Product

The Guest Experience

Why Independent Restaurants Should Not Copy Chipotle’s Loyalty Program

Chipotle rebuilt their loyalty program this year. The marketing industry has been talking about it ever since. You've probably seen the takes. "The blueprint for where restaurant marketing is headed." "Every independent operator needs to pay attention." "This isn't a...

Restaurant Marketing Mistakes: The McDonald’s Trap Killing Independents

by Jeffrey Summers|Product, The Operator's 411

Most restaurant marketing mistakes are not the ones you think. The worst one is invisible to the operator making it, because the operator is watching McDonald's do exactly the same thing and assuming it's a template they can copy. You...

Your Layout Is Costing You Money Every Shift

by Jeffrey Summers|Performance, Product

The numbers never say layout problem. They say high ticket time. Labor over budget. Team fatigue. Missed peak-hour covers. The cast running harder than they should for the volume they are doing. The supervisor filling gaps that should not exist....

Loyalty Is Not a Discount Problem

by Jeffrey Summers|Product

What You're Actually Measuring When operators talk about loyalty, they almost always mean repeat visits. And when they try to drive repeat visits, they almost always reach for the same instrument — a discount, a punch card, a points system,...

Change Without Transition Is Just Disruption

by Jeffrey Summers|People, Product

When you change something in your operation — the menu, the service sequence, the room layout, the hours, the price — you are not just changing a process. You are changing a relationship. The Guest who has been coming to...

Loyalty Programs Don’t Build Loyalty

by Jeffrey Summers|Product

The word loyalty has been hijacked. In the restaurant industry it has been redefined to mean a discount that rewards a Guest for dining with you or incentivizes them to return at some future point. The result is a system...

Moving Beyond Robotic Service

by Jeffrey Summers|Product

Service is table stakes (pun intended). Every restaurant has a service sequence. Twelve steps, fifteen steps, however many steps the training manual specifies. Greet the table. Present the menu. Take the drink order. Suggest the specials. Return with the drinks....

4 Really Bad Training Nuggets & 1 Good One

by Jeffrey Summers|Performance, Product

"Training, as it stands in most companies, is broken. It’s transactional at best and completely irrelevant at it’s worst."

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