necessarily either,
I think Kate's caught somewhere in between where if I
could argue the side of I wouldn't say cynic, but
(25:29):
a realist, someone who's always seeking self improvement, you would say, man, uh,
I don't have a voice because I'm not sure, because
I don't want to be wrong, and I don't want
to be the authority. I don't want to be the
person that everyone has to seek more advice on these things. Right,
and this is someone has to do with brock fan promise.
But in the absence of that, you let somebody else
do that for you. You came with somebody else having
(25:49):
your voice now, and that's where we can plan coming ground.
Is the part of the reason we having to pro
own business is because we don't want somebody else to
us what to do, right. We don't want somebody else's
wants to say, Hey, I know I know a chief steak,
I know a stake, I know chees staying. You known't
of shit. It's that I'm the marketing expert. I can
sell your stake to a million people. Who's that person
going to be your boss? No, you still make a stake, right.
I think it's there's a there's a balance. You don't
say it's a completely marketing, it's your version of marketing.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And I think it's really.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
Really important for everybody listening to know that this is
a conversation that Avashar has at me at least every week.
Just I've done the social media for previous businesses that
i've owned it started. I've done the social media and
being the voice of other brands that I've worked with
or worked at, and those all felt more natural. I
(26:35):
knew what I was trying to do, and this is
a slightly different business that I haven't fully wrapped my
head around what the story that I want to tell is.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
I know that's really tricky. I'm selling cakes out of
a vending machine at a bar, and it.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Feels like this is a at a brewery, and it
feels like it feels a little trickier for me.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
To to tell that.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And I think, just to bring back to another point
you were talking about, I think marketing is probably the
most neglected part of the restaurant of everybody's restaurant business.
So we're already dealing with super razor sharp like thin
margin lines, and it's just that you got labor, collts
and food costs, but you got to have marketing inside
(27:24):
of that, and a lot of people kind of neglect
that and that that that's some that's a lot of
the times why restaurants actually fell. They don't have they
have great product, and they don't have the consumers because
they are not known.
Speaker 7 (27:37):
So we've talked a lot about the problem and identifying it,
and I would love for us to transition into solutions.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
J what do you got for us?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, I think that what I mentioned earlier email marketing
really works for us.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
We joined a new.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Platform called the Loyalists that were literally one of I
think like six or seven restaurant groups that are on
it right now. It's a little bit of a pilot program,
if you will. And what the Loyalist does is it
takes all the data from Rezi, which is our reservation system,
and upserve which is our pos and then Yelp, Google
all that stuff and it amalgamates it into real time,
(28:15):
like this guest came in, this is what they ordered,
this is how they reviewed your restaurant, and then all
that data sortable, which on like a one reservation, one
off thing, isn't that helpful. But if we can look
at all the people who've ever come in and be like,
we're going to do a wine dinner next month. I
want everybody who's ever spent more than fifty dollars on
a bottle of wine and sort that into a group
(28:37):
that we can target with this email. And you got
to be consistent about your marketing strategy. You can't say cool,
I did a one thing and that's one. That's so
I'm set. It has to be okay, I got that.
How do I bring more in? How do I keep
it sustainable? We all get excited by the little and
door from the Rustro'm like, cool, we got a thousand much.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's cool. Everybody gets it. But I'm just trying to say,
like a thousand doesn't like I want the conversion. I
want a thousand guests in the seats. So how do
I and then how do I think about? What do
I think of? Is the people that didn't click on it?
What is on their mind? And how do I get
them in? What is the reason that they don't like
my product?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Is it me?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Is it the business? How do I appeal to people
that aren't the statistic because if that person gets converted
into a new markets, they go cool my first experience
and find aning zog me and we did a good job.
Then they're a guest for life. And then we have
a retention of somebody who will come once every season
when the menu change is like that's four times a year.
That's if I multified that times one hundred people, and
where we have thirty eight seats, they come twice. Like
(29:26):
it's like it makes it a lot easier because sometimes
we look at these huge, huge things like this is unsurmountable.
I need to make back millions of dollars in this way.
But if you just go if this person just spends
this amount of money over the course of time and
does it because they want to, not because I'm like,
hey it's happy hour, you know. And it's maybe a
controversial topic, but it's like, is that what I want
to sell someone? Is I'm going to perhaps cheapen my
paruct to get you in at this time, or is
(29:47):
me say hey like I'm me or you you like
what I got? Can we work together? Do you want
to support a local business? It's not one time is support.
It's continued to support and championing the business, just like
a sports you know.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So what do you you go and go as seasonal.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, well what I do is it's actually a little
bit different maybe or maybe it's completely conventional on or no.
But you think about marketing data, where does that come from? People?
Are you? Are you a customer place? Why do you
look within and say, what's your marketing data?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
What do you like?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
When do you like it? Do you like pumpkin spice
slote when it's fall, then put one on. If you
don't like it, then don't put it on. It's your
business extension of you. The person that you're coming in.
You want them to kind of identify with you, right,
So don't forget the U aspects. The U aspect is
like the one thing that I think people every single
time they marug something like just do these five things
and it's solved, is like, but what about the YOUU?
It's your business. It's not somebody else's business. So nobody
(30:36):
can say how you run your business. You don't want
them to. So why are you forgetting to inject the department?
It's like, hey, I make this place run, I make
it different. Why is that not part of the marketing.
It has to be, because whether they love it or
hate it, it's you you do, you'll have to apologize
for yourself. You can apologize like now it's like that's
just me being me. But this maybe something. It's like
a i'd call it that cherry on top. Everything else
here is required for the consistent sale. But you need
(30:58):
to have something that's like they call it the xpat
Like what is the expector everyone's always having a heart
that ling you out. I think it's just it's so
hard because people don't want to look within. There's so
much so caught up. I'm like, this is what I
have to do as opposed to you already have it inside.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I think thinking out the box is important too.
It's like key too. So like you brought up about
like the pumpkin spa. So we're in fall.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
You brought up about pumpkin, the pumpkin spice. Everybody's want
a pumpkin spice. I didn't want to do a pumpkin spice,
so I bought in a chai apple. So and we
get people and like, oh my gosh, I've never thought
about that or I've never had that.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
This is a great time to ask overrat or underrated
pumpkin spice. Bot checks.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
I can't say underrated because they're everywhere, but they really
do fucking taste good.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
And you're still I don't tell pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
It over runner overrated.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
I took some of your feedback from one of the
other episodes and figured out how to make it myself.
I think we were talking, yeah, and I have a
pumpkin spice lat on the menu and.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
It's going really well. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
I think that's a fun way to turn it into something.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I like.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
That leads into something I've been dying to ask you,
and it's we can put frame it as overrated under
it in too. We see all these food trends online
and like the crownut was huge for a real long time,
and I've been made aware of a phenomenon called the
crook how Well question right as a baker to do
(32:33):
these like viral things that people obviously want, And do
you think that these these like viral things are overrated
or underrated?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
I think it's a lot of fun to mash up
things that you're super familiar with. We've been seeing that
and playing with it.
Speaker 7 (32:47):
I think everyone at this table has played with that
a little bit. I don't I tried them just to
see if I want to eat them. I don't want
to eat a cookie ever again. Cookie and are great
separate but not together. But I am super interested in.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
The Oh my gosh, Gary, let the croissant mash up.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
I have not heard of that. That sounds right, my alley.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
I will show you.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yet, if you name it, you can trade the name.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I think someone's already making it, and I want.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
To try it, but I think before the next episode,
we need to try this.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
I think they're underrated. We should play more, but don't.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Ask what do you think about the cyber trucks.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
I have diswitched the name of the cyber truck before,
and I'm not going to do it on Live There again. However,
I will say that Cave and I have a running
thread of clowning on the cyber truck in our texts.
I feel the cyber truck is overrated, and I will.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Leave it at that's over to overreading.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
But that's how marketing works, right, I mean, it wasn't
designed to be a subtle thing. It's designed for you
to talk about it, right, And psychology states that if
you're anouncing it, just like marketing, it's working. Say were
we brought up some interesting points that maybe came out
with nucleation points, but we were just talking about social media.
We were just talking about marketing. Do we think having
a social media presence as a business And I know
that's laid on and I suppose it could be two ways.
(34:23):
We're in the use it or not use it. Some
gonna say the same about Instagram and my you know,
my grandpa rest in peace and heaven, he's using a
Facebook right now because obviously that's like the that's where
you get information from as an older demographic. How do
you feel about social media presence? Do you think it's
if you start a business, you're new, I got this idea,
I got to pop up to do where I got this?
(34:43):
Do you think you should create a page for your
business and that is set with in your identity obviously,
But is it important to hit X Instagram, Facebook, TikTok?
Like do we have to hit all these?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I am going to punt the majority of this question
to y'all. I will I'll say that going back again
to the theory of like poking people and putting yourself
in front of them, I think that it is important
to meet people where they are, but I also feel
like if you're not bought into doing it, well, then
it's not worth it. And I am at this point
in time not bought into doing x, Twitter or TikTok.
(35:19):
We kind of just have Instagram. I definitely have it
on my radar to consider those things. But I definitely
want to punt this to you guys, because I feel
like you've had more success with that than I have.
Speaker 6 (35:29):
Yeah, so I think that you definitely do have to
meet people, but it has to make sense for your
business and a demographic. So we have Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram we get more traction and engagement through reels. Facebook
we get more interaction and shares and commentary.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So we need both.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
And we don't have a big presence on TikTok now,
but a lot of TikTok Tucker Tuckers I'm not really
familiar with. That's kind of a younger generation. So I'm
on Facebook Instagram. But yeah, but TikTok is actually plays
a huge part of our success.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
One of my uh my cousin works for a large
company in Cincinnati that well, well, I mean it's uh
they have an M percent in between their names, but
they started off. They had an entire division and part
of his research was in TikTok and they were going
through there to find pathways. And it's really interesting to see,
like if conglomerates are fighting value in it, then there
(36:38):
might be something that you know, like maybe I should
reconsider like do I want to do sixty second dance videos?
Not necessarily, but there's a lot more to it them
that I think about.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
But I also.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
But I also think that you have to be like,
it has to be authentic because if you put content
out there and people see it and they're light and
it's gimmicky, they're like, well.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And I'll just be so crazy because we're talking about
a gigantic thing, like it's a huge thing that buildings.
People are they're trying to get to this goal of
being viral, and they're taking all these marketing strategies because
that's its unmarketing rate. So we're trying to hit both,
trying to hit having a presence on a different entity
that brings us guests that come into our restaurant and
try our ship based our product such as like you know,
like if you have your cheese stick in a sick
(37:21):
reel or in a in a in a TikTok, like
do you want the TikTok to be highlighted or do
you want the she stake to be hilated? Do you
want your what's like the what's the goal of being viral?
The goal is more attention? Right, more people business?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Did she stake to be highlighted in the brand and
be recognized?
Speaker 3 (37:38):
It is an algorithm behind it, as we've found out.
You know, they're doing research, so they say post it
at like six of the morning. Yeah, because people wake
up and the first thing they do is go to
the bathroom and use their phones.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Is that what you do?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Okay, super, but that's it. It's like if you do it,
then you then it's like.
Speaker 7 (38:03):
This media discussion before we clear the table. See I
can do puns too. Before we clear the table, it's
time for everyone to share your parting thoughts. Is there
any one thing from today's episode that you would like your.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
Parting thoughts to be?
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Mine is going to be taking away what what you
both just said at that end of the table where
I clearly should sit next time, is that don't do
social media if you're not going to do it, well,
that really helps me focus on some of the things
that have been bouncing around in my head and as
I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Up with my new marketing plan. Cool, why don't you?
Speaker 8 (38:41):
But if you think that you don't, if you feel
like you don't do it, well, there are people that
specialize in it that can give you assistance.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
So we have a social media person.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, we have a media specialist.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah you want to specialist, I hear. I'm pretty good
at it. Yeah. There.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Do you have a lot of cake puns in your
podcet that you're sitting on.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I think that I learned a lot from this episode.
I think the biggest thing that I'm going to take
away is to use the resources that we already have
on hand, like to your point on our website, making
sure that we're actually touting the accomplishments that we have
through our social media, making sure that we're actually sharing
pertinent information with the people who want to have it.
And I think that we do a good job of
(39:30):
planning ahead, but I think that we need to plan
ahead with more intentionality towards may.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
These puns play on the like audio version go ahead?
Speaker 1 (39:46):
They do. That's just such a good doubt a pitfall,
and I think it's important to address pitfalls for anybody
that's listening. Pitfall that I have phoned into and we
all have, is just because you don't have a fancy
camera or you think you have a personalit, you're not.
It's not an excuse to not try. I think some
of the issues we have is that we're like, well,
I can't be like that person. I'm not going to try.
(40:06):
I think the most we'd say the consistency. It's very,
very important, but sticking with it and doing one thing,
even if it's just one thing, like, hey, i'm bj today,
I'm just going to make the Chapman's burger and you
just make it every day and you make a million
a million reels of it. Just think about that. You
know it's going to give your attention. You know it's
going to be authentic. You know you're gonna get better
every day. It's like, you got to be consistent about
these things and you don't need anything fancy. You just
(40:27):
have to have a schedule where you're like, I'm gonna
do it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it,
and you have to get yourself to do it.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
You can't fall out of that, right, you know, what's
funny is I feel like sometimes there are these unintended consequences.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And we have been.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Featuring lately the Chapman's Burger because we brought it back
for a little while. Now people think that that's the
only thing that you can get in the restaurant. And
I've had this weird pushback from my staff where it's like, hey,
can we like actually talk about some of our other
food because you've only been featuring the burger now. And
it's one of those things where it's like every every
action has like an unintended negative consequence. Then you try
(40:58):
to foresee and it's just the thing that kicks me
in the gut every time, where it's like I thought
that we were doing something good. Now there's this unintended consequence.
So I'm sure that with what we're talking about, with
making sure that we're showing off our awards and stuff,
there's some unintended we are getting.
Speaker 7 (41:19):
Thank you everyone, and please, if you like what you've heard,
like and subscribe and we'll see you for next episode.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
A restaurant round table.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
We can live. You just stopped. It just stopped.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
I keep getting this, I keep getting the hands. Oh okay,
I looked at the wrong one.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
You can look at.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I can look at that. I don't want any film
from this one because all that you.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Can see is like this right here. So this one
you mustured accept yourself.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
To be starting with our puns. We're very punny. Or
do you just want me to do that?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
If you like you're saying, it's been a construction discussion
all did you not want to do it? You took
away from this?
Speaker 5 (42:09):
I think we did that way.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Another discussion one and hands kept the wing and then
I don't want because you can you can take it
and not use it. But it's better just recording right now,
right and then not use it. It's supposed to be like, yeah,
I think I want to do some more.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yes, your take away?
Speaker 5 (42:33):
All right? What is your takeaway?
Speaker 3 (42:35):
My takeaway is the kind of what Bja was saying.
I'm a store start focusing more on pretension of customers,
so just kind of asking them about their experience because
we're kind of dated. They were around and just you know,
trying to get them to comeback.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
So fantastic.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
I would just say, just make sure your marketing message, uh,
ties into your the goal of your your restaurant and
what you're setting out to do.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
It's great. Big marketing is like kind of like a
recipe where it's not just one thing. There's a lot
of ingredients that make up this whole arm of a business,
and it shouldn't maybe it's like it's marketing or no marketing.
It looks like that everybody has something to offer in it,
and the more tools you can get, the better you
can be at it. And you don't have to get
like sell your soul and become somebody else do it.
You can become your marketer or your biggest champion. I
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Your authentic self. Well, fantastic.
Speaker 7 (43:28):
Well, I'm sure we have so much more to talk about,
and we can talk for hours and hours will but
we all have to get back to our restaurants and
some food. If you like what you heard today, please
like and subscribe for a restaurant round table, brought to
you by craft Times.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Away from Home dot com www.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Dot craft Ties away from Home dot com Www.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Craft Tignes away from Home dot com. We'll see you
here next time.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
Thank you. As you might expect the opinions that we
express on this podcast or just that opinions and for
entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
If you love this podcast, help us out give us
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Speaker 7 (44:13):
Also, be sure to go to Craft Times Away from
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Speaker 4 (44:19):
So remember, if you like what you heard today, please
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Speaker 2 (44:26):
We have got all.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
Sorts of exclusives coming with special insights, access to marketing,
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Speaker 3 (44:32):
Of course, subscribe share like all those things, See you
next time.
What's the goal of being The goal is more attention, right,
more business.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The cheesteak could be highlighted in the brand and be recognized.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
It's an algorithm behind it, as we found out. You know,
they're doing research. So they say post it at like
six of the morning. Yeah, because people wake up and
the first thing they go to the bathroom and.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Use their phones.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Is that what you do?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Welcome everyone to the Restaurant Round Table.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Where's the port group for restaurant owners.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
The buy restaurant holders brought to you by craft Times.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
All season all we discussed the challenges, opportunities, the good taste.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And the bad taste within the industry.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
And we're your hosts. I'm Vja, I'm Jamar, I'm Kate,
I'm Abashar. So if you're a chef, an owner or
sprying to be one, you're going to.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Want to pull up a chair to this roundtable.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Welcome back everyone to the Restaurant Round Table, presented by
craft Times. Away from Home. We are a podcast by chefs,
four chefs, and before we get it entire big topic
of the day, we don't really get to see each
other that often, so we start every episode with a
little catchup of the day, if you will, I'll go first.
I wanted to give a shout out to one of
(01:11):
my dear friends, Jordan Anthony Brown and his restaurant Aperture.
They were just named to the New York Times Top
fifty list and I'm just really proud of them. Restaurants
in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you all get a chance to
road trip or we can all go do it together, yes,
that would be really cool.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
So my catchup of the day, we attended the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce clam bake. So that is a fun
raison effort for the Chamber where they raise money for
programs and initiatives.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
How are the clams, man, I don't eat clams, lobster.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Clams. My ketchup of the day is the stink in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Eagles.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
You gotta do better, fellas two hundred and fifty million
and you playing like that. I was thinking about going
home from a for a game and now I'm not
so sure. So Eagles do better.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
My ketchup of the day is more of a shout out.
Speaker 7 (02:16):
There's been a lot of election focus on Ohio because
former President claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating people's pets
in a town in Ohio, and there's a company locally
called Columbus Food Adventures that wrote a really great post
just encouraging people to go out and eat at some
(02:39):
of these Haitian restaurants bytlighting them. And it really encouraged
a lot of my friends to take some road trips
and try some good foods. And it seemed like a
really great way to bring people together through food instead
of fear.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
What is yours too? The quickest catchup is it's the
end smarks end of Hunger Aware, which was a really
cool month because it allows us to remember what we
do so well, which is feed. People got a chance
to work with a mid Ohio food food pantry to
do some volunteering and preparing meals, and it's nice to
remember that we can always get somewhere or another. It's
(03:15):
so easy to do. And just being back in the
shoes of being able to make food and seeing it
impact people that really need it is amazing. So do
you get a chance to everyone to volunteer a little
bit more? All right?
Speaker 7 (03:24):
So our topic today? The NRA website reported that seventy
one percent of restaurant operators are finding that traffic is
down or reporting that.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Traffic is down in their restaurants founder.
Speaker 7 (03:36):
July of this year, since July of last year, and
so we want to talk about driving traffic to your restaurants.
My experience in filling butts into seats is pretty non conventional.
It's usually pop ups, cooking classes, things like that. And
I don't know if it's conventional wisdom or something that
I made up, but I believe the person needs to
(03:58):
be exposed to your business, to your items, your menu
three times before they'll actually take an action step to
follow up on that, to come visit you, to make
a reservation, to find out where you're located. And so
I have found that when I need to post things
like pop ups, bakery boxes, things like that, I try
to have a full schedule at least three things on
(04:21):
the calendar so I can talk about one and if
it doesn't fit the right time, there's others.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
There has always worked for me. What about you talking
about pop ups?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned the like having to
tell someone something three times before they hear it. That's
before I got into restaurants. I was in marketing, and
that wisdom has changed over time, and also the delivery
methods for that. For that, like what we like to
call it as a poke, like you need to poke
someone three times and be like, hey, this thing exists. Hey,
(04:52):
this thing exists, and then hopefully the third time you
poke them, they're like, oh, this thing exists, a good
example of that is we did a pop up dinner,
a guest chef dinner I Guess you Will, with Jenny
from Jenny's ice Creams, who her first shop was here
in Columbus, Ohio. She's kind of a local celebrity, and
she said yes to do an all ice cream dinner
with us. So we actually set up a whole marketing
(05:13):
campaign around the dinner, but we kind of tried to
plan out a week in advance, not just trying to
sell the dinner out, but also a bigger awareness campaign
around our restaurant what we did, et cetera. But we
leading up to it, we did like giveaway for tickets
to the event, then we did a release of the tickets,
and then we did a menu preview and those were
(05:34):
our three like little pokes, and that dinner sold out immediately.
But what we were hoping would happen was that it
would then spark new interest in the restaurant. To your
point about the NRA, which is the National Restaurant Association,
not the other NRA, which I feel me clarified because
we were like, why is this the NRA talking about
(05:54):
restaurants that it's not just that this is down, it's
that patrons aren't going to new restaurants as much. They're
going to kind of their tried and true. It's part
of the recession as people are pulling back. So part
of it is getting guests who've already did into your
restaurant back, But the other part is how do you
do new guest acquisition in a time when people are
(06:17):
admitting that they're not going to new restaurants. So I
feel like, as an example, this Jenny's Dinner, we really
tried to use as a new guest acquisition engine and
it worked to vary degrees, you know, learning opportunity for
share with that.
Speaker 7 (06:32):
Did you see any kind of long term benefit afterwards?
Do you have more email subscribers, more reservations?
Speaker 4 (06:40):
So it's funny, that's what we've found. And I'm sure
that we're all going to have a different opinion on this,
and I'm really, really excited to dive into this with
everyone of what your marketing plan is for lack of
a better term on this, but we've found that emails
to our guests. We've been open for four years now,
so we have about forty thousand emails of people who've
opted in. Through that Jenny's Dinner, we picked up something
like four or five hundred new emails of people who
(07:02):
were saying we want to hear from you on things
like this, and that group of people we now know
is a persuadable group that might want to come and
join us. So we found that email marketing works really
really well for that stuff, to varying degree of social media.
But yeah, that's kind of where our focus is right now.
Speaker 7 (07:21):
You said the dinner sold out really quickly, Yeah, within
like minutes of us launching. And it's interesting because in
the last episode you talked about how the story you're
trying to tell is that you can always get reservations
that Chapmans and that you don't have this like shortage.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
You can get seats there.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Do you think that this pop up event is helping
that perception that it's hard to get reservations.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Well, jeez, Kate, I never thought of that. I feel
like that probably worked against our near a little bit
in that way, But I hadn't really thought about those
two things kind of being intertwined with each other. I've
got to think about that for a minute. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We're all here yet.
Speaker 7 (08:06):
I mean some things that maybe could happen in the
future if you experienced something like that, And I don't
know if, like in this particular partnership, it would have worked,
but maybe having some of those menu options as a
special for a month for people with reservations or something
like that.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
That's actually a really good idea. There were like two
dishes that came out of that dinner that we were like,
we want these to be regular on the menu going forward,
but for various reasons, it didn't work out seasonality, et cetera.
But yeah, that's a really good point that we could
have used that dinner to drive like continuation of the
concept that I felt like we had thought really hard
about how we wanted to utilize the dinner for our
(08:43):
marketing purposes, and that was not one of the things
we thought about. So that's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Thanks Ken, did there's still time?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
That is true dinner was only likely two months ago,
so we're still alive now.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Met you that you guys got the customer information into
your database, would you send or did you guys send
like a feedback form to like, you know, say what
that they enjoy most, what would get them to come back.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Our system does allow for follow up emails. I haven't
found a good use for that yet, because these people
are already opted into our system and Rezi. If people have
made a reservation, Rezi automatically sends them feedback afterwards. I
really relish that feedback because you actually do get a
lot of Honestly, it's not something people are putting on Yelp,
it's not something the're putting on Google. It only goes
(09:33):
to us. So that Rezi like automated form is actually
really useful to us. People are really honest about what
they didn't like in those and they'll even say, like,
I don't want to post this online, but FYI, this
thing happened, this dish was too salty, whatever it is.
We don't use our typical email marketing necessarily to get feedback.
(09:54):
But I do hear where you're coming from on that.
That's an interesting idea too.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
You have a very different business model for that might
benefit from a different approach. Do you have something that
you find that really drives traffic into your business.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Definitely. When we get like food.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Bloggers that are local that come in, we had to actually,
within what two weeks, we had to step out Columbus
and then we had a gentleman by the name of
Brandon and we're still like reaping the benefits from that.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Like it.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Yeah, So the goal for us is like, yes, it's
bringing awareness to the brand.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
We're getting you know, new customers in, but the goal is.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
To retention retention because even if you know, they come
one time and don't come back, it's really it's like
a one off and our business gools back to where
it was when we wanted to continually grow.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
How are you getting business retention? Is that through emails?
Is that like do you collect out.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Of Yes, yes, we have a loyalty program that you
sign up for their own points. We can give them
a free birthday, give everybody loves free, so they get
five dollars off after they spend a certain amount of
money each time, and then it collects data. So we
use that kind of to get them to keep coming back.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
That's what we're using the third party for that or
is it something that's like built into.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
Your builos, which is toast and pee. They love the
loyalty because they'll come in here and say, I got
to give you my phone number.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It is my birthday.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, where's my free water?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I said.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
So, it's been a little while since I'm supposed to
went viral.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Do you still see the increase in traffic right now?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Like thirty days later, about a month ago now, it's
still Yeah, it's still a resonating.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So you think it's like a kind of like a
foot in the door, like you get them to come
and that you're fishingm in and they're like, ooh, this
this is really good in the product market itself, afterwards
it's more like the initial pull to get.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
And then and then it's also kind of mind bogging
that you kind of think everybody knows who you are,
but Columbus is so big it's only one like one
percent probably really know about us, or maybe less than
one percent, you know, and you think that everybody knows,
but no, so we continuously getting this first time, are
still three years open.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So and word and word of mouth too.
Speaker 6 (12:22):
So because we'll get you know people, it's not just
like you know the post, but we'll get Oh my friend,
you know, or my neighbor told me about it and
I just haven't had the time, you know, to come,
and you know, I wanted to check you guys out
and then just going back to the viral posts.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So both both bloggers.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Came in to the Gahannah location and we you know,
we have another location in bud Dairy, but all the
traffic is coming to ge Hannah. So even we had
some people that live out west like Hilliard West, Jefferson,
and they bypassed bud Dairy and came to ge Hannah
because that was the play.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yeah, so that was interesting too.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
So have you guys kind of seized on that social
media environment? Are you guys like perpetuating that through social media?
Are you finding different ways to communicate with guests? So
you're just kind of letting it do its thing.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
It's a combination of both because not everybody has social media,
so you know, us having that loyalty program and really
you know, making sure that the staff talks up the
loyalty program. That way we can collect that data and
we have them in our database. So that if we're
running up you know, a special promotion. You know, you
(13:38):
can just nudge them a little and we.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Get unfortunate to kind of be on TV or probably
at least about a good seven eight times throughout the
last couple of years where they also drives traffic. Every
time we're on TV they do a feature on it
or us opening up another one. Are the Eagles or
Phillies make this the super Bowl? They where to go to?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Where to go to?
Speaker 6 (14:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
So yeah, sorry, yeah, I forgot your Jets fan.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
And that you really forget.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
And I would also like encourage you know, anyone who
whether you have a restaurant, you're thinking about starting a restaurant,
or just a business in general.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Like your website is a great platform. So if you.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
You know, have a magazine article or if you're on
the news, just making sure that you have that link
on your website.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
We have done a terrible job of that. Like literally
you can't see our footprint anywhere on our website. That
is a really really good point. We have to do that,
Like on Instagram, how you can do the like larger exactly.
We haven't done any of.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
That stuff, and I'm sure you can attest to this
that being on TV or just like a local celebrity
that ads to your business. People want to come and
see who was on TV.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
People love that.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I don't know why, but I mean, I feel like
infatuated with the TV.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
So I feel like what happened for you guys is
really interesting because the new guest acquisition is almost through
like the virality of the post. But then you also
have a plan for how to turn those new acquisitions
into loyal guests forever. Avishar is in an interesting situation
right now. You were just named to the Bonappe tit
best new restaurant this How has that affected your new
(15:31):
guest acquisition versus like, I assume you're seeing an uptick
in business right now? Do you have tracking on if
it's more the guest thing you've already acquired coming in sure?
Are you seeing lots of new people?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Kind of both? And I think I'll stand to correct
you a little bit when you say that I got
the recounition and I know this is like a modesty
thing to one to me. But the other thing is
it does have to do with marketing. Our entire philosophies
is a week, so even our staff does within marketing.
They'll tell their friends age come to a restaurant, or yeah,
you know, we look up in this for people like that.
Those are the sorts of things that I think there's
two styles of marketing. There's the foot in the door
(16:03):
marketing and there's a retention marketing. Uh. We're after retention
primarily because we know the stats of like hey, year
one and two, or like getting your new people to
read it for what carries you through as regulars, right,
that's always going to be those And at one of
our restaurants, ADGNY the one that got that specific recognition,
that's say tasting many special occasion restaurant. One could argue,
and they come and not only will they like come
for occasion, but those stackications. I can be like, okay
(16:26):
at a birthday last week, next week is an anniversary,
so this is a reason to come, and they make
an occasion out of the experience. And I mean that
honestly is the majority of it. We don't have any
any specific dollars that we've ever spent on marketing. One
could argue that I am the marketing because of me
as a product, like I go on TV or I
do these things, and I'm starting to kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Accept that as we're currently on a podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yes it's free, so free advertising. But what is fascinating
about that is the best part about marketing in my eyes,
and we've been through this is I've been at a
company that hired a marketing agency that's top tier, one
of the best, and then I've been at a place
that has no marketing. And I've seen success in both ways,
(17:11):
and one of them is for somebody else to speak
about my brand like they made it, or tell me
about some tool or technique that they got on the
internet or school, which is completely fine. I'm sure it's
very very effective. But once somebody comes in the door,
there's no marketing person sitting down and talking about the food.
Just like when you go and get a car, there's
a salesman and then there's your research.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Our job is to make sure that once they come
into that door, like we give them above and beyond,
so we mark it to every guest. So it was
our choice to have forty seats, it's our responsibility to
make sure all forty seats take care. It's not anybody's fault.
And that's like every time, no matter what We're like,
let's reinvest on how do we make this guestics very better?
Can we send them with something? And this is an
automatic marketing you know this site like okay, can I
put a brand into chili oil to give a guest
(17:50):
to take home so they can remember us tomorrow morning.
I think it's fun for me to give as like hospitality,
there's things, And for joy it's like it was the
exact opposite. Joys is very aggressively. We spend zero on marketing.
We spend one hundred percent in branding. So when the
influencer makes a post, if the post shows the cup
and it shows the monkey on the cup and it
says a joy Is and they tag it and I go, hey,
this is our restaurant, I was like, we're trying to
sell a lifestyle. So that's a harder category, but it
(18:12):
seems to work better for us. For caring, like when
people go, okay, how many stuff do you forget to day?
Forget everything right? So if you have a visual cue something,
you can remember it. So just have the visual cue.
It's it's smart.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
You know.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
You also had some experience having National Spotlight on you
in previous years. Did you have a serious similar experience
of a little bit of a burst of traffic, repeat customers.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
You know, it's funny. I've been very fortunate in my
career to have been in three different situations now. The
first one was in Husk and Charleston. I was a
part of the opening team there and we won Best
New Restaurant from Bona Petite. I'm pretty sure they don't
award like the number one. They just kind of do
the list now, which I actually think is better. But
we were the number one best new restaurant at Husk
(19:03):
and we offered reservations just going out forever at Husk
and basically two years where the reservations got booked up
like that. So that was kind of wild the rest.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And I really apologize to you, but it is something
that I saw has been curious whenever I see these things,
and we talked about it with Chapmans people coming up,
how many people show up for those reservation jump of
the course two years?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Does everyone showed up and they still drop? It's a
pretty interesting, to be honest. I was just a line
cook it at Husk at that point, so I wasn't
behind the scenes with the data on that one.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I can find out for you, And I mean,
I'm genuine curious. Some cold sweat for tears, and I
was like, how did I get into this restaurant? It'sen
sweat for te years? Yeah, Like, are you guys deceiving me?
Or did somebody drop? My inclination is like I can't
plan for tomorrow, So how am I supposed to bend
a year?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
As there's probably a good amount of attrition in that
or people who were handing their reservations off. But I mean, yeah,
if you really did look at the books, if you
were going to Charleston and what was it twenty ten
and you looked for a husk reservation, they just didn't exist.
So you really would have to just show up at
the restaurant. There was a line out the door. I
made it there, and I showed up and they were
so bad.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I waited for a whole a whole hour extra And
then I realized I drove from Columbus and actually I
went to Nashville. So I went to the one to Nashville,
and well, that one Nashville is in central Time, So
we were there. We were there, We were there an
hour early for the reservation. I was like, why are
they I was here an hour? What's going on? And
we sat down there and we were sitting at the bar,
We're like, what's taking so long? And we realized that
(20:23):
we were. They were so kind that they didn't tell
us that we were. Now really there was like, oh,
we'll tell you when your table is ready.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
That's really funny, funny. And then Roses Luxury in DC,
we also won Bone Appetite Best New Restaurant. That was
in two thousand and thirteen, so that was a long
time ago, over ten years ago. Both of those experiences,
we saw the restaurants just kind of exploded in popularity.
Roses at that time we weren't taking reservations. And then
(20:48):
that this is what Roses was known for forever is
the line outside you had to wait in line to
get in the restaurants to zero reservations, and that line
after Bone Appetite just went down the road across alleys.
It was crazy. We stuff to go out and take
names and tell people you're going to get intonight you're not.
Then at Chapman's we won the New York Times Top
fifty in gosh, three years ago. Now the restaurant was
(21:14):
busy and that's where we got this thing we've talked about,
the narrative that you can't get in. It got so
busy that I just quit caring about marketing. And I
think the thing that I've learned in the last few
years is when the restaurant is hot, you got to
keep the pedal to the metal. You need to keep
to your point, like poking people, You got to keep
laying you know you're there. I thought this juice would
(21:34):
like last forever, so I kind of took my eyes
off of it. We had waiting lists on Saturday nights
of like two hundred and twenty people just waiting for
a reservation to drop off so that they can get
their name on that reservation list. And I was like, oh,
this is great. This is going to last forever. And
it slowly dwindled down to now where we're not super busy.
We have the stigma of being super busy, and I'm
(21:54):
basically playing catch up from a year of neglect on
our marketing site. How long did the last you know
you guys, Oh, like a solid two years. It was awesome.
But we've been open for four years now. So this
last year, I mean coinciding with the data from the NRA.
We've been down massively year over year this year, and
(22:16):
part of it I put on myself for not marketing
the restaurant correctly, and part of it is just I
think a sign of the times. But I think that
there is room at the top, and I feel like
we're all operating kind of the top of our games
in our field. I think that there's room for us
to always be busy if we're doing our stuff correctly.
If your quality above your peers, then you should be busy.
(22:37):
And I think they're really for our business. It's on
me for dropping the ball on marketing, and I think
that that's why I'm really interested in this topic. And
everything that you're saying is like, oh, we should do that,
Oh we should do that. And I still feel like
there are miles to go on this stuff. But my
recommendation to anybody who's fortunate enough to be in the
situation that we've been in that my friend Jordan, is
keep the pedal to the metal on that marketing because
(22:58):
it can go away really quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You've been surprisingly quiet on this matter and marketing as
if you don't need to market, you don't have a storefront,
but obviously, if you have a business, anything is.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Going to work only out on my weakness.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You could call it a weakness. But from my experience
and maybe all of your experiences, have you been somewhere
and you eat something, You're like, where does this come from?
And somebody within two degrees of separation will not case? Yeah,
why is that?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Because? Is it because you followed these marketings matters or
how did that happen? Because that would be the essence
of what we're trying to achieve. Right, You're known for your.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Products, great question.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I'm known for my product.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
How are you known for your product? If it's just product?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
I think I have worked with you too long, because.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Only like two years, so I wasn't that long because I.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
Just firmly believe that if I can make the very
best product and create some kind of lasting memory, have
a takeaway.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
All of our cakes and the vending machine have a
poem written.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
By a local poet that just feels like a love
letter or a fortune cookie, but it's flirting with you.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I'm not really quite sure.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
But if there's a way to make something that people crave,
then they'll come back. And that's kind of what I've
been leaning hard into. What I am finding though, is
that it's time for me to start picking up my
marketing and telling my story. And I think the thing
I'm struggling with is another topic, but it's really finding
the voice.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
For this particular business. And I don't think the voice
is my voice.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
But I'm also not really quite sure you can about
Please argue with me. You can brag about your business.
It's bragging.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
It doesn't have to be It doesn't have to have
a negative connotation. You know, when you get, you know,
in front of people, you talk about your business.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And it's okay.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
It is okay, and I should be better and more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Anybody that takes it as brain is that's bringing out
their insecurities because it's not.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Product. I don't think you should be buyinary. I think
there's kind of a slider right like on when it's
okay to be confident in your product and when they're
doing for improvement. It's just because somebody says, hey, that's
not good, it doesn't mean it's not good. That's thinking.
It's not right if you said, hey, well I know
what I'm doing. So I don't agree with that necessarily either,
I think Kate's caught somewhere in between where if I
could argue the side of I wouldn't say cynic, but
(25:29):
a realist, someone who's always seeking self improvement, you would say, man, uh,
I don't have a voice because I'm not sure, because
I don't want to be wrong, and I don't want
to be the authority. I don't want to be the
person that everyone has to seek more advice on these things. Right,
and this is someone has to do with brock fan promise.
But in the absence of that, you let somebody else
do that for you. You came with somebody else having
(25:49):
your voice now, and that's where we can plan coming ground.
Is the part of the reason we having to pro
own business is because we don't want somebody else to
us what to do, right. We don't want somebody else's
wants to say, Hey, I know I know a chief steak,
I know a stake, I know chees staying. You known't
of shit. It's that I'm the marketing expert. I can
sell your stake to a million people. Who's that person
going to be your boss? No, you still make a stake, right.
I think it's there's a there's a balance. You don't
say it's a completely marketing, it's your version of marketing.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And I think it's really.
Speaker 7 (26:11):
Really important for everybody listening to know that this is
a conversation that Avashar has at me at least every week.
Just I've done the social media for previous businesses that
i've owned it started. I've done the social media and
being the voice of other brands that I've worked with
or worked at, and those all felt more natural. I
(26:35):
knew what I was trying to do, and this is
a slightly different business that I haven't fully wrapped my
head around what the story that I want to tell is.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
I know that's really tricky. I'm selling cakes out of
a vending machine at a bar, and it.
Speaker 7 (26:51):
Feels like this is a at a brewery, and it
feels like it feels a little trickier for me.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
To to tell that.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And I think, just to bring back to another point
you were talking about, I think marketing is probably the
most neglected part of the restaurant of everybody's restaurant business.
So we're already dealing with super razor sharp like thin
margin lines, and it's just that you got labor, collts
and food costs, but you got to have marketing inside
(27:24):
of that, and a lot of people kind of neglect
that and that that that's some that's a lot of
the times why restaurants actually fell. They don't have they
have great product, and they don't have the consumers because
they are not known.
Speaker 7 (27:37):
So we've talked a lot about the problem and identifying it,
and I would love for us to transition into solutions.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
J what do you got for us?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, I think that what I mentioned earlier email marketing
really works for us.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
We joined a new.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Platform called the Loyalists that were literally one of I
think like six or seven restaurant groups that are on
it right now. It's a little bit of a pilot program,
if you will. And what the Loyalist does is it
takes all the data from Rezi, which is our reservation system,
and upserve which is our pos and then Yelp, Google
all that stuff and it amalgamates it into real time,
(28:15):
like this guest came in, this is what they ordered,
this is how they reviewed your restaurant, and then all
that data sortable, which on like a one reservation, one
off thing, isn't that helpful. But if we can look
at all the people who've ever come in and be like,
we're going to do a wine dinner next month. I
want everybody who's ever spent more than fifty dollars on
a bottle of wine and sort that into a group
(28:37):
that we can target with this email. And you got
to be consistent about your marketing strategy. You can't say cool,
I did a one thing and that's one. That's so
I'm set. It has to be okay, I got that.
How do I bring more in? How do I keep
it sustainable? We all get excited by the little and
door from the Rustro'm like, cool, we got a thousand much.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's cool. Everybody gets it. But I'm just trying to say,
like a thousand doesn't like I want the conversion. I
want a thousand guests in the seats. So how do
I and then how do I think about? What do
I think of? Is the people that didn't click on it?
What is on their mind? And how do I get
them in? What is the reason that they don't like
my product?
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Is it me?
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Is it the business? How do I appeal to people
that aren't the statistic because if that person gets converted
into a new markets, they go cool my first experience
and find aning zog me and we did a good job.
Then they're a guest for life. And then we have
a retention of somebody who will come once every season
when the menu change is like that's four times a year.
That's if I multified that times one hundred people, and
where we have thirty eight seats, they come twice. Like
(29:26):
it's like it makes it a lot easier because sometimes
we look at these huge, huge things like this is unsurmountable.
I need to make back millions of dollars in this way.
But if you just go if this person just spends
this amount of money over the course of time and
does it because they want to, not because I'm like,
hey it's happy hour, you know. And it's maybe a
controversial topic, but it's like, is that what I want
to sell someone? Is I'm going to perhaps cheapen my
paruct to get you in at this time, or is
(29:47):
me say hey like I'm me or you you like
what I got? Can we work together? Do you want
to support a local business? It's not one time is support.
It's continued to support and championing the business, just like
a sports you know.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So what do you you go and go as seasonal.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, well what I do is it's actually a little
bit different maybe or maybe it's completely conventional on or no.
But you think about marketing data, where does that come from? People?
Are you? Are you a customer place? Why do you
look within and say, what's your marketing data?
Speaker 4 (30:15):
What do you like?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
When do you like it? Do you like pumpkin spice
slote when it's fall, then put one on. If you
don't like it, then don't put it on. It's your
business extension of you. The person that you're coming in.
You want them to kind of identify with you, right,
So don't forget the U aspects. The U aspect is
like the one thing that I think people every single
time they marug something like just do these five things
and it's solved, is like, but what about the YOUU?
It's your business. It's not somebody else's business. So nobody
(30:36):
can say how you run your business. You don't want
them to. So why are you forgetting to inject the department?
It's like, hey, I make this place run, I make
it different. Why is that not part of the marketing.
It has to be, because whether they love it or
hate it, it's you you do, you'll have to apologize
for yourself. You can apologize like now it's like that's
just me being me. But this maybe something. It's like
a i'd call it that cherry on top. Everything else
here is required for the consistent sale. But you need
(30:58):
to have something that's like they call it the xpat
Like what is the expector everyone's always having a heart
that ling you out. I think it's just it's so
hard because people don't want to look within. There's so
much so caught up. I'm like, this is what I
have to do as opposed to you already have it inside.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I think thinking out the box is important too.
It's like key too. So like you brought up about
like the pumpkin spa. So we're in fall.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
You brought up about pumpkin, the pumpkin spice. Everybody's want
a pumpkin spice. I didn't want to do a pumpkin spice,
so I bought in a chai apple. So and we
get people and like, oh my gosh, I've never thought
about that or I've never had that.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
This is a great time to ask overrat or underrated
pumpkin spice. Bot checks.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
I can't say underrated because they're everywhere, but they really
do fucking taste good.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
And you're still I don't tell pumpkin.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
It over runner overrated.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
I took some of your feedback from one of the
other episodes and figured out how to make it myself.
I think we were talking, yeah, and I have a
pumpkin spice lat on the menu and.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
It's going really well. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
I think that's a fun way to turn it into something.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I like.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
That leads into something I've been dying to ask you,
and it's we can put frame it as overrated under
it in too. We see all these food trends online
and like the crownut was huge for a real long time,
and I've been made aware of a phenomenon called the
crook how Well question right as a baker to do
(32:33):
these like viral things that people obviously want, And do
you think that these these like viral things are overrated
or underrated?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
I think it's a lot of fun to mash up
things that you're super familiar with. We've been seeing that
and playing with it.
Speaker 7 (32:47):
I think everyone at this table has played with that
a little bit. I don't I tried them just to
see if I want to eat them. I don't want
to eat a cookie ever again. Cookie and are great
separate but not together. But I am super interested in.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
The Oh my gosh, Gary, let the croissant mash up.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
I have not heard of that. That sounds right, my alley.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
I will show you.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yet, if you name it, you can trade the name.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
I think someone's already making it, and I want.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
To try it, but I think before the next episode,
we need to try this.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
I think they're underrated. We should play more, but don't.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Ask what do you think about the cyber trucks.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
I have diswitched the name of the cyber truck before,
and I'm not going to do it on Live There again. However,
I will say that Cave and I have a running
thread of clowning on the cyber truck in our texts.
I feel the cyber truck is overrated, and I will.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Leave it at that's over to overreading.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
But that's how marketing works, right, I mean, it wasn't
designed to be a subtle thing. It's designed for you
to talk about it, right, And psychology states that if
you're anouncing it, just like marketing, it's working. Say were
we brought up some interesting points that maybe came out
with nucleation points, but we were just talking about social media.
We were just talking about marketing. Do we think having
a social media presence as a business And I know
that's laid on and I suppose it could be two ways.
(34:23):
We're in the use it or not use it. Some
gonna say the same about Instagram and my you know,
my grandpa rest in peace and heaven, he's using a
Facebook right now because obviously that's like the that's where
you get information from as an older demographic. How do
you feel about social media presence? Do you think it's
if you start a business, you're new, I got this idea,
I got to pop up to do where I got this?
(34:43):
Do you think you should create a page for your
business and that is set with in your identity obviously,
But is it important to hit X Instagram, Facebook, TikTok?
Like do we have to hit all these?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I am going to punt the majority of this question
to y'all. I will I'll say that going back again
to the theory of like poking people and putting yourself
in front of them, I think that it is important
to meet people where they are, but I also feel
like if you're not bought into doing it, well, then
it's not worth it. And I am at this point
in time not bought into doing x, Twitter or TikTok.
(35:19):
We kind of just have Instagram. I definitely have it
on my radar to consider those things. But I definitely
want to punt this to you guys, because I feel
like you've had more success with that than I have.
Speaker 6 (35:29):
Yeah, so I think that you definitely do have to
meet people, but it has to make sense for your
business and a demographic. So we have Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram we get more traction and engagement through reels. Facebook
we get more interaction and shares and commentary.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So we need both.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
And we don't have a big presence on TikTok now,
but a lot of TikTok Tucker Tuckers I'm not really
familiar with. That's kind of a younger generation. So I'm
on Facebook Instagram. But yeah, but TikTok is actually plays
a huge part of our success.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
One of my uh my cousin works for a large
company in Cincinnati that well, well, I mean it's uh
they have an M percent in between their names, but
they started off. They had an entire division and part
of his research was in TikTok and they were going
through there to find pathways. And it's really interesting to see,
like if conglomerates are fighting value in it, then there
(36:38):
might be something that you know, like maybe I should
reconsider like do I want to do sixty second dance videos?
Not necessarily, but there's a lot more to it them
that I think about.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
But I also.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
But I also think that you have to be like,
it has to be authentic because if you put content
out there and people see it and they're light and
it's gimmicky, they're like, well.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And I'll just be so crazy because we're talking about
a gigantic thing, like it's a huge thing that buildings.
People are they're trying to get to this goal of
being viral, and they're taking all these marketing strategies because
that's its unmarketing rate. So we're trying to hit both,
trying to hit having a presence on a different entity
that brings us guests that come into our restaurant and
try our ship based our product such as like you know,
like if you have your cheese stick in a sick
(37:21):
reel or in a in a in a TikTok, like
do you want the TikTok to be highlighted or do
you want the she stake to be hilated? Do you
want your what's like the what's the goal of being viral?
The goal is more attention? Right, more people business?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Did she stake to be highlighted in the brand and
be recognized?
Speaker 3 (37:38):
It is an algorithm behind it, as we've found out.
You know, they're doing research, so they say post it
at like six of the morning. Yeah, because people wake
up and the first thing they do is go to
the bathroom and use their phones.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Is that what you do?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Okay, super, but that's it. It's like if you do it,
then you then it's like.
Speaker 7 (38:03):
This media discussion before we clear the table. See I
can do puns too. Before we clear the table, it's
time for everyone to share your parting thoughts. Is there
any one thing from today's episode that you would like your.
Speaker 5 (38:18):
Parting thoughts to be?
Speaker 7 (38:19):
Mine is going to be taking away what what you
both just said at that end of the table where
I clearly should sit next time, is that don't do
social media if you're not going to do it, well,
that really helps me focus on some of the things
that have been bouncing around in my head and as
I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Up with my new marketing plan. Cool, why don't you?
Speaker 8 (38:41):
But if you think that you don't, if you feel
like you don't do it, well, there are people that
specialize in it that can give you assistance.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
So we have a social media person.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, we have a media specialist.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Yeah you want to specialist, I hear. I'm pretty good
at it. Yeah. There.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Do you have a lot of cake puns in your
podcet that you're sitting on.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
I think that I learned a lot from this episode.
I think the biggest thing that I'm going to take
away is to use the resources that we already have
on hand, like to your point on our website, making
sure that we're actually touting the accomplishments that we have
through our social media, making sure that we're actually sharing
pertinent information with the people who want to have it.
And I think that we do a good job of
(39:30):
planning ahead, but I think that we need to plan
ahead with more intentionality towards may.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
These puns play on the like audio version go ahead?
Speaker 1 (39:46):
They do. That's just such a good doubt a pitfall,
and I think it's important to address pitfalls for anybody
that's listening. Pitfall that I have phoned into and we
all have, is just because you don't have a fancy
camera or you think you have a personalit, you're not.
It's not an excuse to not try. I think some
of the issues we have is that we're like, well,
I can't be like that person. I'm not going to try.
(40:06):
I think the most we'd say the consistency. It's very,
very important, but sticking with it and doing one thing,
even if it's just one thing, like, hey, i'm bj today,
I'm just going to make the Chapman's burger and you
just make it every day and you make a million
a million reels of it. Just think about that. You
know it's going to give your attention. You know it's
going to be authentic. You know you're gonna get better
every day. It's like, you got to be consistent about
these things and you don't need anything fancy. You just
(40:27):
have to have a schedule where you're like, I'm gonna
do it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it,
and you have to get yourself to do it.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
You can't fall out of that, right, you know, what's
funny is I feel like sometimes there are these unintended consequences.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
And we have been.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
Featuring lately the Chapman's Burger because we brought it back
for a little while. Now people think that that's the
only thing that you can get in the restaurant. And
I've had this weird pushback from my staff where it's like, hey,
can we like actually talk about some of our other
food because you've only been featuring the burger now. And
it's one of those things where it's like every every
action has like an unintended negative consequence. Then you try
(40:58):
to foresee and it's just the thing that kicks me
in the gut every time, where it's like I thought
that we were doing something good. Now there's this unintended consequence.
So I'm sure that with what we're talking about, with
making sure that we're showing off our awards and stuff,
there's some unintended we are getting.
Speaker 7 (41:19):
Thank you everyone, and please, if you like what you've heard,
like and subscribe and we'll see you for next episode.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
A restaurant round table.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
We can live. You just stopped. It just stopped.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
I keep getting this, I keep getting the hands. Oh okay,
I looked at the wrong one.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
You can look at.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I can look at that. I don't want any film
from this one because all that you.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Can see is like this right here. So this one
you mustured accept yourself.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
To be starting with our puns. We're very punny. Or
do you just want me to do that?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
If you like you're saying, it's been a construction discussion
all did you not want to do it? You took
away from this?
Speaker 5 (42:09):
I think we did that way.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Another discussion one and hands kept the wing and then
I don't want because you can you can take it
and not use it. But it's better just recording right now,
right and then not use it. It's supposed to be like, yeah,
I think I want to do some more.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yes, your take away?
Speaker 5 (42:33):
All right? What is your takeaway?
Speaker 3 (42:35):
My takeaway is the kind of what Bja was saying.
I'm a store start focusing more on pretension of customers,
so just kind of asking them about their experience because
we're kind of dated. They were around and just you know,
trying to get them to comeback.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
So fantastic.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
I would just say, just make sure your marketing message, uh,
ties into your the goal of your your restaurant and
what you're setting out to do.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
It's great. Big marketing is like kind of like a
recipe where it's not just one thing. There's a lot
of ingredients that make up this whole arm of a business,
and it shouldn't maybe it's like it's marketing or no marketing.
It looks like that everybody has something to offer in it,
and the more tools you can get, the better you
can be at it. And you don't have to get
like sell your soul and become somebody else do it.
You can become your marketer or your biggest champion. I
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Your authentic self. Well, fantastic.
Speaker 7 (43:28):
Well, I'm sure we have so much more to talk about,
and we can talk for hours and hours will but
we all have to get back to our restaurants and
some food. If you like what you heard today, please
like and subscribe for a restaurant round table, brought to
you by craft Times.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Away from Home dot com www.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Dot craft Ties away from Home dot com Www.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Craft Tignes away from Home dot com. We'll see you
here next time.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
Thank you. As you might expect the opinions that we
express on this podcast or just that opinions and for
entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
If you love this podcast, help us out give us
a thumbs up.
Speaker 7 (44:13):
Also, be sure to go to Craft Times Away from
Home dot com and sign up for our newsletter.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
So remember, if you like what you heard today, please
head over to Kraft Times Away from Home dot com
and sign up.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
We have got all.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
Sorts of exclusives coming with special insights, access to marketing,
and a lot more.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Of course, subscribe share like all those things, See you
next time.
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