Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey there. Chip Close here, host of the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. I am in the middle of telling you, right. These 20 episodes are about me telling the 20 stories that I tell more than just about anything else. Stories from my clients, right? So the P3 members I work with, stories from restaurants I've just been to, experiences I've had. Also.
[00:00:18] Also stories from the time when I was working in operations in restaurants and the things I learned and the things I did, I share freely. That's what I'm going to share with you today about the power of engaging with your guests. I want to share a personal, real life story, something that actually happened and the impact of that story, all of that. On today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:37] 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.
[00:00:57] Foreign.
[00:01:09] Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. You know me, I give talks all over the world. I wrote two books. The first one, the Restaurant Marketing Mindset, came out in 2023. My new one, the Restaurant Profit Playbook, comes out in just a couple of months. I run a coaching program called the P3 mastermind. You can find information on all of that in the show notes. But I want to talk to you about the Profitability Summit. Right, the Restaurant Profitability Summit happens once a year. This year it's happening October 18th, 19th and 20th in Minneapolis. So 200 spots, 200 restaurant owners are going to descend upon Minneapolis for two and a half days. We have general admission and VIP tickets available. All tickets get you access to two full days of education. So 10 to 6 Monday, 10 to 6 Tuesday. Also our big P3 party that we throw on Monday night. Tons of food, open bar. I promise you it is worth it just for that. The ability to sort of like rub elbows with a whole bunch of other restaurant owners and learn from them. If you buy VIP ticket, you also get a welcome dinner on Sunday night. Extra time to chat with me and my team, whole bunch of other restaurant owners. Plus you get catered lunch on Monday and Tuesday. So again, more time with me and my team. You get tickets by clicking the link in the show notes. You can go learn more about the event. We've got headliners, tons of thing we're going to cover. But the bottom line is to make a more profitable restaurant. We're g you the actionable Playbooks. The things that you can put into practice the minute you get back home to make more money again. The Restaurant Profit the Restaurant Profitability Summit happens in Minneapolis in October 2026. The link to get tickets is in the show notes 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 TV 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 restaurantscalesecrets.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 so many people in this community. Again, restaurantscalesecrets.com chip as always, you'll find that link in the Show Notes.
[00:03:57] 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.
[00:04:26] 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.
[00:05:11] Okay, so this whole stretch of episodes, this whole arc, is all about me telling you Stories telling you stories from clients, from P3 members, from restaurant experiences I've had, from restaurants that I've worked at. Today I want to talk about the power of engagement. So last episode, hopefully you listened to it. We talked about how I think we know a lot about a little bit of our guests, but there's a lot of our guests that we know absolutely nothing about.
[00:05:36] And I gave you. Right. I told you that. One of the ways I used to do this is I used to Google the nightly reservation book so I could get to know people in New York City. It was very easy to do that because a lot of people are people of note in New York City doesn't necessarily work for everywhere else. So everywhere else, what do you do? You actually have to have meaningful conversations. You actually have to engage with the people.
[00:05:57] You have to engage with the people who are in your dining room. How do you do that? You do that very uncomfortably by walking up to them and starting a conversation. I want to talk to you about something I used to do. So back when I used to run the front door, I used to be a maitre d in New York City. And when I used to build the reservation books. Different now, but back then, you basically used to build your own reservation book. I would build it with like a 15 to 20 minute wait. I mean, everybody had to come and say, hi, I'm checking in for our reservation. I said, absolutely, I see you here. The table's not quite ready. Please come into the bar and grab a drink. We'll be with you as soon as the table's set.
[00:06:27] Right. And then they go over, they order a drink. They're sipping on a drink, And I think 15 or 20 minutes, people like that. They like knowing that they are somewhere that other people want to be. There's some scarcity. There's some, you know, they. They feel important. There's status involved. And so I like doing that. And also it gives me a chance to go over and touch base with them. So after about 10, 15 minutes, I come over. Hey, do you want to check in? Table's just about finished. You know, give us just a few more minutes. Thanks so much for your patience. Question. Have we met before? Have you guys been here before? Et cetera, et cetera? I'm sorry, have. I don't think I've ever introduced myself to you. Like, hey, and I get know them, right? That was how I did it. And I used to do this every single night. And I got this. I learned this from a maitre d. Fellow maitre D somebody who had worked all through the 80s and 90s at big, big fancy fine dining restaurants. And he basically said, your job is to know something about everybody. And he challenged me to learn to. To connect with five different people and learn something meaningful about at least five different people on the nightly reservation book things that I wouldn't have otherwise known, things that I probably wouldn't know even from Googling them. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. So I challenge. He challenged me, and then I challenged myself to do this. At least five people, every single night. I get to know them a little bit more. So I know their name, their spouse's name, their kid's name, things that are important to them. I learned something about them that I otherwise wouldn't have known. And something really, really interesting happened. And there were two things. This happened twice. Twice, basically in like the same stretch, same restaurant. This. This happened. And there's. So again, I tell this story. I tell these two stories whenever I tell the story. So there was one time, right? It was spring.
[00:07:59] And like, they happened in the course of like two weeks. So one of them was spring. And I started making conversation and I said, oh, blah, blah, blah. We're making conversation. And what came up is the guy said, oh, I'm actually just heading out to Aspen. It was like late March, something like mid March, late March. We're heading out to Aspen. We like to ski, taking the kids on their spring break. We've never been out there before, right? And I said, oh, it's amazing. I've actually never been to Aspen either. And I then said, oh, are you going to go to Little Nell? Started talking about some of the restaurants that I know are out there. And he said, oh, I'm not sure. I don't think my wife's handling all the reserv. I said, great. I said, listen, you. You got it. Here's my. What's your number? Let me text you, right? So I texted him my number. I said, that's me. When you get to the top of the mountain, when you get to the. You know, when you get up there, just text me a picture because I want to know you're there. And then when you come back, I want to hear about it.
[00:08:44] So three days past, four days past, five days pass, I get a picture. It's like, oh, it's amazing.
[00:08:50] This picture looks great. What's your favorite run so far? We're like, we're talking ski, right? Week goes by, two weeks go by, something like that. And I text him, I say, hey, listen, if you're around, I would love for you to. I'd love to buy you a drink. I want to hear all about Aspen because again, I've actually never been, but I'd love to know more about it. So he messages me back. He said, actually, I'm entertaining clients on Thursday. Any chance you can get a six top for 7:30? I'll come in early, you know, have a drink. I can tell you all about Aspen and then I'll have my clients meet me there.
[00:09:20] Like, what, are you kidding me? I offered to buy him a free drink and it was because I remembered that he went to Aspen and I remembered to text him. Now listen, I didn't remember. I put reminders in my phone. This is a long time ago. This is my BlackBerry, but I put reminders on my calendar every single day of people I had to touch base with, right? So that I didn't have to remember. I don't have to be superhuman. I'm not. So I reached out and remembered, right? I reminded myself to reach out and ask about Aspen. And then it turned into a repeat visit. It turned into a six top. The six top was almost $2,000. I could literally point to that table and say, I am responsible for those $2,000. And I did this every single night. The other example I give was just about two were coming in for schools, and I made conversation with a, you know, guy at the table. I said, what's going on? How you doing? If we ever met. No. Okay. My name's Chip. What's your name? Perfect. Do you guys live here in the city? Live in the neighborhood. Oh, perfect. Do you have kids? Right, and what came out is, actually, I do. I have a daughter. She just got into Stanford yesterday. And I was like, what? That's amazing. He was obviously on cloud nine. It was top of mind. He couldn't wait to brag about it. It was amazing.
[00:10:26] So what did I do? I kept the conversation going. And I put a reminder in my book, in my phone, in my phone book for November, first week in November, I reached out and I said, you know, and I forget the guy's name. I think it was Todd. I said, hey, Todd, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the maitre d over at this restaurant. We met way back in April. And you were gushing about how your daughter had gotten into Stanford. Number one, how is she enjoying her first semester? Number two, is she coming back for Thanksgiving weekend? Because we'd love to buy you around. You know, we'd love to buy you around a champag, celebrate her first semester. So the guy wrote back, he said, she is. She's loving her first. Like, thanks so much. I can't believe you remembered that. She's loving her first semester. And actually, she is. Coming in.
[00:11:08] We'd love to come join you. We were going to go see the Rockettes. Maybe we'll do that and then come dinner there. Could you fit in an eight top? Can I fit in an eight top? Yeah, absolutely. I'll make way. And again, I could point to that table and say, that was like $2,500 that I made happen.
[00:11:25] Like, I could literally point to it and identify them. The money that I generated.
[00:11:31] All of this is to say, we want to drive more revenue. We drive more revenue because it helps us, pays our bills and helps us be more profitable. Yes, there are all kinds of different ways we can do this. We can market, we can run promotions, send emails, all of that. But another key way is just getting to know the people in your dining room, getting to know the people who are dining with you, and actually having the heart conversations, sticking your hand out, introducing yourself, asking some questions about them. I can't tell you, I give some version of this talk all the time, probably ten times a year. And the number of people that look at me and they say, oh, that's amazing, but I can't do that. That's not what kind of place I have. And it's absolute bs. You can do it. It's all kinds of famous stories about, like, some general manager at Wendy's who does this, some general manager at Burger King who does this. You can do this. I don't care how casual, how rural, how podunk your place is.
[00:12:26] Get to know your people better, engage with them. Show that you care. Even if you have to remind yourself to care down the line. Because when I was doing this, night after night after night after night, I can't remember everybody and I can't remember to do this. It's not how my brain works. I'm guessing for many of you, it's not how your brain works. So remind yourself to reach out. You say, I know I want to do this and I'm reaching out to make this happen.
[00:12:52] Then do it. It's so easy just by engaging. That's how you can make more money.
[00:12:59] So that's it, guys. That's what today's story is. That's those two stories all illustrating the same point. If you want to do more business, you have to care more than the next place. And I promise you, by asking questions, by shaking hands, by looking people in the eye, you will prove to them that you care more than the place next door or the place down the street.
[00:13:19] That's it. Another reminder, the Restaurant Profitability Summit happens in October in Minneapolis. Only 200 spots. A little more than half of them are already gone at the time of this recording. The link is in the show notes. Go get. Go secure your spot. Grab your tickets. Either general admission or VIP are available. Go do that. And I look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis. Appreciate you making time for this show. Appreciate you guys giving me a listen. And I will see you next time. That's Sam.
