Service Scientist - restaurant business

HOW TO STOP THROWING YOUR DRAUGHT BEER. Some motivational instruments can even reduce your cost. Many bars have the same sore point: the souring of beer. When our BeerBarrel bar had been transformed into , we still had to keep 3 sorts of draught beer. And it was sour sometimes. Then we changed the sorts which can be supplied in 15-20 liters kegs. Still it soured.
And at that time the law which prohibits selling alcohol after 23 hours was implemented. But waiters and chefs like to relax after the shift with a glass of good drafted beer. And now they are not allowed to buy it after work

So we decided to let them take beer after their shift. The rules are next:
🍺An employee has a day off tomorrow
🍺Beer he takes at cost price after the bar is closed
🍺An employee pays for a plastic bottle at cost price (we have the button in the system “Plastic bottle”)
🍺An employee closes his bill on his personal button. So he doesn’t pay at the moment, and this process is not the sale

And the benefits are next:
😀Beer had stopped to become sour. Beer is always fresh, because if the guest didn’t finish the keg in time, employees do it
😀Employees are happy as they can relax at home with a glass or two of quality Czech beer while reading or watching a good movie

And as far as we talk about savings on beer: when the first customer orders beer, bartender must shed the first portion out. This portion is a beer which was in a hosepipe. And this beer becomes sour during the night. And I was so surprise when discovered that many bars don’t do it! It means that their first customer gets disgusting product! These spills bartender writes down into the special journal on a daily basis. And before it was 300-500 ml from each beer tower. “A lot!” I was thinking🤔. I looked down the bar counter and discovered that hosepipes are too long! I asked a technician of our supplier to come and to make all hosepipes from kegs to towers shorter. After that beer offs reduced to 200-250 ml per sort. Now, please, calculate, how much we saved within a year.

Finally, when you decide which price/cost you want for beer, remember that you don’t sell 100% of beer in a keg, but only 80-90% depending on how often you change a keg and if each sorts is in daily demand. The rest 10-20% of beer is your lost and cost.

DURING THE LAST 15 YEARS I WAS NEVER ASKED BY THE GUESTS “HOW THE WHISKEY IS PRODUCING?” wrote one of our followers in the comments to my post about how our waiters learn the product (they watch videos). And he is absolutely right. A guest never asks this. But why our waiters watch the videos from the producers?
So, what guest will ask? He wonders: “You have selection of Scotch. All of them are 12 years old. Which one should I choose? What is the difference between them?”. And here 99.9% of waiters and bartenders say: “The difference is in the region. And in a cask. This whiskey is from the Islay and was aged in the new cask. And another is from Highlands and was aged in the cask from sherry and bourbon”. And then employees are very proud of selves. They know so much details! But at the end of the day a guest still wonders: “So what? This is after sherry, another is from virgin cask. What this difference gives to the taste? Which one will suite my preferences?”.

I’ll tell you what. You ask me to make you friends with one of my girlfriends. I say: “I have 2 ladies who are agree to meet you”. You ask: is the difference between them? Which one will I like?”. I answer: “They differ in age and tall”. After all, one is 13 years old and is 197 cm, another is at the age of 68 and her tall is 140 cm. No one is the perfect match for you. So why we watch these videos from the producers?

We watch the videos because they give the answers to “so what?”. For example, from a video a waiter learn that the cask (wood) gives to the drink its rich smell and aroma. If we put whiskey into a new cask, the cask will give all it has to the drink. If bourbon was in a cask before, it took already a lot from a wood, because bourbon is strong and reactions go fast. If sherry was in a cask before, such cask still have something to give to the next drink, because sherry is not really strong and change between wood and sherry was not so intensive. You see? Which whiskey will have richer taste and smell and which one will be, in opposite, more elegant and simple?

Here we have the second advice on how to learn the menu. You will never learn how Macallan differs from Bowmore until you taste both during you watch the climate, land, the process of distillation and ageing of both. Also, you taste, watch, listen (and write), all your senses are at work. After that you will learn by heart and for a long time, which one is smoother and WHY. This is exactly what a guest wants to know about it.

Please, feel free to comment and give us new insights.

Who are they - the perfect match? Me and my husband - generator + doer😉 usually I have plenty of ideas (not of them are adequate). But if my husband likes any of my good idea, he will be the one who will care it through. Methodically. Without crashing. man said the man did.

I decided to start morning workouts? After one week I was in bed again. But he continued to exercise. I had started the "Japanese" diet? The next week I already had not complied the ration. But Andrey brought it to a close.

And the insight came upon me! My inner Broad pretty often grumbles at my husband: "oh, look, he's watching a soccer game, better would read some book about the restaurant business" etc. Lucky me, that in most cases she does this in silence. Hey, but who considers self as a Muse? Therefore, so "inspiring" are the ideas and a generator herself😂

A doer cannot succeed without a generator and vice versa. So, lucky me again, that my half doesn't have lots of ideas and wishes. When the two in couple just fount - who will implement??? Exactly such a bright couples usually are in the *ss to the middle of life.

Or look at 2 doers. Surprisingly, how come they are not lazy, they are smart, volitional, all the time are in action, but are also in the *ss. Because no one ignites. Flat, calm and a bit dull life .

But if a generator can be transfered into doer? Or doer into a generator? Hardly. Of course, I work on my will and force myself to finish what had been planned. But at the end of a day I quickly lose all the interest and only push myself.

It is interesting to read the memoirs of historical figures: who were they and their spouses?

And in your relationship who are you and who is your partner? A generator or a doer?

Recently had discovered that Toyota forces their designers to apply fake long nails when they design car models ladies-oriented. To be sure that a customer will enjoy 100% comfort. Interesting, if Lada does the same with mittens-on for Russian -25C?

Test your product or service from your customer point of view.

Once I made a control purchase for a cakes maker. I put my baby down, took off my backpack, fished out a wallet and a card, made a payment. Put a wallet and a backpack on the place. Took a baby on the hands. And here realized that I need a plastic bag for the box of cakes. Such a small thing but how annoyingly! Is it difficult to train your sellers to offer a bag BEFORE the payment is done?!

I make a call to a cosmetology clinic. And first I have to listen long advertisement of their stomatology. This is understandable that the clients of cosmetology trust the company. And as a result of this trust may easy become the stomatology client. But what about those who doesn't need a stomatology but has to listen this almost a year?

The same with some restaurants: you call to book a table, but instead of the restaurant you are refered to the multi-chanel number. And there you again spend 40 sec until you get the desired internal number.

📍Loyalty means how well you understand your client. When you put yourself in his place and think: if my service is comfortable? If it is not disturbing? If it is convenient and helps to care about my client?

Please, do not lose your customers by too agressive promotion of your complementary services