The New Style Facebook Pages - How to use for Restaurants, Pubs and Hotels

On Thursday 10th February 2011 Facebook launched their new Pages layout. 
Restaurants, Pubs, Hotels and Local food business will benefit from the new style Facebook Pages but after speaking to a few Restaurant owners and Page Administrators over the weekend it seems there is some confusion and no time to learn the new Page set up.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be covering best practices in preparation for the migration to the new page layout on the 1st March.


This is the first in a series of posts - 
The New Style Facebook Pages - How to use for Restaurants, Pubs and Hotels
- Covering the new layout

Here is the link to the new Facebook for Pages manual. It explains how to use Pages but it's not that clear or detailed so I'll go over the main changes today and follow on with how you can benefit as a restaurant, pub or hotel using these benefits in later posts.


New Layout

Facebook launches a major re-design and expansion of functionality of its Pages for businesses, brands, media, and public figures which includes Pubs Restaurants and Hotels. 

Navigation and Tabs

The Page layout will now match the December user profile redesign with a left-hand navigation menu replacing the tabs above the wall. As tabs are no longer front-and-center, the redesign could reduce the frequency with which users visits tabs other than the default landing tab.

      

Photo Strip

Similar to the redesigned user profile, Pages have a Photostrip above the wall that displays the latest photos the Page has tagged itself in. However, the five thumbnails appear in a different order upon each reload. The profile picture is slightly reduced in size from 200 x 600 pixels to 180 x 540. The About blurb has moved from the wall tab to the info tab.

Mutual Friends and Interests
Users will also see a mutual friends and interests panel on the top right displaying the friends who also Like the Page, and the Likes the user and the Page have in common. 


You can now post as "you"
When logged in as yourself you can now comment on your business page and update your status as you, not just as your page.


Pages can Like other Pages
"Likes". Pages will have the option to Like other Pages, not just favorite them, and feature them on their own page. When logged in as your page you will also be able to post on other pages walls as your page and see their updates in your page's news feed. 


“Page Owners”. Links and profile pics of these Likes and admins can be made visible below the navigation menu and reordered through the new “Featured” section of the Edit Page admin interface.

Notifications and Email alerts

Page admins, when logged in as their Page, from the Account drop-down menu in the top right corner of Facebook will give them access to Facebook and email notifications about activity on their Page, and other options.

Facebook admins can now turn on email notifications to alert them to activity on their Page through the “Your Settings” tab of the Edit Page admin interface.

Wall posts - re-ordered

Page admins can select between an “Everyone” and a "Page posts only" default tab for the wall. Instead of showing a reverse chronological stream of posts, the Everyone tab shows users posts Facebook thinks will be the most relevant. Recent posts by fans and posts that have received a lot of Likes and comments will bubble to the top. You can change to Page posts only which will be in a more chronological order but I feel we should be allowing posts from our fans to be shown, after all Facebook should be a two way conversation!

There are more tips and tricks with the new Page set up which I'll share with you too a bit at a time so you can get used to them rather than all in one go. You may have already figured some of them out :)

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions you may have either here on the blog or on my Facebook Page

Encourage Online Hotel Reviews - Writing a Thank you Email

If you’re not actively encouraging online hotel / restaurant reviews yet, it’s a great practice and very simple to start doing so. 


Any time someone says something positive about your hotel or your restaurant or you get an e-mail with some positive feedback, you should have some sort of a system for asking these people to share their experiences with others online.


There are some simple strategies to achieve this which we will cover today but before you rush in and try to encourage reviews you should ensure you are offering all your customers an experience over and above what they would expect, you need to be WOWing them - be Remarkable. Create a guest experience that compels your guest to go online and write a review. Also DO NOT over promise - by this I mean if you are an Inn, pub with rooms, guest house or BandB promote yourself as such, please don't promote yourself as a hotel if you are not. Promoting yourself in the right way will make it easier for you to exceed traveller's expectations. In the same view do not under sell yourself either, it's all about getting the balance right. Ensure you train your staff to exceed expectations and when you receive a review (online or email / letter etc.) ensure every member of your staff knows about it. Staff will then feel proud and go that extra mile.


Compose an Email template
One example of how to encourage reviews for your hotel is to have an Email prepared to send out to customers who have enjoyed their visit. You should have all your guest's email addresses on file when the booking is taken so this should relatively easy.


Example email:
Hello NAME,

Thank you for choosing (HOTEL NAME) for your recent stay in (TOWN / CITY). I was delighted to hear you had an enjoyable time at our hotel.

At your convenience, would you please take a moment to share your experience online with your friends and others on your favorite travel review website?

Is was a pleasure to have you as our guest. We hope to see you again soon.

- STAFF NAME
HOTEL

Direct phone:
Personal email:

See what others have said about our hotel on TripAdvisor:

[TripAdvisor hotel link]

This email is designed to achieve the best results as:

• It comes from an individual person instead of the entire hotel. Response rates typically increase when e-mail comes from one person.
• It’s less about the hotel and more focused on the guest. A guest may not care what is important to the hotel, so we need to position this request as a way for them to share an experience with friends.
• It’s short, so that the message intent is very clear.
• It is not TripAdvisor-specific. It’s more of an invitation for people to talk about us in a manner that suits them best online – whether that’s TripAdvisor, Twitter, or another site.
• It’s good to encourage reviews anywhere the guest prefers.

Should you wish to add your facebook page link if you encourage reviews there feel free to do so. You can also add a link to any other review site you wish but I would certainly keep this to a minimum so as not to confuse the matter.

Next - Don't be shy - ask for reviews. 

This can be a really soft sell which you and your staff will find easy. This can be as simple as printing guest review cards with the link to Trip Advisor and handing out to guests when they check out or finished their meal. A little staff training is all that is needed.

Who can you ask for a review? 

Anyone who has visited and enjoyed their experience. Use the card example above.

All resident guests by sending the email template - you should have their email address

All your social media followers by posting a link to the review site

Anyone who has emailed or written to you saying they enjoyed themselves - send them the email template

Encourage on your website by providing a link to the review site

Why would you want to encourage reviews?

People do tend to check online before booking to find out more - ensure you are found with plenty of great reviews

To move a bad review down the list on sites like Trip Advisor

To encourage your staff to offer remarkable service

To build customer confidence in your business and encourage bookings

The more reviews you have online the more likely you are to be visible on Google Maps / Places in the search engines

To give you something to shout about!

Need more help or advice on how to exceed customer expectations and generate great reviews? Give me a call on 07875 175994 or email marketing@pub-marketing-promotions.co.uk

Cary

Related post - How to respond to negative reviews on Trip Advisor

November can be a great month for Pub and Restaurant sales

Publicans always say November is a bad month for business.

"It's the run up to Christmas and customers just won't come out, they are saving up for the expense to come in December."

My response is give them a reason to come out to your restaurant or pub!

There is so much happening in November but you need to plan ahead and promote your events. November has National Curry Week, Children in Need and British Sausage Week along with Bonfire night. That's at least 3 weeks of November where you can really make some good money but it must be promoted well and you must give the people a reason to spend their money with you. Don't just hang around next November waiting for Christmas to come along and hope for the best.

Planning doesn't just mean decide on an event and write up your A board and maybe an internal poster. There are so many more ways to promote your events.

You need somewhere for customers access ALL the information -

Your website for example. Ensure you have a dedicated page for all future events then a link to a dedicated page for each individual event with dates, times, menu, offer and all details

Use social media to but be sure to keep the momentum, don't just mention it once. Create an event, start competitions, ask questions, write a note, use the discussions page, post photos and so on.

Use your database. Every business should have a database of ALL their customers. You should be emailing events out in the form of a newsletter with links back to your website for all the info and encourage people to follow you on social media. A database needs managing effectively but worth the effort as it really is one of the most important marketing tools you can have.

Printed material. Create a printed version of your newsletter for customers to take away. Maybe, depending on the event, create some flyers and distribute around your local area, ask the local newsagent to put them in their shop or even inside the local newspaper. Ask other local business to distribute too.

Local Press. Now I don't mean pay for an advert, I mean create a great story with an attention grabbing headline that the Journalists will take notice of and print (online and offline) for FREE! Yes they do this... they are always after a good story! 

There are many other ways to ensure your events are a real success and make you some money. The ideas above should be a good starting point. You just need to plan carefully and have a marketing strategy in place.

Need more help and advice? Give me a call 07875 175994 and we can discuss how 2011 can be a great year for you.

Cary

Restaurant customers really don't want lower prices, they want Value

I have long been an opponent of operators using soley vouchers,

bogof/2 4 1 offers and discounts to try and build their businesses

for multiple reasons.

• They accept lower margins as an accepted way of growing the business. 
• They force you to compete solely on price. 
• They focus on short term results. 
• They create a situation (I compare it to a drug addiction) that requires you to constantly seek out bigger better deals in order to simply maintain existing traffic levels, let alone build them. 
• They take away your ability to compete on any perceived value differentiation. 
• You become a commodity in your market area and susceptible to any differentiated brands that exist or enter your market area. 
• You are forced to match competitors pricing without regard to your cost or profit structures. 
• The list goes on and on.

So what's the alternative? I expect it will be asked every time I talk about restaurant marketing to anyone and everyone.

I am going to try outlining the only two restaurant marketing philosophies that exist. And while some may comment that these also apply to most any business or industry, while this may be true, I am a restaurant (food service) consultant and only work with food service operators. I don't care about retail strategies (they don't work in food service) or manufacturing or consumer goods marketing simply because their product and ours is totally different. They sell products, we sell a social experience.

There are only two types of marketing philosophies.

1. Transaction Based Marketing (TBM)

Transaction Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize sales to guests solely through a focus on increasing the number and amount of customer transactions. This can be done through a segmented focus or not. No past,  resent or future relationship with the guest is demanded or leveraged.

This is basically 'push' marketing designed to promote impulse buying through an emphasis on only price. You have an offer or deal (vouchers or discounts) you want to 'push' out to as many people as possible with an expectation that they'll use it thereby driving as much traffic into your business as possible as immediately as possible. This is a short-term tactic and requires more and  better offers or deals to both maintain existing traffic levels and to increase them over the long-term. This type of strategy is also supported by utilizing frequency schemes disguised as loyalty programs wherein the customer accumulates points towards future discounts.

TBM is expensive because it focuses on both aspects of pricing strategy - cost and profit, at the same time. Costs for executing this type of program run between 10 - 20+% of sales or higher due to the actual production costs, medium delivery costs, discount costs and a very important lost opportunity cost for sales and profits that would have occurred if you had not discounted your products but sold them for full price and typically have lower ROI's (return on investment).

An example of this would be an operator who email blasts a 'Buy-1-Get-1-Free' (BOGOF) offer to everyone in his email database. The campaign is focused on a specific menu item or groups of items and is not segmented to go to particular groups within the database that may have indicated an affinity for that particular item or group of items.

2. Relationship Based Marketing (RBM)

Relationship Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize the guest relationship with the business and its brand with a desire to increase the lifetime value (LTV) of each guest instead of a per transaction approach. This type of approach is highly segmented as it attempts to match guests who prefer to interact and develop a deeper and more complex relationship with the brand on a social basis other than price.

These are the guests who desire more perceived real value from the guest experience. They are more social in nature and require that the brands with which they interact offer some degree of social relevance to their lives in order to maintain their patronage and loyalty. The idea being that if you can insert your brand into a guest's life and make it a habit for them to visit you due to a

unique social interaction or situation that can cement them to your brand, it will increase not only frequency but derive true loyalty that leads to increased positive word-of-mouth, buzz and ultimately customer referrals.

Examples of these types of social interactions can be cooking classes, wine tastings, social gatherings (Tweetups), networking or business group meetings, entertainment, family outings, cause (charity) marketing efforts, etc...

Relationship Based Marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to the heavy transaction costs and lower margins associated with TBM and has a much higher ROI. Instead, the focus is on creating a perceived value in the mind of the customer which correlates to similar social preferences or values that the customer holds. No items are discounted and segmentation of the brand's messages is more natural and more aligned with customers social preferences and values. While a great example of this is Social Media Marketing efforts, individual efforts can include promoting local and organic ingredients, healthy menu items, green efforts, a more highly defined food culture or culinary experiences, high profile chef's, premium or unique wines or beverages, greater levels of hospitality, more meaningful personal interactions between

customers and staff or operators, community causes or connections, business associations or partnerships, etc...

Customers really don't want lower prices, they want value.

People still believe, "you get what you pay for". So as the world grows more and more social and each of us requires more value and more interaction with the people and places we interact with, it becomes increasingly necessary for businesses to offer real value in the customer experiences by connecting with customers on a more social level at all touch points possible. Simply using the old voucher and discounting tactics of years gone by does not, in any way, help accomplish the businesses goals of growth and success. Looking at each customer as a transaction instead of engaging them in a real relationship simply doesn't make economic sense any longer and even group and chain exec's are admitting it publicly.

It cheapens the real and perceived value of the product, the service and the business overall and makes it more likely that the customer will not be loyal to anyone other than the business with the lowest price.

Is that the business you truly want?

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

How to beat negative hotel and restaurant reviews

HOW TO BEAT NEGATIVE HOTEL AND RESTAURANT REVIEWS

With more and more people using the internet to decide where to eat, drink and sleep reviews by other guests are playing an increasingly large role. A negative online reputation can severely limit your hotel or restaurant’s ability to succeed today.

If your hotel has received negative reviews, you need a solid action plan to turn them around.

For this particular example we will concentrate on probably the biggest review site, Trip Advisor. There are many other review sites some who will allow you to post management responses, some who won’t. The key is to offer the best possible experience for all guests at all times and to encourage great reviews.

Here are some of the questions I have been asked recently:

·         Can I remove negative reviews?

The answer is no however TripAdvisor lets you start over with a clean slate if there was a change in ownership or a major brand changr, but not if you had had a renovation.

·         Can I get in touch with a guest to resolve a problem?

You can only use their website’s management response function to publish a reply. You may try leaving a customer service phone number to encourage offline resolution.

·         I think a competitor is writing negative reviews.

I recommend you contact Trip Advisor directly, and explain your reason for concern. They may be able to help.

·         Can I ask someone to remove their negative review?

No, Trip Advisor won’t allow this. You’ll need to follow the following steps to improve your reputation.

There are various stages to creating or rebuilding a great online reputation

Stage 1; Find out what people are saying about you.

The quickest and easiest way to do this is by setting up google alerts. You can set these alerts to inform you when you are mentioned and have appeared in google search results.

There are various paid for systems to track your online reputation but Google Alerts are free and easy to set up and knowing what your guests are saying will allow you to take appropriate action.

Stage 2; respond to the reviews.

There are typically 2 types of negative review, those who leave Constructive Criticism and “The Ranters”

Constructive criticism – where a customer may outline a few positive points about their stay and then some negatives. These could be “we had a lovely meal in the restaurant, great service, well priced etc, etc. however when we left the dining room and went to our bedroom the carpet was dirty and the bed very uncomfortable etc, etc. They offer free wifi but the signal is poor and we couldn’t use…. And so on.

The Ranter – When you receive a review which goes something like this “This is by far the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The customer service was dreadful the staff ignorant and the food dreadful etc, etc. Save your money and go somewhere else!”

Trip advisor allows you to respond to reviews 

When you see a bad review it’s so tempting to go on the defensive, get upset and fire a nasty response back. Please don’t do this. It will damage your reputation further than no response at all!

Follow these guidelines for best practice

1.                Thank them for their feedback

2.                Respond to and highlight any positive comments

3.                Apologize for any legitimate bad experience

4.                Explain the actual steps you’ll take to prevent that from happening again

5.                Allow the guest to contact you offline if further discussion is needed

Avoid:

1. Abusive responses, ranting or any type of personal attack
2. Questioning the guest’s legitimacy (yes, fake reviews do happen from time to time, but they can be very difficult to prove and it’s better to avoid this accusation)
3. Offering a discount or free stay/visit as this can indirectly encourage more bad reviews to receive the offer
4. Apologies with no actual details of how you intend to improve or change

“We are sorry to hear about your inconvenience, appreciate your comments and we are happy that you have spoken up so that we can improve. If we don’t hear of our shortcomings we will never know what our valued guests think of us. We will be working diligently to make your experience with us much more enjoyable in the future and look forward to welcoming you back.”

If you had a bad experience at a restaurant or hotel and offered this type of management response would you be satisfied they genuinely wanted to improve? Would you be encouraged to go back? The thing is here there are no specifics!

Stage 3; take action

Marketing will not fix the matter. By simply ignoring what the problems are and trying to attract new guests you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Fix the business first before wasting money on marketing a business that can’t deliver 100%

We have all heard the stats… it cost 6-8 times more to bring in a new customer than to attract an existing customer back. Fix the problems!

“The sink was leaking, wifi was poor, the carpets dirty, the crockery chipped, the staff can’t recommend a wine and so on”. This is not the only customer who has noticed these problems. Fix these problems and inform the customer. Do whatever it takes. Bring in a consultant or designer to assist, a plumber to fix the sink, sort the wifi, clean the carpets if your budget won’t stretch to new, check through all crockery and throw away the rubbish and train or change your staff!

Stage 4: Show how you’ve listened and fixed the problem

So now you have genuinely fixed the problems and acted on the feedback you need to let the guest know you have taken action based on their suggestions.

You should now response on Trip Advisor. Tell the guest exactly what you have done to improve/change with specifics. If these have been full scale changes combine this with other online media you use and consider a press release.

Stage 5: Building the reputation

The Trip Advisor example is defensive mode. You need to create a positive reputation online.

Ask satisfied guests for reviews. Ask them to review your business on sites where you’re struggling the most or the most popular for your business. Start with Trip Advisor.

Social media campaign. You can use facebook and twitter tools for reviews and also suggest comments on your blog.

Register on other review sites. There are plenty out there where you may not be registered

Blogers and journalists. Ask these people to review your business

How is your reputation? What do you actively do to improve? How do you view you online reviews? Are you confident to use them in your marketing material? Do you have the Trip Advisor widget on your website? Your comments are encouraged!

Grow your Restaurant in 30 minute bursts! 40 Top Tips

What can you do with a spare 30 minutes that can lead to extra money for your business? Here are some ideas.

1. Spend a few minutes on the pavement, offering samples to passers-by.
2. Call a competitor to one of your current suppliers. Compare terms and prices.
3. Organise and segment your customers into a coherent contacts list. Separate your best customers. What do they have in common? What do your worst customers have in common? Ok, this might take longer than 30 minutes, but you have to start some time, right?
4. Come up with a promotion that you can run in conjunction with other local businesses. Especially other businesses that target the same sort of people.
5. Create a relevant club or interest group on a social networking site, such as Facebook. Invite good customers to join and give them a reason to invite their friends to join.
6. Start a Twitter account. Learn how to use it effectively.
7. Create a group for you and your staff on a professional networking site, such as LinkedIn. Getting yourself talked about in the industry is good for business.
8. Use video. This could be in your newsletters or on your website. Ideas could be customer testimonials, a recent event, chef’s tutorial or meet the team.
9. Nominate yourself (or get someone to nominate you) for an industry award. Most industries have magazines and many of these host annual awards, i.e. The Publican.
10. Send an SMS message or Email to your customers offering a special deal or advertising an event.
11. Clean your pub front until it sparkles. Locals will notice.
12. As above with the car park.  
13. Do a spot of gardening. Dead head the hanging baskets.
14. Come up with an interesting story about your business for your local newspaper or magazine to print. Ensure you have an attention grabbing headline!
15. Think of a good reason for an industry-specific magazine, such as The Publican, Morning Advertiser or Caterer to write about you. Call them with your story.
16. Add some new content to your website. Perhaps a new event, a new service, a new menu. Customers should have an incentive to visit your site regularly.
17. Find one local or industry-specific online directory that you are not already listed on. There are many of these. Register on it.
18. Search the web for any comments that have been made about you. For example, if you are a restaurant, look at your current rating on Trip Advisor or Top Table. Reply if you can…thank people for good comments and address negative comments. (more on this to follow in another blog post)
19. Put yourself on Google Maps. This will help search engines and pull all your web directory listings and reviews together for customers to see.
20. Call 5 customers of your best customers. Thank them and/or offer them a chance to comment.
21. Come up with a new incentive for your staff to provide good service or upsell.
22. Speak individually to a member of your staff. Ask for their opinion about a job or service that you didn’t directly oversee.
23. Come up with a plan to promote a specific drink or menu item to your customers. Call the supplier of that product and ask them to sponsor your promotion.
24. Call a friend and ask them to act as a mystery shopper.
25. Find a high profile local event, such as an annual ball or dinner, and offer to use your specialist skills to help organise it. You may be able to promote your business to the event audience in return. At the least, you’ll get to network with organisers and audience to raise your local profile.
26. Identify your most influential customers – those who know lots of local people and are well liked or respected. Come up with a good reason for them to talk about you.
27. Arrange a business breakfast for local business where they can network and get to know your business. Make sure you have your brochure to hand out at the end.
28. Collect people’s email addresses. Put a fish bowl on your bar or public area offering a good incentive for people to leave business cards.
29. Eat in your own pub and see the service from a customer point of view. Ensure you keep an open eye to monitor other guest experiences as well as your own.
30. Arrange a staff meeting and get their feedback and ideas.
31. Put up a customer suggestion box. Name and email required (to add to database). Winning suggestion wins a free meal. Customers come up with great ideas.
32. Could do above for family recipe. Family gets to come eat your version of their family favorite.
33.  Enquire about your own signpost with your local council (brown tourist sign).
34. Complete a local B&B/Hotel directory for your customers. Be sure these business recommend you too.
35. Contact a local hotel who doesn’t have an evening restaurant. Offer their staff an incentive for sending you diners.
36. Draw up a staff quiz on menu items, wine list, or event/promotion knowledge. Be sure your staff know this it to assist you in their training requirements, not to show them up. Use their answers for your next training session.
37. Ask your staff to add a few items to this list. Jobs they can do in 30 mins!
38. Delegate! Which jobs do you carry out which your staff could easily be trained to do? This would free up more of your time to work on your business rather than in your business.
39. Make a list of all marketing and business growth strategies you carry out or would like to carry out. What could you outsource? How could someone else be more effective? What would your return on investment be?
40. Spend half an hour reading and revising your business plan.

This list is endless. Amend it and add to it as you think of new ideas. Constantly refer back to it. Use it as part of your daily routine.

www.pub-marketing-promotions.co.uk

Plan 2010 Restaurant & Hotel Christmas Marketing NOW!

Now you may be asking why on earth you should be considering your Hotel or Restaurant Christmas 2010 marketing when you are still busy with Christmas Parties in 2009!

The answer is simple really.....
Now is a great time to be building up material to use for next year. What better way to promote your Christmas parties and packages than to show people having fun, and your hotel or restaurant in all its Christmas splendor?

Here are a few simple ideas to get you started:

Photos

Take photos at every opportunity!

• Restaurant set for dinner - different angles, large tables, private dining areas - show what you can offer!
• Christmas parties - groups having fun to show the experience.
• Staff dressed in Santa hats - to show their dedication.
• Christmas tree, decorations and lighting to show the atmosphere.
• Winter scenes - frosty mornings or better still when it snows to show the Christmas feel.
• The food - Good clear shots, these can be staged at a later date if you are too busy with service.
• Guest Rooms - If you decorate your rooms for Christmas, show them off!

Video

Video can be edited so don't risk missing a moment!

• Party nights
• New Years Eve (midnight)
• Kitchen preparation - Even some chefs Christmas food tips to share!
• Guest reviews

Be sure to obtain guest's permission before using video. Video and pictures can be used in all your online activity to promote Christmas 2010 for website, Christmas brochure, newsletter, blog, facebook and twitter links etc. They can also be used for offline activity too including printed menus, flyers, posters and of course editorials. If you are using photos for printed material please ensure they are of quality. I recommend using a professional photographer if your budget allows (or offer goods in exchange for their services).

Feedback

Use feedback forms or online survey. Ask your customers what they liked and disliked. Ask them for suggestions for next year and if they would return!

Testimonials

Customers who give you great feedback, ask them if they would give you a testimonial to use in your marketing literature. Real testimonials from real customers are credible. If business customers ask if you can include a link to their website. These can be used in your marketing for next year plus January's newsletter.

Follow up

Follow up as soon as possible. This will build relationships and increase chances of repeat business throughout the year and next Christmas.

Make notes

Keep a customer profile. A name and address is fine but better to expand on this by noting numbers, dates, times (lunch or evening), age range, preferences i.e. did they enjoy wine, cocktails or entertainment. Were they high or lower spenders? This can all be used for marketing throughout the year as well as next Christmas.

Your Team

Get feedback from your team. Ask them for ideas for next year whilst Christmas is still fresh in their mind. If you leave this until next August they will certainly have forgotten Christmas 09. Keep a staff ideas book in your staff area. Offer incentives for all ideas used.

And Finally...

Ensure you have all the details in your database and marked Christmas!

It's worth mentioning that probably 70% of customers who visit you during the festive season will not be regular customers. They may have been with a work party and never visited before. Will they visit again? Have you collected their contact details? Have you given them a reason to return? Will you start to build a relationship with them? Will you convert them into regular customers?

Too many Restaurant and Hotel managers seem to be so busy at Christmas that they forget one of the most important parts is to generate business for next year! Take this opportunity to build for the future.

Learn from your success and failures.

Plan early.

Generate a buzz.

Set targets and goals.

Budget and measure ROI.