I was privileged to sit down with Wes Aiken from @Schedulefly.  The people at Schedulefly are doing amazing things for the restaurant industry.  I cannot thank Wes enough for taking time from his busy schedule.

This is a must read for restaurant owners! Enough of me yapping, lets get to the interview:

1.  I know what it has taken to develop UrbanBacon, and we still have light years to accomplish.  Can you tell me the story behind Schedulefly and what are you guys looking to accomplish?

You bet! Since 1998 I had been developing software applications for clients at 3 consulting companies in Raleigh NC.  I learned a lot about systems analysis and design and delivering software to customers – but something was missing and I was burning out.  I was tired of starting over each time from scratch.  I was tired of the daily meetings and slow release cycles.  I was thinking about ideas for my own product – a web application I could create and sell to people over the Internet – something useful.  I was watching others do this – and I was fully capable of building something people could use.  I just needed an idea.

I had a few ideas – the one I kept coming back to was a tool for restaurants to use to schedule their staff.  This idea was interesting because I had been a waiter for more than 5 years while in college (The Bridgetender in Wrightsville Beach NC).  I created the schedule for 40 servers (all college students).  It was on paper – so were the time off requests – and it was miserable.  The memory of getting calls all week from guys telling me when they could or could not work drove me crazy.  The calls after it was posted were worse.  All of them had terrible handwriting – so the paper requests required follow up phone calls.  As a non scheduling waiter – I would drive to the restaurant on Sunday night to see when I worked for the upcoming week – or mid week to swap a shift and get manager approval.  Really?  We did that?  It was so clear that I could help the industry with a really simple system.  I knew how to write software and I had a concrete example of a real business problem that needed solving.  So in 2005 I quit my consulting job and I wrote the first line of code.  3 months later I put on some real clothes (got out of my pajamas) and set out to show it to some friends who owned restaurants.

Over the next 2 years a couple of restaurants and a retail shop used Schedulelfly while it ran in my closet.  I had gone back to consulting to help my wife keep the lights on and ended up spending most of my time with a client name First Research.  First Research eventually hired me as head of technology.  While at First Research – I would occasionally get a call about Schedulefly being down – from my 3 non-paying “customers”.  Usually it was because power had gone out at our house during a snow – or the cleaning service had accidentally unplugged the server while dusting.  It was fine – they didn’t pay me and it wasn’t really a business yet.  An interesting thing was happening though.  They started to rely on it.  They got used to it and their staff absolutely loved it.

In 2007 my boss at First Research, Tyler Rullman, asked me what my plans were for Schedulefly and was I interested in turning it into a business. I had no plan.  I mean – here is a guy with a Harvard degree who helped turn First Research into a multi-million dollar business.  Now he is asking me if he can be an owner of Schedulefly and try to sell it to restaurants.  Are you kidding?  The business was incorporated, we setup a free trial system and Tyler began emailing, calling and visiting restaurants to try and get them to give it a whirl.  They did – and a few started paying us. By the way – Tyler still does this today.

In 2008 – I left First Research and joined Tyler full time and soon after that a principal at First Research, Wil Brawley, joined us as well.  Wil leads our sales and business development efforts.  He is like a college football coach – lots of hand waving and yelling and passion for what we are trying to do.  Its awesome!  The 3 of us own Schedulefly and are now pouring our hearts into this business and are working hard to make customers happy.  During the past 2 years the product has come along way (thanks to great feedback) but the ease of use has not been compromised.  It’s still simple to use.  We know because our users tell us that.  All of our customers tell us they love our software because it’s easy to use.  Our plan is to continue acquiring customers while creating more awareness about our technology in the restaurant industry.

2.  You mentioned that Schedulefly is “the antithesis of corporate guys.”  Can you elaborate a bit on your culture?

We enjoy this business model and we know that keeping everything we do simple will allow us to continue to focus on our customers and making our software better.  We do not have a lot of overhead and fancy offices so we can invest the money we make today back into our product. We work wherever we want to work and wherever we feel inspired.  Inspiration is critically important.  I feel strongly that everyone on our team must be inspired every day to do something great.  We enjoy alone time and we work best in quiet places.  We are not looking to hire dozens of employees.  We do not want to lease a large office with a water cooler.  We would prefer not to have many meetings and certainly do not want to have to hire people that manage other people.  We are not corporate guys.

The 3 of us enjoy what we do immensely.  We are passionate about making life easier for our customers.  We love hearing from them and we love to answer them fast.  We also love to be with our families and we love the freedom that owning a business provides.  We believe strongly in a work/life balance and if had to lean one way – we would lean towards life.  This is exactly why we want to keep our product and our business simple.  We work well together, learn from each other and have the same philosophy on business and life.  Keep it simple and make it fun.

3.  It’s no secret, scheduling for restaurant owners is a daunting task.  How do you make that simple?

Your are right – it is a daunting task and the main reason is because they are scheduling people with their own lives.  Scheduling people is not 100% a computer algorithm.  Sure – availability and seniority are variables – but so are unexpected life events affecting the staff, weather changes, personalities that no longer work well together, nightly reservations, expected business, loyal customer’s favorite staff and on and on.  Creating that ideal schedule that makes the restaurant hum day-in and day-out takes effective communication tools and frequent input from everyone on the schedule.  This where we step in and help.  We have built an easy to adopt and use tool that makes it very simple for staff to communicate and ease the pains that I mentioned earlier.  We believe passionately that scheduling restaurant staff effectively is a team effort and a very social process, and that is why we created Schedulefly.

4.  We both talk to tons of restaurant owners.  What are you finding as their overall major concerns?  What do they want?

Funny – I think most of them want us to leave them alone!  Seriously – I think they want what any business wants – to make customers happy so they can grow.  They are laser focused are making sure every customer has a great experience at their restaurant – so they will spread the word and come back.  So the challenge is many of them don’t have time to do anything new.  Getting restaurant owners to listen and invest time in something new is definitely our challenge.  They know that we are here to help – but since (in their mind) we are not directly tied to bringing in more business – we are not a high priority.  What we are doing is new.  Yes – there here have been companies doing this for years – but only a very tiny percentage of restaurants in the world are using web based software to communicate with employees.  Software as a service over the Internet is not mainstream like POS systems are for restaurants – but in time – I suspect it will be.  It will steadily become more clear that what we do is actually helping drive more business because it is freeing management and staff to focus on customers.  We have so many success stories already on how we are helping restaurants operate more efficiently.  We hope, with the help of our customer’s voices, we will continue to create awareness.

5.  Lets shift gears a bit.  I have said before that hotels and airlines have widely adopted social media and the Internet to market their services.  What do you think restaurants can learn from this?  Should they be adopting social media and embracing technology as well?

Yes they should – and they are!  It is amazing what restaurants are doing on Twitter and Facebook. It is changing the way businesses find new customers and it is free (minus the time it takes to use) .  The concept of getting local “fans” and “followers” to engage with you and help you spread the word is much more powerful than blasting out an expensive email.  One of the most important things I’ve learned about our business is that people listen when other people talk about our  business.  If we blast an email out to a list of prospective customers talking about how great your product is – they don’t really care.  Of course we  think it is great!  Until someone that they trust tells them our product is great – they rarely pay attention.  Social media sites like Twitter are enabling restaurants to engage with existing customers and encourage them to share their experience with their friends and family.  Lastly – the real time feedback is pouring in – and if it is not good – restaurants can address it immediately.  In the past – bad news traveled fast and was difficult to address while good news was difficult to spread.  Today – good news is traveling fast and while bad news is as well – it can be addressed quickly.  It will be fun to see how these social platforms evolve to help all businesses in in the coming years.

6.  I know my opinions, but I am curious to hear yours.  What restaurant trends will we see in 2010? (from a technology aspect, not food)

Hmm who knows! It is moving so fast – it is hard to predict.  I do think that restaurants will use web based technology not only to streamline their operations but to learn more about their customers.  CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in the restaurant industry will be big.  With the help of social media tools, restaurants are really beginning to focus on their local following and learn about them.  What are their names?  What did they order last time and who is their favorite server?  A tool that makes it easy to capture and review this kind of information will be huge.  In this economy – people are not traveling and vacationing as much – so building a local following is key to survival.  Similar to how grocery stores use a VIC card to learn about the buying habits of their customers – restaurants will begin to do this as well.  In fact – I just took a quick break from this interview to jot down some notes on a super simple new idea!

7.  Last, and totally off topic.  Vacation:  Beaches or Mountains?:)

Definitely the beach!  My office is 10 minutes from the saltwater marshes of the Cape Fear Coast – so our vacations are usually “stay-cations”.  When not working I enjoy fishing surfing and boating with my family.  Being near the saltwater inspires me in many ways – but mostly I am inspired to grow a successful business that will allow us to stay here for a long time…

A big thanks goes out to Wes for all your help.  Let us know if we can help in the future.  Also, check out their blog here!

It’s no secret, chain restaurants are ultra successful business models.  They work.  They work extremely well.  Have you ever asked why?

Look, we are not promoting large corporate chains.  We love local restaurants and bars!  Helping every local restaurant in this country is our goal.  That doesn’t mean we can’t analyze chain restaurants and learn from them.

In 1955, Ray Kroc started a little chain hamburger joint called McDonald’s…maybe you heard of them?  McDonald’s was an instant classic.  You can read their story here.

The success of McDonald’s did not happen overnight.  Two brothers wanted to streamline their small hamburger stand for efficiency.  They started drawing out the flow of their kitchen on a tennis court.  Everything was strategically placed to maximize efficiency and consistency.  Then they took it a step farther.  They developed an in-depth how-to manual that someone in high school could follow.  Viola, fast food is born!

Here are 5 strategies independent restaurants can learn from McDonald’s:

You MUST Plan Operations

What is the major success behind McDonald’s?

Operations…

Every chain and fast food restaurant has copied this pattern:  Build an in-depth infrastructure that is highly efficient and consistent.  Independent restaurants rarely take the time to develop a solid manual.  You need to develop charts, manuals, and how-to pictures for the staff.  These should be set as “guidelines” for your staff to follow.  Post these charts directly in the kitchen for quick reference.

I know it sounds like a ton of work, and I am not suggesting you run a Nazi Regime.  In the end, you are still running a business.  Imagine how streamlined your business will run.  Fast food adopted these strategies to pump out a consistent product.  Your independent restaurant can enjoy the same success if you take the time.

Consistency is Key!

Why do millions of people go to McDonald’s everyday?  Two reasons:

• You know what your getting
• The price is right

People visit McDonalds everyday based on expectations.  Do they think the food is amazing?  Not likely…but they expect it to taste the same every time.  This level of expectation keeps people coming back.

Chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday, Applebees, or Friday’s post in their kitchen how-to photos of entrees directly on the line for cooks.  When your kitchen is slammed, it is much easier to look at a picture and duplicate it.  Chef Gordon Ramsey also uses this method on the show Kitchen Nightmares.  Take the time to develop how-to photos and post them on your line.  The more consistent your product, the more customers will consistently come back.

Show me the Money!

McDonalds offers an extremely affordable dollar menu.  Guess what, you’re not McDonalds.  That doesn’t mean you cannot offer affordable alternatives.

The NRA listed local foods as the hottest trend in 2010.  Organics and healthy choices are also predicted to be big this upcoming year.  Take advantage, offer a reasonable lunch menu and emphasize your local support.  Most people will pay the extra dollar for something local and amazing.  You don’t have to offer a dollar menu, but a limited lunch menu for $6.99 is right on target.

Are you an Owner, or Employee?

When Ray Kroc evolved the McDonald’s Brother’s Operations into a nationwide franchise, he never looked back.  The operations manuals were set in place.  McDonald’s could teach a monkey to sell hamburgers, and people will buy them.

A big problem with owners is they still take on the responsibility of an employee.  They want to oversee the kitchen everyday.  They are constantly monitoring the floor.  Are you an owner, or an employee?

With solid operations and guidelines set in place, your manager can handle daily work.  I understand not all restaurants are big enough or even set goals like this.  But if  your goal is to open multiple restaurants and expand, than you must act like a CEO.

By setting a solid system and letting managers handle the daily work, you are free to focus on expansion.  Things like marketing, financial duties, and business opportunities.  This is the only way your business will grow.  Put the trust into your plan, and focus on expansion.  It was certainly a profitable model for Ray Kroc.

Do you Realize Curbside Potential?

It’s no secret, I used to work at a Ruby Tuesday’s.  They do a curbside to-go service, it’s basically carryout without the McDonald’s drive-thru window.  The customer orders ahead, drives up, and their food is brought to them.  This accounted for probably 25-35% of our business.  Do you realize how much business opportunity is there?

Designate one server as your curbside server.  They will take all phone orders and ring them in.  This also puts them in charge of gathering utensils, napkins, and food.  Have them run it out to cars as they pull up to your restaurant.  Most servers won’t mind doing this because people generally tip for curbside.  Promote your curbside menu across all social media platforms.

McDonald’s has drive-thru and Ruby Tuesday has curbside.  The goal is to move more products.  Learn from these chains and start promoting a curbside service.

What do you guys think?  Can independent restaurants learn from McDonald’s?  Leave your comments below!

Where is the one place every guest visits?  If you think it’s the bar, think again.  We are all human, we all use the bathroom.  Are you utilizing this super secret advertising spot?

Think about it.  Your restaurant is a busy atmosphere.  People are preoccupied with food, friends, and drinks.  They rarely pay attention to advertisements for upcoming events.  Bars are notorious for restroom advertisements.  Beer/Liquor labels usually provide them with free promotions.

So how does a fine dining restaurant adopt this strategy without looking too much like a bar?  Here are 4 simple tips to using bathroom advertising:

1. Packaging is EVERYTHING!

You are a restaurant, not a bar.  The typical Budweiser poster board with your specials in black type is tacky.  You have to class it up.

Hire someone to create simple and classy designs.  Frame them and hang in front of urinals, bathroom stall doors, and on top of the toilet.  These are places people stare while using the restroom.  It sounds simple, but VERY effective.

Wildflower Restaurant in St. Louis, MO uses this approach.  On top of their toilets is a small framed ad promoting their “Country Club Fried Chicken” on Sunday nights.  The owner Phil has adopted this strategy with great success.  He is very innovative at making simple advertising concepts work effectively.  Take notes.

2. The Best Advertising is Free Advertising

It honestly kills me to see restaurants advertising with traditional media.  It’s so expensive!  How do you afford $300-$1000 on a small print ad?  How many people actually pay attention?  Face it, your ROI on traditional advertising sucks.

A major concern of most restaurant owners is getting more customers.  Why not rehash your current customers?  They are already in your restaurant.  If the experience is awesome, they are more likely to come back.  Die hard patrons keep the lights on and your survival depends on them.  It’s free to offer them an incentive to come back.  Placing upcoming events in your bathroom is a sure fire way to keep them coming back.  Best of all, it’s FREE!

3. Make Your Copy Short, Billboard Style

If you have little experience in writing copy, visit Copyblogger.  You’re selling an incentive to come back.  Make it short and to the point.

Think about billboards.  How do they advertise?  A billboard only has a few seconds to get the point across.

Bottom Line:  Say more with less.

4. Secret Ninja Move:  Go Digital, Everyone is Doing it!

Want to know the super secret technique for bathroom advertising?

Go Digital.

Digital picture frames are now wireless, and that’s freaking awesome. Mount them in front of urinals, bathroom stalls, or next to the sink.  Make sure to secure them so nobody steals them.  Cover them with Plexiglas to protect the screens and make the ads change every 10-15 seconds. Have a graphic designer create a handful of advertisements.  Elance is great for outsourcing cheap graphic design.

Now you can stream multiple advertisements directly from your in house computer.  The frames are classy and look nice.  They will attract eyes, and keep customers coming back.

What do you guys think?  Are there other underused advertising opportunities?  Start the discussion below!

I love talking with restaurant owners through social media.  Over this past year, I discovered the 2 deepest secrets that most restaurant owners fear:

1.  Keeping staff motivated, consistent, and happy.

2.  Getting or maintaining a repeat customer base.

We can view this from 2 different business viewpoints:  Operations and Marketing.  Here are 2 quick tips to kiss these fears goodbye, forever.

1.  Jump Start Your Operations

Your daily operations involve cleaning the line, ordering food, sweeping floors, rolling silverware, and stocking the bar.  These are things you rely on your staff for assistance.  Keeping them motivated, consistent, and happy is the heart of your business.

Daily operations also falls into the category of consistency.  Your food must be consistent.  I cannot stress the importance of this factor.  How would you feel about a restaurant where the food is hit or miss?  Would you constantly go back?

A lack of consistency brings bad reviews, kills motivation, and makes your staff unhappy for multiple reasons (lack of tips, constant server/kitchen bickering, complaining customers, over comp meals, etc).

It takes planning…

Without proper planning, your restaurant will fail.  You need to lay out ALL operations in written charts so every staff member understands their duties.  Structure the charts in the form of check lists.  Post them directly in your kitchen so they are highly visible for quick reference.  This should also include how-to pictures for line cooks.  Have your manager run down the check list before each staff member can clock out.   Nothing should be left for interpretation.

Planning = Success = Happiness

Yes.  Your staff will complain at first.  As humans, we drag our feet to make changes.  But once the new routine is learned, we all reap the benefits.  This begins with solid planning for daily operations.

On a side note, don’t be an a-hole to your staff.  In general, most restaurant workers have fun with their jobs.  Present the new operations manuals and standards in a fun way.  Help and reward them.

2.  Marketing is Dead, Sort Of…

From a traditional standpoint, yes…but successful marketing is not dead, just different.  The game has changed.

What is successful marketing?

You are a restaurant.  Your in the hospitality industry.

Since when did radio ads, tv commercials, billboards, or print ads demonstrate hospitality to your customers?  Talking to people is your business.  Traditional advertising helps promote awareness, but is it a successful marketing strategy?

No.

You need to engage your community.  Get local and focus on who lives in your city.  That is why the internet is a PERFECT platform for restaurant marketing.  Not to mention, traditional advertising is outrageously expensive.  Stop believing MORE ads = MORE customers.  Get out there and start actively building relationships!

What does it mean to “Engage the Community?”

By engage, I mean talk to them.  Get online where most of your consumers are.  Be active on local forums, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.  This is branding from a hospitality standpoint.  Local restaurants survived for decades by engaging people in their small communities.  The internet has made that process simple.

Remember:  you are building a local community of die-hard patrons.  These patrons will assure the success of your business.  Actively meet them without shoving countless ads down their throats.

As restaurant owners/managers, what do you guys fear?  What are your concerns?  How do you handle Operations?  Marketing?  Leave your comments below!

photo credit

My name is Phil Novara, owner of UrbanBacon.  Consider this our internet handshake:)

I originally wanted to jump into social media and restaurants, but decided against it.  A background story is more appropriate for our first post:

Who am I?

Imagine a small boy with dreams of becoming a famous chef.  That’s me.  Helping my mother create home-style dishes everyday, constantly wanting to help.

At 15 I started washing dishes.  Late hours scrubbing and scrubbing for maybe $5.15/hr.  Not the most glamorous job, but I was in the kitchen.

From there I’ve rocked fine dining, wineries, and even pizza delivery.  Hell, I even slummed it at Ruby Tuesday (nothing wrong with that:)!

After deciding against pursuing a professional chef career, I found a new love.  People and marketing.  I was college bound working waiter jobs for money.

At 23 I graduated Mizzou and left the restaurant world to pursue a “career.”  That’s what every college graduate does, right?

One problem:  I find myself daydreaming of going back to the food industry.  Could you sit chained to a desk all day crunching numbers?

Along Came UrbanBacon

So here I sit.  At a desk.  Crunching numbers…

For 8 years I have worked in the food industry, helped my mother open 2 successful restaurants, and had developed a love for marketing/media.

I started thinking:   “How can I get back to what I love?  How can I find the best happy hours, local foods, and live bands in my city?  How can I help restaurants with marketing?”

UrbanBacon is born!

Ultimately, I want to help you guys win.  I want to put every local restaurant on the map.  It’s my way of getting in the industry from a different perspective.

What is this Blog About?

I am not hiding anything, UrbanBacon is a pay service for restaurants.  But I want this blog to function separately from that.  This is a home for people involved in the food industry.

This blog is a place to discuss trends, social media, and how technology can help your restaurant.  Feel free to praise or disagree=)

What to do NOW!

Start looking around.   Leave comments and start the discussion.  I am excited to hear from everyone involved in the restaurant industry:)

Thanks,

Phil Novara

P.S. —If you guys have any questions, hit me up:

Phil Novara

Email:      phil@urbanbacon.com

Twitter:  @UrbanBacon