Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @Restaurant_Lady. Misty Young is known for her relentless approach to systems development in restaurant marketing, leadership, financials, operations and service. She is also the author of the award winning book, From Rags to Restaurants. Named Author of The Year, Misty is a tried and tested professional. Her own multimillion dollar restaurant chain, the Squeeze In, now has 4 locations. While working for years IN the business, Misty also studied, developed and implemented systems and worked ON the business “nights, weekends and holidays”. The company has just completed the franchise development process and has launched national franchising activities. For more info visit mistyyoung.com
SmallBizLady: You’ve been making money AND expanding your restaurants in “this economy” what’s been your secret?
Misty Young: I’m about leadership: I focus on people. There are only two types in any business: those paying and those getting paid. In the restaurant, without guests and well-trained associates, you don’t have a business. I believe in leadership: accountable growth and development for associates, managers and owners. I don’t hope and pray for business success, instead, I use another 4-letter word: PLAN. I keenly focus on operations, efficiency and numbers. I plan, track, measure and repeat what works and toss what doesn’t. In a process of continuous refinement, we tune up, hone in and dial down to profitability and success. I’ve worked with my team for the last 10 years to develop all these aspects together, building a brand of consistency, service, training and a great guest experience, which has been the ultimate answer to why we’ve been able to grow in “this economy.”
SmallBizLady: How do you get your associates to “well-trained” and, how do you know it’s working?
Misty Young: It starts with our “SuperStar Hiring Profile.” We’re intentional about hiring: We don’t find awesome people by chance. Our managers are “Formatted” through intensive, multi-media training, held accountable through tests, quizzes, checklists, structured reading and other assignments and performance evaluations. We expect and hold managers accountable to doing the same formatting with their associates: servers, hosts, prep cooks, dishwashers, line cooks. Every position has a job description and a detailed position-training manual, with checklists and sign offs for live-in-person training. On top of all that, we review guest surveys every single day and use what we learn for two purposes: doling out praise and compliments, and, when needed: more training! I believe if you’re not refining, you’re declining! You’ve got to continually upgrade your training and hold folks accountable in a structured, diligent approach.
SmallBizLady: You’re a mom and pop restaurant company, how do you have time to do daily surveys? Isn’t that inefficient?
Misty Young: Surveys are an extremely valuable tool we use in our restaurant – we hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. We don’t use old school cards on tables though. Our EggHead Breakfast Club loyalty program is the key to our success. In the EggHead Breakfast Club, where guests have opted in to be part of our marketing and follow up, selected guests receive a survey by email after a visit to one of our four restaurants. On average, we receive back 30-50 surveys daily and have used the information to retool the menu; change recipes; praise and/or train staff; improve our guest experience and more. Essentially, the surveys are like the equivalent of dozens of secret shoppers coming in to our businesses every day, I’d call that ultimate efficiency!
SmallBizLady: Do you think every small business should have a loyalty program?
Misty Young: It doesn’t matter what kind of business you’re running: Without a house list, you’re at a disadvantage. You’d be surprised the level of detail and private information your customers will share with you if you just ask – and respect their privacy by keeping it confidential. We’ve had a birthday club since 2007. Disney started theirs a couple of years later. The point of a loyalty program is to get people who pay you to opt in and get you in their mailbox and their life. Your goal is to grow a herd of frequent spenders then lock them in by building an iron fence of loyalty around them. Through opt-in, a great loyalty program helps you become a welcome guest, not an annoying pest. We’ve gone from zero members to nearly 70,000 people waiting to hear from us regularly. That’s POWER!
Today’s consumer is inundated with marketing messages. When they opt-in to your list, when they’ve given you permission, they’re demonstrating their trust in you. You’ve got to earn that trust with relevant, meaningful information delivered to them where they are: home, office, online, mobile. A great loyalty program helps businesses gain trusted status, remember, it’s about PEOPLE!
The company I partner with for my loyalty program offers a FREE $5,000 90-Day Marketing Jumpstart! Get it at http://www.youronesimplething.com and bizwin is the password.
SmallBizLady: How do you create a loyalty program that works? What are some best practices?
Misty Young: Don’t do a loyalty program just to have a loyalty program. Do a loyalty program to make money! For a loyalty program to be successful, the owner of the business must be committed to it. If you institute a program and aren’t inherently thrilled with it, your staff will be half-hearted. If your database isn’t clean and updated and if your offers aren’t good, your customers won’t be engaged and interested. The truth is, if your customers think your program sucks, then it sucks. Don’t let it suck! Be diligent and focused on loyalty as a crucial part of your own media mix. Join other programs to see how they work, learn their terms & conditions. Be sure every single person on your team knows EXACTLY how you want the program pitched. Make your pitch easy and your program free – no one wants to pay to get marketed to. Offer a special incentive or perk for becoming a member and act quickly to fulfill!
SmallBizLady: Besides growing a marketing database, what are some other specific ways to use a “house list?”
Misty Young: You can use your list to raise money. We’ve raised well over $100k by reaching out with special offers to our best guests. I use the house list to send personal, handwritten thank you cards. I’ve used the list to invite people to special member’s only events and parties. Once you’ve begun to build your list, you can parse the data out in any number of ways to identify who is your best customer, your most frequent visitor, who has STOPPED coming to your business and who has special days you want to recognize. You can use your list to determine the Lifetime Value of a Guest and that certainly informs your marketing!
You’re a florist? Wouldn’t you want to target newly married men and help them remember their anniversary? Wife’s birthday? Mother-in-law’s birthday? A loyalty program can become a service you provide to your members, not just a marketing tool. The bottom line is, a list, a database, kept clean, updated and relevant is a critical component to doing business in today’s competitive environment. Savvy small businesses use a database coupled with earned and owned social media to stay top of mind with customers. Finally, if members of your loyalty program have gone inactive, this is a deeply valuable warm list – people who have done business with you previously – are more likely to do business with you again.
SmallBizLady: You’ve opened the door to one of my all time favorite topics: Social Media. How can any business use it best?
Misty Young: It’s best to take a LEAP: Listen. Engage. Appreciate. Praise. LEAP’s the mark of a great social strategy. I like to talk about the 4S Social Approach: Serve, Serve, Serve, Sell it’s a 3:1 ratio. Businesses with “sell, sell, sell, sell,” social action are dying fast – it doesn’t resonate with people. Remember, it’s about people first. Do you like being assaulted continuously with sales messaging? NO! No one does! Be a good listener, be relevant, engaging and timely and reach people where they are: in social channels. Remember, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Stay active with and influence people through social media!
SmallBizLady: How do you actively build leadership into the day-to-day restaurant operation?
Misty Young: The restaurant is a business, first and foremost, here to make money not friends – BUT WE DO BOTH. We make money when people are happy. In business, as in life, the most important asset we have is PEOPLE. Without people, there’s no business, come to think of it, without people, we’d have no life. Leaders know happy people make other people happy – think associates and guests. If we teach our associates to add value to each other, to add value to guests, to be of service and to be kind and courteous, we’re providing leadership. People don’t follow others by accident; they naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. We demonstrate and encourage respect, growth, momentum, sacrifice, connection and empowerment. We know that leadership doesn’t develop in a day, but through daily development, so we work toward daily development.
SmallBizLady: I’m interviewing a restaurant owner and you haven’t said one single word about food, what’s up with that?
Misty Young: My restaurants are built on a firm foundation of operations and financials. Food is actually 4th on my list! I believe we’ve got to serve reliable products with great service, courtesy and kindness. Consistency is key, both in preparation, recipe and method, presentation and in follow up. Yes the food has to be made to order and in accordance with a recipe and measurements. The food is only one part of the ultimate success of a restaurant, there’s so much more: service, location, consistency, gratefulness, community activity and outreach. When it comes right down to it, we’re in the people business serving breakfast and lunch. Yes, the food has to be delicious, fresh, healthy, safe, beautifully presented and memorable. Yes it has to make the guest happy and the restaurant profitable.
SmallBizLady: What are some important marketing lessons you’ve learned in this decade of restaurant operation?
Misty Young: Marketing is mission critical AND marketing is math. Get your emotional brain out of the equation. Old school paid media is dying fast: Owned (social; newsletters, etc.) and Earned media (PR) is where it’s at. Look outside your own industry for successful marketing tactics and put them to work for you. If you “think” it’s cheesy, pay no mind, do the math. If it works, do more, if it doesn’t scrap it. Measure everything you do in marketing. It’s been said, “little hinges swing big doors” so become a little hinge manufacturer. We grew our herd and fenced them in with an iron cage: we offer exclusive deals for MEMBERS ONLY. We do everything that works and we try everything else. It’s how we do $1m business in each location in 7 operating hours daily: breakfast & lunch. It’s how we’re able to keep building new locations and to franchise this company. We create, test, measure, and start over, repeating those tactics that work and discarding the rest. You’ve got to take action every single day to defeat the deadly FTI Syndrome! Failure to Implement Syndrome is a fully preventable business disease!
SmallBizLady: Financially, how do you make a restaurant successful? Is it the same for all small businesses?
Misty Young: The road to financial success is absolutely the same in virtually every small business: You’ve got to track, monitor and adjust to assure financial health, fitness and profitability. Measure everything: What gets measured and reported improves fastest. Put portion control scoops in your food, or timers on your hotel housekeeping carts. Know your numbers. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pet shop, auto parts store, hotel or hospital, the same exact method applies: Measurement.
In the restaurant, we measure top and bottom line tactics equally. On the bottom line, we measure Prime Cost, which is cost of goods sold + labor. If we measure those two things well and keep focused on them while continuing our top line efforts at marketing and revenue enhancement, we’re destined for success. Former ITT Chairman, Harold Geneen, said, “The difference between well-managed companies and not-so-well-managed companies is the degree of attention they pay to the numbers. The key is continuous effort and refining. If you’re a small business person “doing your own financials” just stop RIGHT NOW. Get a CPA, hire a CFO, get your numbers under control and your business will succeed that much faster.
SmallBizLady: You’re known for your leadership and spiritual approach to doing business successfully, what’s that about?
Misty Young: I believe there’s plenty of business to go around and plenty of people to serve in every capacity. I help everyone I can in every way I can, “competitors” and friends alike. I believe there’s tremendous energy in saying please and thank you and in reaching out to work with others who may not have the same skills I do. I never hesitate to offer assistance. I think that’s what leaders naturally do in any case, and, I believe it’s the way the Universe expects us to behave, as if there is abundance and plenty. Gratitude and love have worked for me that way my whole life, and even to a greater magnitude in business. I didn’t do it as a strategy, but discovered as I went along that gratitude opened doors. Love made everything feel better and made all things possible. There’s a big connection between love, action, gratitude, trust, honesty and leadership and I’m the great connector!
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Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is America’s #1 small business expert. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. She writes a weekly column on social media for The New York Times. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works and the ebook: How To Become A Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online.