Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, folks, enjoying everything here. How many times have you heard that, right? Some manager with greasy hair steps over, interrupts your conversation or. Or addresses you when you've got a mouthful of food and they say something hollow and lame like, hey, folks, enjoying everything here. And all you can do is sort of nod your head or, you know, sort of give a thumbs up, and then they say, great. And then they walk away. That is what we call a hollow table touch. And today, on today's episode, I want to talk to you about how we do table touches better. I want to talk to you about the history of them. And we're going to go way back, 40, 50, 60 years ago to understand how they used to do them. And then I want to talk about why they're so bad now. There's a very specific reason for it. And I want to talk to you about how we do them better. Specifically, I want to talk to you about how that table touch is a key piece of your four walls. Marketing. All of that. On today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close, and this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast dedicated to helping independent restaurant owners increase the profitability of their restaurants. We do two episodes every single week. Monday's focused on operations, Thursday is focused on marketing. Those are the two biggest pieces of what you can control in your business. The whole idea is to help you level up, learn something new every single week that you can put into practice right away to get better at what you're doing. Why? So you can have a better restaurant, serve more people, feed more people, employ more people, and ultimately support your families. I'm trying to help independent restaurant owners increase the profitability of their restaurants. That's what this show is all about. Listen, if you get any sort of value from this show, take two minutes, pause right now, go to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a five star rating or review something that just lets people know what you got out of the show, what you like about the show, and why you think they would like the show. Take two minutes, go do that. Apple Podcasts. That, more than anything, helps us grow our community.
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Okay, so now today we're going to talk all about these table touches, right? For me, we got to get out of these hollow table touches and we got to go back to the way they used to do it 40, 50, 60 years ago, right? When marketing was hand to hand combat, it was about building relationships, getting to know people, getting people to know you and just inviting them back, making them feel like family, making sure that they know they are welcome. Not systematized, not, not machine like, not robotic. So today I want to talk about why table touches are so bad now. And I want to talk to you about a couple of key ways you can fix them in your restaurant. Specifically, I'm going to give you four ways that I think you can do better table touches. I don't care if you do all four of them, but you got to do at least one. So I'm going to give you basically four playbooks, four ways that you can do better table touches. I'm going to give a couple stories along the way. It's going to be a great episode. Now let's talk about why table touches are so bad right now, right? The term table touch really was coined back in the 90s. So back in the 90s when we had all these chains getting really big, right? Red Lobster and Chili's and Applebee's and Olive Garden and you fill in the blank, right? What happened is we started coming up with these secret shopper reports and they systematized the steps of service and made it almost robotic, right? So that the server has to get down on the level of this, of the guests at least twice during the meal. They had to say their name at least once. The manager had to literally touch the table at least once during the meal. That's where we get the term table touch. We had to use mouth watering adjectives. We had to make a recommendation at three Points during the meal. We had to always ask things in a certain way, right? We made it robotic. We were trying to make good servers with lots of flair. And it became fake, Fake. It became false. And so we started training our managers to just paint by numbers, to go through the steps, rather than teaching them how to be thoughtful, curious, engaged individuals responsible for running the floor. So this table touch, literally right in back in the day in the 90s and then the early 2000s, it was part of the steps of service. And on a secret shopper report, right, they had to make sure that everything was done the way it was supposed to be done. And one of these was a table touch. Literally, a manager had to come over and not just talk to the table, but actually physically touch the table. It didn't matter what they said as long as they arrived there, said something and touched the table, right? So, hey, folks, how you doing? They touched the table. Everyone enjoying everything here. Good, good, good, good, good. And then they'd walk away. They fulfilled their duty. That's what the secret shopper report was going to look for to make sure they swung by and at least touch.
So, great. Check the box. I did what I was supposed to do. And I think we all know how bad that is. Nobody said, everyone enjoying everything here, even if it's terrible in that moment. That's not what that relationship is. That's not what that interaction is supposed to be. You're supposed to say, yeah, it's pretty good. Or you say, actually, can I have a little more ketchup? Or, hey, you know, when you find our server, can we get a little bit more. More club soda? That's about all you can ask a manager in that point, because it's obvious the manager is not there to find fix something. The manager is not really interested in whether you're really enjoying this or not. And I think that's obvious. And I think that resonates, I'm hoping, with everybody listening to this, right? That's how you do it the wrong way. And it became the wrong way when we had these very rigid steps of service. And it didn't matter if you did it well, just mattered that you did it. Now I want to roll back the clock and talk about the way things were done 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 70 years ago, right? It's the way if you ever go to Europe and you visit, like a small town, right? And you go, right. So if you're in Italy and I've talked about this story, I'll share this story when. When we were in Sorrento. So we were in Sorrento a couple years ago. Me, my wife, my son, we went there and we had dinner. We were on a. Like a. Like a boat tour of the Amalfi coast. And towards the end of our day, we said, man, we really. We've been on the ocean all day. We really want seafood. Where should we go? And our captain, the tour guide, said, oh, when. Where I drop you off, you have to go to this place called Porto Marina. We were like, oh, we passed by there when we met you. That place is sort of like a hole in the wall. It's a dump. He says, no, you asked for the best seafood in. In Sorrento. They have the best seafood in Sorrento. You have to go there. And we were like, okay, fine. So we got off the boat, we went up into the. You know, the harbor, right? And there's like eight restaurants right along the water there, right? And you've. If you've been to Europe, you know, every sort of coastal town has something like this where there are a whole bunch of restaurants all in a row. And every single one was half full. Half full, half full, except this one place, Porta Marina, was totally jammed. Crowd outside waiting to get a table. We were like, oh, okay. Well, obviously the people know something. Obviously this boat captain knew something. So we went and put in our names, right? This is really, really important. This is like this old world style of hospitality. And I've told this story before in the podcast, but if you're new to the podcast, you probably haven't heard this. So we decided to go put our names in. We said, hi, you, table for three? They said, sure. So I have two people. Two people, Those three, those four. And then you. Then you're my three. So just sit down, make yourself comfortable. We'll be right with you. And so we did. There was a little bench right by the harbor, right? So we sit down. Not two minutes later, the. The woman, the hostess, who we found out is also one of the servers, is walking around with glasses of white wine, giving them out to everybody except the children. My son didn't get one, but everybody got a glass of white wine. And she said, here, here. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for waiting. A little something to enjoy while you wait. I've never seen that. I've been in hospitality for 25 years. I've never seen that. I've been to Europe a whole bunch. But the idea was right. And when she did that, I realized a couple things were happening. Number One, wine just calms people. It settles people, right? Number one. Number two, she's saying the hospitality is beginning. So number one, she's trying to calm you down. Number two, she's trying to show you we care. That's what you do when you have house guests over, right? People walk in, they say, come on in, come in. Let me take your coat. What can I get you to drink? That's what we do. That's, in essence, what this woman was doing. Come in, sit, relax, hear, enjoy. She was taking care of us right away. The third thing she was doing, and this is very important, is she was playing defense.
You came in and you waited. And if you're there with. With older parents, maybe grandparents, if you're there with kids who are getting a little anxious and ornery, right? Everybody's on edge. And what happens is wine takes the air out of the room. What happens is when you get a free glass of wine, you are not going to just return that and say, you know what? Never mind. We're going to go to the restaurant next door. You're going to sit there and enjoy the glass of wine, and on average, take somebody maybe like 15, 20 minutes to finish a glass of wine, which is how long it would take to get our table ready. And they knew this. So, number one, they're taking the anxiety. They're just. They're. They're taking the lid off the pressure cooker, right? Number two, good hospitality, making sure we're taken care of. Number three, playing defense so that we don't get tired of waiting and get up and walk into one of the other restaurants, right? Three things with one little move. And the fourth move was brilliant. When she did finally come over and say, hey, your table's all ready. Please write this way. We walked over, she sat us down. She came over with a. Like a pitcher of wine, says, I know you've been enjoying the white wine. Do you like it? Do you just want to do a craft? You want to do a pitcher? We were like, yep, the white wine's great. Boom. Pitcher went on the table. Wine service was done for the night. And because she had so many tables, she didn't want to be bothered with getting us other drinks. White or red? A sparkling? Nope. Here's white wine, right? It's a hot summer day. Here's white wine. That's what we wanted. The point is, they had to fight for every single cover coming off of the water. Anybody coming off from their boat tour, from their fishing tour, from their trip to Capri for the day for their. Whatever it is, they had to win those customers over. Every single one, every cover matters because there were six, seven, eight different options for them to go to.
That's old school, right? And as busy as she was, she still looked us in the eye and made a couple of hospitable touches that made us feel seen and welcome. That is absolutely crucial. That's old school, right? Let me give you one more old school story before we get to these four tactics that I'm going to share with you. The other old school story, right, was I was trained by a guy, old French maitre d, who worked in New York city in the 1980s, worked at some of the biggest restaurants in the 80s. And he taught me this thing. He said, you know, the worst thing you can ever do, the worst thing you can ever do to a guest is to say, thanks so much, Have a great night. He said, scrub that from your vocabulary. And now I've talked about this in the podcast. I share this with my customers, with my, with the members, with the clients that I work with, the members of my mastermind, right? He said, scrub it. You don't care if they have a good night. You just showed them a great night. That's why they come to you, to make sure that they have a great night. Whatever happens after they leave us, it's not up to us. That's up to them. That's out to the other people that they pay to take care of them. They have paid us to take care of them. We did a really good job. So do not say, thanks so much. Have a great night. It's a wasted opportunity. That is your last blush. He called it right. That's your last moment. And what he would do is when people were leaving the dining room, he would get out from behind the podium because he was the maitre d and he would shake their hands. Oh, Mr. Jones, how was everything? And he would. And he was telling me, he said, I put myself between them and the door and they can't go until they get past me. And what he was really good at doing. How was everything? Absolutely. And miss, how, you know, did your wife enjoy it? And what about your guests? Do I know your guests? I don't think we've met yet. And he would get to know everybody, shake everybody's hands, and he's still blocking the front door. And the last thing he always did was say, great, perfect, when are we going to see you again? Let's get another reservation on the books. And he taught me this. And I share it with you guys. Your goal in that moment is not to say, thanks so much. Have a good night. Thanks so much. Have a great night. Who cares? Your job right then is to get another sale. The sale is another reservation. So if your job becomes getting another sale, it then becomes a retention tool. It becomes a marketing play. And I want you to remember this because we're going to talk about this in just a minute when I share with you these four tactics. Because some version of this is the fourth tactic that I'm going to share with you. That's old school. That's how they did it in restaurants 40, 50, 60 plus years ago. They brought actual hospitality. They shook your hand, they looked you in the eye and they asked you the thing that was actually going to help the business. They asked you the thing that was actually going to make sure you have another great time. I just showed you a great time. When can we do it again? When can I cook for you again? When can I show you another great time? That becomes absolutely crucial now. I'm going to share with you these four tactics in just a second after a word from another sponsor.
Now, Sterling Douglas is the co founder and CEO of a company called Chowley. Chowley does so much for this industry. And I want you to hear a little bit from Sterling.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: In the last few years, restaurants have faced massive changes. Labor costs, food costs, rent, even payment processing costs are up so much that price increases alone can't cover it. And at the same time, their customers are demanding a whole new way to interact digitally. And that's now a requirement to survive, let alone thrive. To their credit, restaurant operators have been resilient. They've survived pandemics, inflation, regulatory environments and more. They've added the tablets, put out the QR codes, took reviews seriously, and their reward? A disjointed collection of tech that doesn't talk to each other and is impossible to manage. I've listened to hundreds of operators tell me the same story with the same problems. And that's why we came out with the Chale platform. One place to manage everything outside of your four walls. Just like everything built at Chaley for our 17,000 restaurants. Integrations and connections are at the heart of everything we do. It starts with your digital storefront. Your website has two jobs, more traffic, more orders. By connecting to Google Business profile and your point of sale, we get that done for you. Digital marketing. We'll manage your paid ads, emails and social posts will help you win the hyperlocal knife fight. To maximize your sales, we measure everything so you know exactly where your orders are coming from. Marketplace, email, website, ads, app, all in one place.
Chali gives you more orders by ensuring your entire digital storefront is optimized with the data you already have more time by using our knowledge and a done for you experience and more control by managing it all in one place. The Chowi platform isn't just a tool, it's a partner in running a more successful and profitable restaurant.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: If you want to learn more about Chowi, go find the link in the show notes.
Okay, so we're talking about these hollow table touches and we're trying to get rid of them. And we're going to try and do them better. And in order to do them better, I shared a couple stories about this old world, old school hospitality. I shared one story about what happened when I went to Italy a couple years ago. And I shared another story about a guy who trained me when I was trained to be a maitre d. He trained me and he was old school. He worked at Le Cirque, he worked at Danielle in the 80s and 90s. He was French. He spent his entire career pretty much either in Paris or New York City. And he knew what he was doing. Right now let's talk about how we bring intention to our table touches in the dining room. Four, four ways, four tactics. And you don't have to do all four, but please pick one and implement that in your restaurant this week. First one is first timers.
First timers represent an incredible opportunity. And there's a significant percentage of your guests every night that are first time diners. Their friends have brought them. They just heard a great, they heard great things about your restaurant. They just happened to wander in because they were in the neighborhood. They, for one reason or another, people decided to come try you out tonight. That is incredibly special. All the places they already know, all the places they already know they like. And they decided to try someplace new. They decided to try you instead of any of the other places that they've never been to. That's huge. So one thing you can do is make sure on first approach. And we get this all the time. Talk about hollow table touches. How about hollow questions that your servers ask you? Hey, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. My name is Chip. I'll be taking care of you. Have you been here before? Have you dined with us before? Right. How many times have you been asked that? But if you ask that for a purpose, then it's not hollow. Say, hi, welcome. Glad to have you. My name is Chip. I'll be taking care of you or if you're in fine dining, you don't give your names. That's fine. Hi, welcome. Glad to have everyone. I'll be taking care of you. I just wanted to know has. Have you. Have you dined with us before? It's okay to ask. So when they say, no, it's our first time, we say, amazing. Well, listen, you're in great hands. I'm going to take great care of you. In just a few minutes, I'm going to walk you through the menu. I'm going to point out some of our signatures. I'm going to also point out a couple of my favorites. You're in great hands. I'll answer all of your questions, blah, blah, blah. And we go on with the steps of service. And when the server steps away, their job should then be to let a manager know table 10. It's their first time. And this is how we build a system. And then the next part of the system is that the manager has to find a time at some point during the meal, usually right after the order's taken. It's a great opportunity. That's one of the biggest gaps in the meal. And it's a reliable wide gap. Right. The gap between apps and entrees isn't necessarily long. Not everybody is always going to dessert. So the gap between entrees and dessert is not always. Does not always happen and is not always long. But that gap between when the order's taken and when appetizers hit the table, you got like seven minutes. And all we're looking for is two of those seven minutes. So the orders, right? So we greet the table, we go let the manager know, say, table 10 is new. Okay, manager needs to now pay attention to table 10. After the server takes the order, the next thing is manager comes over and says, hi, folks. I'm so sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Chip. I'm one of the managers here. I understand it's your first time here, so I wanted to welcome you. Can I just ask you what made you come in tonight? Right, you just start with that question, or can I just ask you, do you guys live in the area?
Are you new to the area? Are you just visiting the area?
How did you find out about it? You ask some version of that question, you will get an answer. You will learn something about how they heard about you. You'll learn something about your marketing. You'll figure out how your. Whether your marketing works or what part of your marketing is working. They'll say, oh, we saw your ad. Oh, we saw your billboard. Oh, we heard you on the radio. Oh, our friend told us about you. They're going to tell you something that's going to educate you. What happens is you have a conversation, 60, 90 seconds and then you say, great. Well, listen, I don't want to keep you from your conversation. I did just want to leave you with these old school bounce back tactics, right? A bounce back strategy. You give them a postcard, a business card, a poker chip, something that would entice them to come back. So great. Listen, I don't want to interrupt your. I don't want to keep you from your conversation, so I'll just leave you with these. These are, these are cards. These are $10. These give you $10 off your next visit. It's valid anytime for the next 30 days. You'll see on the back, I signed it, it's dated. It's. It's valid for 30 days from today. Please, I hope you come back. I'm also going to leave you my card. If you have any trouble getting a reservation, any come, please let me know you're coming back in. I'll make sure you're taken care of, no questions asked. 10 bucks on your next visit and you give one to everybody at the table, right? And maybe you say, listen, you can't combine them, but you can come back four times, right? Each of you can come back and use one of those cards on your next four visits, right? It's a no brainer. Now, are you going to get 100% redemption? Absolutely not. You're probably going to get about 15% redemption. That's what I found. That's how you have a better table touch. Now, the managers come over with a purpose and they've asked a pointed question, right? Like, hi, I don't want to hate to interrupt. I'm sorry, I just wanted to introduce myself. I understand it's your first time here. How did you find out about us? That is a better table touch than checking in after entrees and making sure everyone's enjoying everything. My guess is the server also has it in their service points, right? Their steps of service, to touch back after they've gotten their entrees, to make sure they've got everything they need. There's no reason for a manager to do that as well. It's a waste. So now let's not waste that opportunity, right? The other opportunity. I always talk about getting more reviews. We need reviews, we need good reviews and we need a steady stream of reviews because the recency of the reviews on Yelp and Google and TripAdvisor actually matter a great deal. So let's say you're going to look for the people who are loving it, and a manager is going to go over towards the end of the meal, just say, hey, I'm so sorry to interrupt. My name is Chip. I'm one of the managers here, and I can't help but think you guys are having a great time. Looks like you're really enjoying the meal. And if they're really enjoying it, they're saying, oh, my God, this was the best. Blah, blah, blah. I can't believe how good this was. Oh, we loved our drinks. Whatever. And you're like, that's amazing. Listen, if you could just take two minutes, I'm going to leave a card here, and it gives a QR code to our Yelp page. QR code to our Google my business page. If you would just take two minutes right now and just tell the world what you just told me. Leave us a review and just tell people what you loved about it. Here. If you took pictures, share some pictures, that more than anything, really helps us grow our small business, I'd be eternally grateful. And of course they're going to say. I promise you, they're going to say, oh, my God, I'm happy to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And if they say, well, let me take the card and I'll do that when I get home, you say, no, actually, can you do it right here, right now? It just helps. You're just making sure that they don't forget about it. That's the number two way, right? Number three way. Here's the. Here's the third way to have a better table touch. Sometimes I do this. I challenge. I challenge owners or like a general manager to touch every single table and have a meaningful conversation. And I always recommend they, like, keep a notebook, right? Like a little moleskin notebook. And they have to write down something that they learned about every single table, meaning they have to write down something they wouldn't have otherwise known unless they had a meaningful conversation. And that forces you to ask a couple of pointed questions. I don't know what those questions are. I could certainly give you ideas. I've already given you ideas. Hey, folks. I just want to check in and. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to introduce myself. Have you guys been here before? I feel like you look familiar. No, no, it's our first time here. Oh, it's amazing. Are you guys new to the area or have you Lived here for a while. No, we've lived here for a while. So what took you so long? We've been here for 10 years. How come you've never come in in all this time? There's. Oh, well, we're busy. You know, My. My daughter, you know, we shuttle her back and forth from dance to gymnastics to school. So it's just our nights are crazy. Oh, that's crazy. So no dance, no gymnastics tonight. No softball, no. Whatever. You're going to learn something. You're going to have a normal conversation, and it doesn't have to last more than about 60 or 90 seconds. What happens is you step away and you write in your notebook or you put it into the reservation software so you learn more about them, right? And you're going to use that. You're going to be able to use that in the future when they come back in, right? You're going to ask, hey, how's the dance season going? Hey, when's the recital? Hey, how was your gymnastics competition? I remember you were talking about how you went to regionals, you know, two weeks ago. How did it go? Right? You've got something else to talk about. Them. That's how you get to know each other better. When they go, oh, my God, he remembered. He remembered she goes to dancer. He remembered she does competitive gymnastics. You're going to look like a genius. You are a genius because you had the forethought to ask a pointed question and write it down and jog your memory so that you remember to talk to them about it next time they walked in. But to them, they're going to be like, wow, he really listened. He really cared, right? So do that, you'll have more meaningful interactions. The last one is basically a version of what I just said. So remember, worked with this guy, this maitre d, Francois. Francois was French. He ran these fine dining rooms, you know, all through the 80s and 90s. And he taught me this thing, this idea of when a guest gets up from the dining room, you stand between them and the door, you don't let them get past you, and you do not say, thanks so much. Have a great night. You scrub that from your vocabulary. And what you do is you ask them the question you actually want to ask them, which is, when are we going to see you again? Hey, let me get another reservation on the books for you, right? When are you coming back? And what happens is you get about a 20% success rate when you ask them to book another reservation. 80% of them, right? So it's going to feel like failure. Four out of five tables are going to say, no, no, listen, we're busy. We're going to be out of town. You know, we' come back, we'll come back and they'll just shake your hand and leave. But 20% of them, one out of five tables, which PS is all you need to be incredibly successful at this. One out of five tables. When you say, hey, thanks so much. Listen, can we get another reservation on the books? We gotta see you again soon. What happens is they will think of things that they have coming up. They'll realize, oh, my sister's coming in from out of town, oh, I gotta entertain those clients, right? And they'll say, you'll hear it, you know, the husband will say to the wife, oh, hey, you've got your, you've got those clients coming in from out of town. You should entertain them here. They always take such great care of us here. Your clients are going to love it here. And she'll say, you know what, you're right. I don't think we have a reservation or, you know, we have a reservation at that other place, but I can cancel that. Let's do it here. One out of five tables will think of something that they have coming up. Oh, that's right, we have that date night. Oh, we were going to get together with your, with our neighbors. Oh, my clients are coming in from out of town. They will think of something. And they only think about two weeks in advance. Think, think about your own habits, Right. Think about this weekend. Right? Do you know what you're doing this weekend? You probably do. Two weekends from now you might know what you're doing. I promise you, three weekends from now, unless there's something really special. I'm guessing you pretty much have no idea what you're doing three weekends from now, but this weekend you have an idea. The next weekend you do. You only think a week or two in advance. And that's the way it is for most of your customers. So if you say, hey, thanks so much, when are we going to see you again? And they, they, then they think of what they have coming up. They'll think of the friends they have coming in from town, the family they have visiting, the clients they'll be entertaining. That's how you get a reservation on the book. So if you've got 100 covers a night and you can get 20 of them to rebook sometime in the next two weeks, that profoundly changes your top line revenue, which I don't have to tell you, will increase your bottom line profit. So collectively let's agree to do better table touches. No more hollow conversations. No more managers going by and just checking the boxes, going through the steps. Have them do meaningful table touches. And it's not that hard to do. You just have to want to do it. That's it guys. That's what I wanted to talk about. Short. Sweet. I'm talking fast because I want to make, I want to make the most of our time together again. If you get any sort of value from this episode or any of the other episodes, please take two minutes. Go. Leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Just let people know what you've gotten out of this show and why you think others should tune in. That more than anything will help this community grow, which would help me immensely. Thank you very much again. Two new episodes every Monday, every Thursday. Look forward to seeing you back here next time.