Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Most restaurant owners think of marketing as something that lives outside the building.
[00:00:05] So we've got social media and ads and email campaigns, influencers, promotions. All of that. Sounds familiar, right? If any of that sounds like you, I'm here to tell you that that belief is costing you an enormous amount of money. Because here's the real truth. If your marketing doesn't work inside the restaurant, there's no way it can work outside of it. Today I want to dismantle this idea that marketing is something you do. And I want to replace it with this idea that marketing is something you are. It is something that is intrinsically folded into the experience.
[00:00:40] All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:43] 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 the this is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:14] Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Two episodes every single week. All meant to help you level up and build a more profitable restaurant. All of that. That in the end means you make more and work less. We put out over 500 episodes of this show and if you get any sort of value from this show, I'm going to ask a simple favor. Please hit pause, go to Apple Podcasts, leave us a five star rating and review. Don't lie obviously, but if you love it, tell people what you get out of the show and let them know what you think they would get out of the show. That more than anything would help me and this my small business.
[00:01:53] Okay, restaurant owners. You want a steady, predictable flow of new customers, right? If that is the case, then you need to check out Restaurant Scale Secrets. They have a fully done for you marketing system that has already helped tons of restaurants, including more than 50 members of this restaurant strategy community. They work with a ton of my P3 members. I recommend Restaurant Scale Secrets because I know it works. They run meta ads, they run Google Ads, and they have an entire automated system to get people into your orbit and to get them coming in and coming back. The program works. It's why I recommend it not only here, but to all of my P3 members. You get to fill tables and add tens of thousands to top line revenue. So if you're ready to take that whole piece of marketing off your plate and start filling your seats, head to restaurantscale secrets.com chip, book a free discovery call. There's no pressure get to meet Monica and her team and you'll see what they do and what they have already done for many people in this community. Again, restaurantscalesecrets.com Chip, as always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:03:04] So most marketing fails because it is disconnected from reality. So I want to start first with an uncomfortable observation. So a lot of restaurant marketing promises an experience that the operation can't possibly deliver on a consistent basis.
[00:03:21] Meaning the photos look warm, the captions feel inviting, the vibe seems effortless. And then the guests show up and what they experience is confusion or indifference or inconsistency or stress. And see, what happens is the gap between the promise and the reality is where trust dies.
[00:03:43] See, you need a promise, right? Every product has a promise, right? That. That you will look good when you put on this dress, that you will get buff when you come to gym. As the marketing doesn't fail because the ad was bad. It fails because the experience doesn't support the promise. It doesn't deliver in the way that it should.
[00:04:04] So now we're inside the restaurant. Now we're really talking about operations. Because every touch point is marketing, whether you like it or not.
[00:04:13] Marketing is not a department. It's every moment that a guest interprets with meaning, right? So the greeting, the tone of voice, the body language, the pace of service, the confidence of the recommendations on the server, the parking lot and the paint on the lines, the logo, the everything.
[00:04:35] See, guests are constantly asking just one question.
[00:04:39] Do I belong here? Do I feel welcome? Understood? Is this place for me? They're thinking of that when they're looking in the window, they're thinking of that when you're looking at your menu online, they're thinking of that when they drive by and they see the they are thinking that when they sit down and open the menu, they are thinking whether they belong here. Is this place for me?
[00:05:00] And the answer is no. No to any of that. No amount of Instagram posts will save you now. Staff language is one of your most powerful marketing tools. Again, we are inside the four walls, and this is something that most owners completely overlook.
[00:05:17] See, your team is speaking your brand out loud every night. Whether they're on brand or not, that becomes your brand.
[00:05:24] So what they say, how they say it matters, just like what they don't say, what they don't do matters. Have you been here before? Do you have any questions? Let me know if you need anything. See, those phrases are neutral. Neutral doesn't convert. Neutral doesn't excite. Neutral certainly doesn't build a memory. And neutral isn't something you go talk about.
[00:05:47] Intentional language and hospitality, true hospitality is something that scales.
[00:05:54] See, most restaurants never train for those marketing moments. Owners train steps of service and the POS buttons, the right way to ring in an order table, numbers, seat numbers, allergy protocols. But they don't train how to frame the experience. They don't train how to guide decisions or how to create anticipation, how to make guests feel like they're in on it.
[00:06:18] See, marketing moments aren't accidental. They are meticulously rehearsed and they are repeated over and over.
[00:06:27] See, consistency is what turns service into a brand. And if you go into any great brand, like you walk into Hermes, you walk into a Nike store, you walk into, you know, a Sony showroom, they know who they are, they know what they stand for, and they're looking for their people.
[00:06:47] One great server doesn't create a brand, but one bad server can absolutely destroy it. See, brand is not what happens when the best server takes over. It's what happens most of the time. And that's why marketing again must start inside. Because only systems can create consistency.
[00:07:08] You have to make this marketing language, this branding consistently. You have to create systems around it to make it happen every single time.
[00:07:20] Now, do you want to pulse on what's actually happening in your restaurant? Ovation gives you real time understanding about your guest experience, transforming guest feedback into clear, actionable insights so you can stop guessing and start making smarter decisions about your business. Their AI driven reporting breaks down every review into restaurant specific categories like speed of service, order accuracy, or food quality. And it shows you where to actually focus. One operator put it like this. Ovation is a game changer. It helps us identify issues early before they turn into bigger problems. Another operator starts every staff meeting by reviewing recent Ovation data, giving the team one source of truth to work from. With heat maps, goal tracking and performance dashboards. Ovation doesn't just tell you what's wrong, it actually helps your team fix it. You can even assign action items and track the follow through on those items. So if you want to get all the answers without having to ask all the questions, go to ovationup.com chip to book a demo, mention this podcast, and guess what? They'll waive your setup fee. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:08:34] So now we're talking about marketing. We're talking about how operations has a lot to to do, a lot more to do with marketing than we believe. And here is something that's true. If Your team doesn't believe in your story, in the story of the brand.
[00:08:47] Guess what? Your guests won't either. This is absolutely critical. If staff don't understand who the restaurant is for, if they don't understand why it exists, they don't understand or appreciate what makes it special, well, then they can't talk confidently. They can't sell it authentically.
[00:09:04] See, people don't fake belief very well. Guests will feel it instantly. So if somebody's like, they say, oh, you know, how's this dish? And they're like, it's good. The guests feel that they know what that means. They're like, oh, it's just not very good. Okay, don't order that. You can't fake it. The guests will feel it. Internal alignment comes before external amplification. Again, internal alignment. Internal meaning within your organization that comes before you. Amplify that. If the brand doesn't exist in the heart of your worst server, I promise you, the brand can't exist on a sign, can't exist on the website. It can't.
[00:09:47] See, marketing that starts inside actually ends up reducing marketing spend.
[00:09:53] And so it's like a counterintuitive upside to this, right? See, when the experience is clear and consistent, when the operation is humming along, guests just automatically return. More often, the stories of their meals spread naturally. You don't have to force it. Retention increases. Because this is a place where people want to be and your acquisition costs drop into the basement.
[00:10:16] Oftentimes, I find that restaurants don't need louder marketing.
[00:10:20] They need truer marketing. They need marketing that's woven into the operations. See, operations is the most underrated marketing channel out there.
[00:10:30] Smooth service, markets, competence. Clear flow markets, confidence, Calm leadership, markets, trust, chaos markets, risk.
[00:10:42] We want to focus on competence, confidence, trust.
[00:10:46] We want to focus on creating stories that scale, that want to be told.
[00:10:51] See, guests may not say any of this out loud, but they feel it. They're not going to go complain about, you know, sort of a chaotic experience, but for sure they're not coming back.
[00:11:01] And so here's the shift. Marketing isn't about convincing people to come.
[00:11:06] It's about giving them a reason to return.
[00:11:10] More than that, it's about giving them a story they can tell and tell easily and tell all often.
[00:11:16] And all of that work starts inside the restaurant.
[00:11:21] You got to have something to broadcast before you broadcast it. So as you go about your week, I want you to ask yourself, if we shut off all external marketing tomorrow, what inside the restaurant would still drive repeat visits, Right? Meaning if you shut off all external marketing. You didn't send emails, you didn't post to the website, you didn't run ads, nothing. You didn't post on social media.
[00:11:46] What about the experience right? What inside the restaurant would still drive repeat visits and that that is where real marketing lives.
[00:11:58] So if you're feeling like your marketing is hard, you're feeling like it's expensive, like it doesn't really work it's exhausting.
[00:12:05] Stop looking outside and start looking inside. The problem and the opportunity is lying right there inside your four walls.
[00:12:16] As always I appreciate you guys carving out time to be here to listen to this show again. If you get any sort of value from this show please take a few minutes go leave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts. Just let people know what you get out of it why you think they should listen in. Again thank you very much and I will see you on the next one.
[00:12:46] Sam sa.
