There's an old joke: How do you make a small fortune in the
restaurant business? You start with a large one. In a business where
state taxes on the dollar exceed the owner's profits, it's imperative
that we operators constantly seek out ways to better motivate ourselves
and our staff to serve and sell. Not to mention watch our "waste." So
here's 10 new and effective contest ideas that successful managers from
around the country have recently shared with me. Read'em and reap:
(1) Team Sales. When conducting sales contests, a major gripe among participants is that "the same people always win," "I never have a chance," etc., etc. So here's a solution: After tracking sales averages for a month, pair your best salesperson with your worst salesperson, your second best with your second worst, and so on until every server is paired up on a team. Set minimum sales goals for each team. That fosters better coaching and camaraderie. Get the kitchen crew involved by letting each crew member choose or "bet" on one particular server team to win. The server team with the highest sales shares, say, a $50 gift certificate. The kitchen winner gets $10. Thanks to Chili's manager Sean Predith for this idea.
(2) Highest Station Sales. Everybody knows that certain stations or sections in your restaurant are better than others, right? Well, a good way to challenge this belief and have fun doing so is by holding a monthly sales contest for each section in your restaurant. Review and then average out the sales in each section from the previous six months and then set a minimum goal of 10 percent over the average to qualify for the monthly prize. Highest percentage sales over the minimum for that section wins. You create multiple winners, and that makes the sales contest more equitable for severs who complain that you're always giving me the bad stations."
(3) Home Run Derby. This is a neat contest that works with or
without replacement players. It goes something like this: If you upsell a
beverage during the initial order (i.e., small to large, premium to
well, glass to bottle, etc. "you get a "single." Selling an appetizer
scores a "double", a "triple" is earned by upgrading the entree --
larger portion, sides or add-ons. A home run is adding the dessert,
specialty coffee or after-dinner liqueur to the tab. After a month, each
player's "runs" are totaled, and the highest score wins the grand
prize. Runs could by tallied for the entire store and compared with the
other restaurants' scores in your region for more competition and pride.
A "batting trophy" could be awarded to the winning store along with baseball caps touting the winning team. Denny's restaurants' director of marketing, How has used this idea with great success.
(4) Raffle Tickets for Prop Use. Greeters are the first salespeople your guests meet. How do you create an incentive for these nontipped employees to routinely use sales "props" like table tents, menus or reader boards to consistently suggest appetizers, specials, current promotions or desserts to guests? Well, what you reinforce is what you get. What you don't reinforce is what you lose. Every time a manager sees a greeter using her props or hears her recommending a specific item or two as she seats her guests, the manager gives the greeter a raffle ticket for a prize drawing at the end of the month. Obviously, the more the greeter suggests, the more raffle tickets she accumulates and the better her odds of winning at month's end.
(5) Buck-A-Ticket Time for Cooks. Want to improve the efficiency of your serving line and minimize cooking times and mistakes on the line? Here's a good idea. Put up $10 or $20 bills on a fishing line in the grill area; use play money to represent the real cash if necessary. Set a goal for cooking times. At lunch it may be, say, 12 minutes maximum per order. The manager and servers check ticket times against the goal throughout the shift via the POS system or clocking in out tickets at the pass-through window. For every order sent out past the goal time, the manager removes a dollar from the fishing line. However much money is left after the rush or shift the line cooks share.
(6) Floating Quarters. Darryl Steadman, area director for Brinker Tnternational in Southern California, shared this one with me. Fill a clear five-quart glass jar with water and place $20 in quarters in the bottom. Place a shot glass in the middle of the water-filled jar. Pick a specific item or items you want to concentrate on selling for the shift, a particular appetizer, dessert, beverage and so on. Every time a server sells one of the featured items, he or she gets to drop in one of his or her own quarters, trying to land it in the shot glass. If he or she lands it, the server wins all the quarters built up in the bottom.
(7) Pre-Bus Contest. To clean as you go is the sign of a pro, right? Pre-busing tables in your section during a shift not only expedites the bus person's job but also helps open tables quicker for new guests, ensures a cleaner restaurant and facilitates a healthier back by minimizing the load weight of over-full bus tubs. So how do we encourage servers to get better at pre-busing their section? Restaurant manager Rob Welsh in San Jose, Calif, suggests contests where bussers vote every month on the servers who consistently do the best job at busing his or her tables. Rob awards the first-place winner with dinner for two and the second-place winner with dinner for one. He tells me that pride and teamwork receive a boost as a result of this unique competition.
(8) Teamwork Bingo for Kitchen. I think we've all used different variations of the traditional Bingo game to increase sales or ensure safety among the staff, but Chili's manager, Sheila Elliott, sent me an idea called "Teamwork Bingo," which we're going to try right away in one of our restaurants. She recommends making up a card that contains boxes that detail all of the assorted tasks associated with a clean, efficient, safe and team-oriented kitchen. Some of her suggested categories include "Line Sweeps," "Hand Washing," "Help Station Next to You," "Take Out Trash," Counters- Wiped Three Done Without Being etc. Elliott's GM, Ken Farmer reports that this contest is done on a shift basis, and prizes range from free meals to store merchandiseor gift certificates.
(9) theme Shifts. To ad spice and variety to certain lunch dinner shifts, consider using specific themes relative to the service staff's attire. For instance, maybe You'll have a contest for the most creative tie, the wildest Hawaiian shirt or most interesting sports jersey. While there are, of course, many restaurants that use wild or unusual server attire as their theme every shift, allowingyour staff to add spice to their uniform once or twice a month boosts morale and builds esprit de corps. Thanks to fashion guru John Rodriguez of Church Street Station in Orlando, Fla, for this simple but effective "routine"-buster.
(10) Promote New Products Visually. Why not reserve a prominent area of your back bar or someplace near the hostess area that exclusively features only your newest alcoholic beverage products? This thought comes from Tyson Roffey of Gilbey Distributing in Ottawa, Ontario, and he's obviously doing his job! This is such a simple idea and an attention-getter for all bar patrons or guests waiting to be seated in the dining room. The way I picture it; you put your new microbrews next to your newest single malt scotches, imported vodkas or cordials and cognacs and so on. Heck, for that matter, why not have a sheet of new products clipped onto the menu or table tents, too? Combine this idea with the bingo concept I mentioned above and what do you have? A bingo sheet that lists all of your new beverage and food items in individual boxes. Now have a contest for the server or bay-tender staff to see who can sell one or more of each of the items during a shift.
Well, there you have it, 10 of the best and the newest contests to help you improve your performance, profits and productivity. Remember, if you had half as much fun reading them as I had finding them, then I had twice as much fun as you!
(1) Team Sales. When conducting sales contests, a major gripe among participants is that "the same people always win," "I never have a chance," etc., etc. So here's a solution: After tracking sales averages for a month, pair your best salesperson with your worst salesperson, your second best with your second worst, and so on until every server is paired up on a team. Set minimum sales goals for each team. That fosters better coaching and camaraderie. Get the kitchen crew involved by letting each crew member choose or "bet" on one particular server team to win. The server team with the highest sales shares, say, a $50 gift certificate. The kitchen winner gets $10. Thanks to Chili's manager Sean Predith for this idea.
(2) Highest Station Sales. Everybody knows that certain stations or sections in your restaurant are better than others, right? Well, a good way to challenge this belief and have fun doing so is by holding a monthly sales contest for each section in your restaurant. Review and then average out the sales in each section from the previous six months and then set a minimum goal of 10 percent over the average to qualify for the monthly prize. Highest percentage sales over the minimum for that section wins. You create multiple winners, and that makes the sales contest more equitable for severs who complain that you're always giving me the bad stations."
(4) Raffle Tickets for Prop Use. Greeters are the first salespeople your guests meet. How do you create an incentive for these nontipped employees to routinely use sales "props" like table tents, menus or reader boards to consistently suggest appetizers, specials, current promotions or desserts to guests? Well, what you reinforce is what you get. What you don't reinforce is what you lose. Every time a manager sees a greeter using her props or hears her recommending a specific item or two as she seats her guests, the manager gives the greeter a raffle ticket for a prize drawing at the end of the month. Obviously, the more the greeter suggests, the more raffle tickets she accumulates and the better her odds of winning at month's end.
(5) Buck-A-Ticket Time for Cooks. Want to improve the efficiency of your serving line and minimize cooking times and mistakes on the line? Here's a good idea. Put up $10 or $20 bills on a fishing line in the grill area; use play money to represent the real cash if necessary. Set a goal for cooking times. At lunch it may be, say, 12 minutes maximum per order. The manager and servers check ticket times against the goal throughout the shift via the POS system or clocking in out tickets at the pass-through window. For every order sent out past the goal time, the manager removes a dollar from the fishing line. However much money is left after the rush or shift the line cooks share.
(6) Floating Quarters. Darryl Steadman, area director for Brinker Tnternational in Southern California, shared this one with me. Fill a clear five-quart glass jar with water and place $20 in quarters in the bottom. Place a shot glass in the middle of the water-filled jar. Pick a specific item or items you want to concentrate on selling for the shift, a particular appetizer, dessert, beverage and so on. Every time a server sells one of the featured items, he or she gets to drop in one of his or her own quarters, trying to land it in the shot glass. If he or she lands it, the server wins all the quarters built up in the bottom.
(7) Pre-Bus Contest. To clean as you go is the sign of a pro, right? Pre-busing tables in your section during a shift not only expedites the bus person's job but also helps open tables quicker for new guests, ensures a cleaner restaurant and facilitates a healthier back by minimizing the load weight of over-full bus tubs. So how do we encourage servers to get better at pre-busing their section? Restaurant manager Rob Welsh in San Jose, Calif, suggests contests where bussers vote every month on the servers who consistently do the best job at busing his or her tables. Rob awards the first-place winner with dinner for two and the second-place winner with dinner for one. He tells me that pride and teamwork receive a boost as a result of this unique competition.
(8) Teamwork Bingo for Kitchen. I think we've all used different variations of the traditional Bingo game to increase sales or ensure safety among the staff, but Chili's manager, Sheila Elliott, sent me an idea called "Teamwork Bingo," which we're going to try right away in one of our restaurants. She recommends making up a card that contains boxes that detail all of the assorted tasks associated with a clean, efficient, safe and team-oriented kitchen. Some of her suggested categories include "Line Sweeps," "Hand Washing," "Help Station Next to You," "Take Out Trash," Counters- Wiped Three Done Without Being etc. Elliott's GM, Ken Farmer reports that this contest is done on a shift basis, and prizes range from free meals to store merchandiseor gift certificates.
(9) theme Shifts. To ad spice and variety to certain lunch dinner shifts, consider using specific themes relative to the service staff's attire. For instance, maybe You'll have a contest for the most creative tie, the wildest Hawaiian shirt or most interesting sports jersey. While there are, of course, many restaurants that use wild or unusual server attire as their theme every shift, allowingyour staff to add spice to their uniform once or twice a month boosts morale and builds esprit de corps. Thanks to fashion guru John Rodriguez of Church Street Station in Orlando, Fla, for this simple but effective "routine"-buster.
(10) Promote New Products Visually. Why not reserve a prominent area of your back bar or someplace near the hostess area that exclusively features only your newest alcoholic beverage products? This thought comes from Tyson Roffey of Gilbey Distributing in Ottawa, Ontario, and he's obviously doing his job! This is such a simple idea and an attention-getter for all bar patrons or guests waiting to be seated in the dining room. The way I picture it; you put your new microbrews next to your newest single malt scotches, imported vodkas or cordials and cognacs and so on. Heck, for that matter, why not have a sheet of new products clipped onto the menu or table tents, too? Combine this idea with the bingo concept I mentioned above and what do you have? A bingo sheet that lists all of your new beverage and food items in individual boxes. Now have a contest for the server or bay-tender staff to see who can sell one or more of each of the items during a shift.
Well, there you have it, 10 of the best and the newest contests to help you improve your performance, profits and productivity. Remember, if you had half as much fun reading them as I had finding them, then I had twice as much fun as you!
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