Day 136 – The Puzzle – Wow, This Is Crazy. Chick Fil A Needs 2 Different Drive Thrus?

This was eye-opening.  When I pulled up to Chick-fil-A, they had not one but two different drive-thrus. 

One was for regular customers, and the other was for mobile orders only.  

So, while most mom-and-pop restaurants need help finding customers, Chick-fil-A has a full dining room and drive-thru lines for multiple types of customers.  

The second part that got me was that they had a drive-thru where I had to download an app and order my food.  

Now, I’m not a big fan of apps, especially for mom-and-pop restaurants, because they don’t have the brand and demand of a chain. But even for a chain, this is wild.  

So Matt, what’s the point of this blog?  

Honestly, I’ve got nothing for you outside of what’s above.  Let me think on this and get back to you because I’m sure I’ll have more on the topic in the future.  

Day 134 – The Puzzle – The Pie Is Shrinking, Go Get Your Fair Share

It is what it is.

Food costs are insane, and eating out at many restaurants is the most expensive I’ve ever seen.  This is forcing customers, as shown above, to eat out less.  

But I think this podcast sums it up best: YOU need to do more to get MORE of the pie that IS available.  

HAVE A LISTEN…CLICK HERE

Day 131 – The Puzzle – He’s Doing This In His Restaurant, Why Aren’t Others?

289 times Dean and his staff did this.

As I tuned in Friday to watch Episode 4 of Heroes of Hospitality, I decided to open Dean’s dashboard to see how his program is doing and whether he’s continued the momentum he had in ONE VERY SPECIFIC AREA: his in-store marketing opt-ins.

For any marketing program to succeed, it must start inside your four walls. In May, when we traveled to film with Dean, I saw how it can be done at a high level. This part of the marketing equation really sticks out to me because it’s what I’ve seen most of our clients fail to do every day.  

As you know, the success or failure of your restaurant’s marketing starts and ends with your customer database.  And there are 4 main ways you can grow your database

– 1st – In-Store

– 2nd – Point Of Sale

– 3rd – Website & Online Ordering

– 4th – Social Media

75% of your best customers will come from #1, the customers YOU make an effort to gain from your in-store marketing.  To take that a step further, this is where you’re team SELLS your marketing program “I’m going to guess you’d love a free dessert your next visit, right?”

When we visited Dean, it was apparent he and I were on the same page. He not only had graphics everywhere, but they were high-quality. And on top of that, he wasn’t relying on luck for customers to engage with them; his employees were ALL OVER THIS!  

Now, here is an even more important part: Dean’s had been a client of ours for four years leading up to this point, so one might think that every customer would be burnt out from hearing about a VIP or Loyalty / Rewards program for his restaurant, but they weren’t.  Even up to March when Dean was on our old program, his employees continued to gain new opt-ins at record paces compared to every client in our marketing programs.  When he launched his Repeat Returns program in late April his staff had something new to switch to, and it made sense that he’d have a lot of in-store signups.  But, it’s usually the 45-60 day mark when the “New” wears off.  

When I watched Dean’s episode of Heroes of Hospitality on Friday, August 16th, we were around 120 days into his program, so I figured the honeymoon was over with his staff. I figured his in-store efforts had fallen off.

When I logged into his dashboard, I was blown away! It had not fallen off; in fact, it had grown!  

One thing that’s HUGE in our business is seeing thousands of marketing campaigns at once.  The expertise we gain by seeing all of these restaurants in our software is why we can build successful marketing programs for restaurants daily.  We have the data, we have the insights.  It’s no different than you making 1,000 steaks per month and me grilling four; you’ll always be light years ahead of me with your knowledge and expertise.  It’s your craft, just like restaurant marketing is ours.  

So when I logged into his dashboard, I figured I’d be greeted with the disappointment I am most days as it relates to restaurants growing their database inside of their Repeat Returns marketing program (now DRYVER).  I figured I’d see new customers only from their POS integration or online ordering through their website.  But Deans was different; 289 of the past 500 customers who opted into his restaurant’s customer marketing program came from IN-STORE!!!!  Here we are four months later, and his staff is still KICKING ASS!! 

Somehow, Dean can get his employees to do what 99% of the restaurants in America can’t; TALK TO CUSTOMERS!

That’s all I’ve got for you today, but there’s much more to come.  

I highly encourage you to click below and watch what Dean has to say, and if you’ve not watched episodes 1-3, do that too. 

To watch Episode 4 of the Heroes Of Hospitality and the other three episodes, CLICK HERE!

Day 125 – The Puzzle – Why Are So Many Restaurant Owners Cheap Asses?

Sorry, but not sorry, for the title of today’s blog. 

I’ve been at this game since 1999, and I’ve heard it too many times: “We can’t afford it right now.” Unfortunately, the outcome is almost always the same: OUT OF BUSINESS!

This is the topic of today’s podcast, and there’s more context there, but I’ll give you a little here as well.

A restaurant we work with was bought recently, and the message above is from the new owners regarding continuing our service. Now, to put this in perspective, their revenue accounts for about .00002 % of our company revenue, so I’m not salty about losing a client.  I could care less about losing that revenue; it’s insignificant.  My anger is rooted in the fact that this small business owner, a new one, is making a grave mistake.  The few hundred dollars per month that,’ “is not in the budget” sales attached to it of $100,000.  

My anger, or as you can see in the emoji above, crying, is due to watching another restaurant owner make a terrible business decision.  

I always compare fitness and marketing because they are so similar concerning their lifespan.

I can’t tell you how many friends of mine tell me they are “too busy” to go to the gym and eat right. Meanwhile, every day that goes by with them ignoring taking care of themselves is THEM contributing to their death.  You can almost see the counter above their head, a chalkboard with lines being marked off each day. Grim, right?

Well, this is the same thing with your marketing.  

This conversation plays out for me and my team daily, hundreds of times per month, thousands of times yearly.  Restaurant owners who signed their names to loans and personal guarantees, borrowed against their 401K, and stressed out their spouses.  So, with all of that on the line, why in the hell are you being cheap on the only way you’re going to survive, MARKETING?

Over the past ten years of my company working exclusively with restaurants, here are the two scenarios I see from the owners who say, “It’s not in the budget for us right now.”

1st – They are married to the restaurant.  They become employee #1 and work their asses off seven days per week.  They barely pay themselves, and personal debt stacks up while they wait for the restaurant to turn that corner. 

2nd – They go out of business.  

I wish I had better news for you, but when you fail to put oil in a car engine, it will eventually LOCK UP, and your car will stop running.  Marketing and advertising are the oil your restaurant’s engine needs.  

Another part that pisses me off in these instances is the banks or prior owners who let this happen.  

If a bank gives someone a loan to buy a restaurant, they should understand that the loan obligation will eat away at the profit the prior owner enjoyed, plus the prior owner had MANY years before chains filled the market to build a nest egg. 

And if the prior owner self-finances this, which happens many times, they should realize the same thing.  THEY are handing over a business that’s PAST it’s prime, and not the new owners are taking what small profits that were there and paying the prior owners.  

In both instances, they are partially responsible for the failure these restaurants are about to have.   

So if you want to succeed, you better not BE A CHEAP ASS when it comes to marketing.  If you don’t want to end up like #1 or #2 above, you better invest in marketing. Otherwise, you’re simply marketing lines of the chalkboard and counting down the days. 

And, of course, this was today’s podcast topic, too. CLICK HERE to listen to episode 693 of Restaurant Marketing Secrets

P.S. The crying emoji is ME. Because every time I have these conversations, a little piece of my marketing heart dies 🙁

Day 124 – The Puzzle – My Vision For Our New 48,000 Square Foot HQ

Our next Vivid Vision is out, and if you missed it click below to see and hear about it.

Vivid Vision Blog Post

Vivid Vision Podcast

One thing to explain before I get into the new HQ from our Vivid Vision is BHAG.

BHAG = Big Hairy Audacious Goal 

A BHAG should be front and center in your Vivid Vision.  Why?  To make everyone go “OH SNAP” that’s insane!  And well, I think I did that with my vision for our next office.  

To put this in perspective, from 2008-2013, I had my home office.  

In 2013 we opened a gym, CrossFit The Tracks, and I had an office there, along with my home office.  Neither was needed a lot since most of my work was done at my client’s locations.  

 

Then, in 2016, I realized the energy and focus I would gain by being around other people, so I got a membership at a shared workspace in downtown Cincinnati.  At that time, I had two employees, so I would hang out downtown in the common spaces and then, a few times per week, lock myself in the private rooms like above and FOCUS!  This was when I realized we were onto something with our restaurant marketing programs, and I had to spend a lot of time laying out the future of our company.  

From 2016 to 2018, pictures like the one below were common, and the team and I mapped out the future on the common whiteboards.  In 2019, when Doug Smith joined the team, we realized we needed our own whiteboards, which we didn’t have to erase at the end of the day.  So we started looking for a space we could call our own.  I was pretty scared with this step.  Getting a permanent office was a big step, not only financially but mentally.  It started to put in concrete that this wasn’t a “small business” any longer.  Hiring Ashley in 2013 was tough for that reason, but now in 2019, we were up to four employees and signing a lease!

And in June 2019, we found a fantastic place to call home for two years in OTR.  And go figure, it came with ORANGE conference room chairs.  

This is the space where we began to expand our team and mindset.  Having this permanent office suddenly made what we were building more REAL!  We grew to nine employees in this space while also navigating Covid.  

Now, this is where I started to make employees wonder if I was out of my mind.  In December 2020, I started to think about finding an office closer to my home in Northern Kentucky and also about owning vs renting.  I bought a few books on commercial real estate and went on the hunt.  If you know me, you know I don’t wait long to take action.  This search only took a few weeks before I put an offer in on a property. I found the building from an old expired listing and called the phone number on the banner in one of the pictures (the one on the banner below).  That was on January 12th, and by January 14th I’d overnighted the owner a deposit check and put the property under contract.  

This was one of my very first BHAG’s!  At the time, we had nine employees, of which only two of us, Doug and myself, worked out of the office daily.  So when I told our team I’d just bought a 9,000-square-foot office that 60 employees once called home, they thought I’d fallen and hit my head. 

I still recall the conversations: “Matt, the space is great, but who will work here?”

CLICK HERE or below to watch the video walk-through on the day we closed and go the key, figured it was tax day 🙂 

My vision with the space was a spot for our marketing agency, Restaurant Marketing That Works, a spot to do live events, and a shared workspace.  Honestly, the shared workspace was only a “placeholder” in my mind. I really didn’t want that long-term, but that was the only way I could convince myself we could afford such a large space while only two of us worked there in person. 

Well, flash forward to 2024, and pretty much everything in that video happened.  The only thing I didn’t end up doing was the outdoor work and play area, maybe I’ll get that done next year.  Our company is now 57 strong and around forty people come into the office most days. We turned the downstairs area I had slated for a training center into our sales department, and the upstairs is mostly operations.  We also have a full editing suite downstairs next to the weight room where a team of six professional editors create the ABR Roadshow from America’s Best Restaurants. 

Now, onto 2027, May 17th, 2027, to be exact.  

Why 48,000 square feet?  Well, I saw this video while researching cool office buildings, and I came across the Hoonigan Motorsports HQ.  I thought it was BADASS!  It really embodied what I wanted to do, so that’s where I got a lot of my ideas.  

CLICK HERE to watch the video I watched.

This HQ was 12,000, and I thought “Let’s do four times that size!”  So, 48,000 square feet it is!

My vision for our next HQ is three-prong.  I want a space where we can get excellent work done, a place where my team can take care of themselves and consider a second home, and finally, a spot where restaurant owners can come to for the ULTIMATE restaurant marketing deep dive.  Read the back page of our Vivid Vision and you’ll get a feel for what’s coming.

Day 123 – The Puzzle – You Must Start Gaining Customer Data Inside Your Restaurant

Today’s blog post is simple: go listen to Episode 691 of my podcast. CLICK HERE to listen to it.

I talk about a topic I’ve talked about many times, but that keeps happening repeatedly with restaurants.  The topic?  Your failure to gain customer data through your in-store marketing.

You know, the conversation that your employees are not having with customers will that will amplify your growth like never before!

Like I said, go listen to this and make a change today. 

Please listen to Episode 691 of my podcast. CLICK HERE to listen to it.

Day 122 – The Puzzle – Our Vivid Vision Is Live!

It’s done!

After six months of work, our 2nd Vivid Vision is DONE!

To give you some context, a Vivid Vision is where you create a document that is three years in the future.  So as you read this, think about the date being May 17, 2027.  

Scroll down to read each page.  If you’d like a printed version, email matt@mattplapp.com subject line GIVE ME MP’S VV

It’s done!

After six months of work, our 2nd Vivid Vision is DONE!

To give you some context, a Vivid Vision is where you create a document that is three years in the future.  So as you read this, think about the date being May 17, 2027. 

Scroll down to flip through our VV.  If you’d like a printed version, email matt@mattplapp.com subject line GIVE ME MP’S VV

Day 121 – The Puzzle – Take A Look Around Your Restaurant

For the LOVE OF ALL OF MARKETING MANKIND…take a look around your restaurant every once in a while.

This past week, I was on the road in Key West Florida, and I was confronted with MANY in-store marketing problems, but the two in this blog really stood out.

1st – I’m in a candy store with a poster celebrating a holiday from June 24th.  When I saw this, it was August 4th.  So for six weeks, employees, the owner, and the managers had walked by this sign and never thought, “Hmmmm, when was that?”

2nd – In the picture, you can see the dust CAKED ON IT!  Not only has no one taken down a marketing sign from an event almost two months prior, but they’ve also failed to clean it!  

3rd – The good ole Facebook and Instagram counter up on the wall from 10 years ago needs to be fixed.  The beauty of this one is that my wife pointed it out.  She said, “What is that?” When I turned to see what she was pointing at, I laughed.  

Your marketing goes WAY beyond your website, Facebook, and Instagram feed.  The most important place you need to be marketing is in-store, and if you’re ignoring it as much as these two retailers are, then you’re screwed.  

To wrap up today’s short blog post.  

TAKE

A

LOOK

AROUND

Walk around your restaurant every day and ask yourself, “whats wrong?”

Day 115 – The Puzzle – Here Are Our Rock…Stars

Ladies and gentlemen, here are my ROCK…STARS!

In blog post-Day 110, I wrote about the 10 rocks that we have planned out for this quarter; now let’s talk about who’s ready to tackle those and what I think they’ll bring to the table with regards to their skillset!

SO WHO’s GOT WHICH ROCK!

RMTW ROCKS

1st – Bruce Plan –  Well, Bruce is in charge of it.  He’s the only person who doesn’t have a cartoon at the writing of this post.  Bruce is our new CFO, who starts next week, and to put it lightly, YES, he has the qualifications to make this plan happen. Bruce comes to RMTW from the restaurant business, where he guided a few owners from 2 restaurants 15 years ago to 16 today and upwards of $60 million in annual revenue.  So, we have the perfect caption at the helm of this rock!

2nd – Marketing Plan – David Schlotter, our marketing director, is tasked with this Rock.  David started his restaurant marketing agency while he was still in high school. After graduation, he was smart enough to realize college would be a mistake, so he joined my online restaurant marketing training program.  In 2020, as the pandemic reared its ugly head and I desperately needed a creative mind, David joined RMTW!  Since then, he’s been my righthand man, and he typically knows what I’m thinking before I think it, I blame him for the bad ideas:)  David will crush this like he does everything else in life.

3rd -Accountability Charts Completed – Doug Smith, our COO, gets this fun task.  I say “Fun task” because this is the exact work I can’t stand 🙂 I was on a call a few weeks ago with Cameron Herold, the author of the book Vivid Vision, and he pointed out that a fantastic COO’s true ROI is that they take what you don’t want to do and crush it.  Well, that’s Doug.  He will dig into this project like he’s building a skyscraper and get it across the finish line as well as anyone.  

4th—Find A Replacement For Workplace – Tom Mosher, our Director Of Tech, is tasked with replacing a massive piece of software that we’ve built our company around for the past five years. Tom, too, was a former agency owner, and when we met, I knew I had to have him on our team. Tom is a wizard at tech like this and has a deep love and admiration for automating communication.  Tom was also a General Manager of a restaurant, so he knows what owners are looking for with regard to communication, and for those reasons, I know he’ll find the exact solution we need.  

DRYVER

1st – Launch DYRVER 1.1 – Ashley Mullins, our DRYVER Director Of Operations, will continue to build this rocket and pilot us to where no other restaurant marketing software has ever gone!  Ashley is employee #1 for this company and has been by my side for 13 years.  I’d wager that she’s built more restaurant marketing campaigns than ANYONE in the world!  And BADASS ones that drive sales at that.   She knows exactly what we are aiming to develop and will not only pilot DRYVER 1.1 but 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 . . . YOU GET THE PICTURE!

2nd – Hubspot Client Organization Complete – Scott Douglas, our Director Of Client Success, will steal all of Canada’s internet bandwidth to make this happen if he has to:)  Scott is the king of the organization and understands more than anyone how important it is to have systems that communicate properly with clients.  With his help, our customer service will be at levels never seen in this industry.  

3rd – 70 new clients of DRYVER or DRYVER Upgrades – Shaheen Kazemi, our Director Of Sales, is tasked with helping restaurants drive more sales!  Shaheen was a client of ours for seven years before he joined the team in 2023, and for 28 years, he owned two highly successful restaurant concepts in Cincinnati.  Having Shaheen by our side is a one-two punch like never before.  Having software as powerful as DRYVER and a retired restaurant owner like Shaheen will be a force to be reckoned with.  

America’s Best Restaurants

1st – ABR Roadshow Customer Conversation Journey Complete – Austin Turner, our ABR Director Of Operations, has steered this ship for many years in one way or another.  Austin was a road warrior for two years, traveling for three weeks every month and filming at over 1,000 restaurants.  Austin was built to fix this problem because he saw it firsthand when it went wrong.  He will have our clients more educated, excited, and ready than ever for their ABR Roadshow visit. 

2nd – All Sales & Marketing Reports In Hubspot – And doing the math, nine leaders and ten rocks, you knew someone was getting stuck with two rocks.  Well, that poor sole is none other than our COO, Doug, AKA Dough Smith.  I like the results of reports, and Doug LOVES making them happen, so there’s zero doubt that we won’t have analysts out the wazoo before we know it.  

3rd – Launch ABR Roadshow 4.0  – This rock belongs to yours truly, me, Matt Plapp:)  I can’t wait to dig into this and bring to market the first-ever trackable system for a “TV Show” like the ABR Roadshow.  Imagine if every cable show from the 90s that highlighted restaurants gave those owners a way to build a database off of the exposure and drive sales on autopilot…HOLD MY ROOT BEER!

Day 113 – The Puzzle – Music And Why It Helps Me Daily

Most days, a song either lifts me up or throws gas on the fire.  

Recently, I was thinking about WHY?

What is it about music that speaks to me?  Then it hit me: The majority of these singers are on the same path as most entrepreneurs.  They don’t just wake up one day and have millions in the bank and packed arenas.  

They fight the same fight we fight:

– self-doubt

– haters

– long bouts of dry spells

– setbacks

– minor victories

Waking up every day and running hard is tough.  No matter who you are, you’re going to have great days and bad ones.  

So, my words of wisdom today: build playlists.  The song above is from my “Just Vibing” playlist. It has some great songs that put me in another place and make me realize how lucky I am.  I have a playlist for every occasion, but one thing is constant: songs that remind me of who I am and who I can become.  

Recently I stumbled upon this “greatest hits” playlist and a few songs on there really got me thinking.  Especially Rocket Man.  It is lonely out there, and many of us have a long long time until we reach out goals.