Expert Advice on Hospitality Topics

By Douglas Robert Brown

Atlantic Publishing

 

There's More to Offer Than Music & Dancing

Many bar operators like to keep their patrons entertained with a variety of eclectic means and don't mind spending a few dollars to do so. In fact, major sporting venues have been employing these kinds of halftime entertain­ments for years and finding great results. If your bar can offer unique and appealing entertainment, chances are very good that you will have plenty of clientele. Better yet, if your bar develops a reputation for providing great entertainment, customers will always be dropping by your bar to look at your latest entertainment options. Consider the following:

Trivia nights. A handful of questions, a few slips of paper for answers, a running score, and $50 worth of vouchers for food and drink to give away—it all makes for a big night of entertainment. More venues are seeing the value of trivia competitions—luring customers in with the offer of freebies. These contests vary from huge nights run by live presenters to computerized interactive trivia games, where patrons compete against bars around the country via satellite. Either option does one important thing: brings people back.

Food tasting. People love food, and if you offer free appetizers or snacks with your beverages, you will draw a crowd.

Theater. Traditional theater (or mystery theater) gives customers a chance to look at something and encourages people to stay for an entire performance.

Karaoke. The Japanese tradition of karaoke has come on in leaps and bounds in North America in the last ten years, but there's still a big difference between quality karaoke and most karaoke. It's far more than simply putting up a bunch of old songs with some fuzzy video. Your karaoke enthusiasts need variety in the music selection. Hire a good karaoke host who can keep things moving and draw a big crowd of listeners.

Board games. A Scrabble or Monopoly night might be a simple idea, but it also works! Quieter nights of the week are an excellent time to try out a board game tournament. It instills a sense of community amongst your patrons.

Stand-up comedy. It's more than possible for you to find four or five stand-up comedians who will keep your audience laughing without costing you more than a hundred bucks total. Live comedy is a great draw, and it tends to keep an audience planted until the finish. Try an open-mike night and see what you find!

Live Entertainment. Eventually all bars consider live entertainment. Few things draw in crowds like a live band. However, knowing which bands to book is not always easy— or affordable. If you have a small bar, consider open-mike night and opening your doors to local bands that need a venue to practice. This will bring some entertainment to your bar at no cost—and entertainers often bring their friends along. For more ambitious booking, you may need to contact managers and publicists of more established entertainers. Prepare yourself by having the stats of your bar—how many customers you can draw, and what the crowd is like—ready. You should give the manager or publicist the reasons why your bar is a great place for the entertainer to perform.

Celebrities. Even celebrities will sometimes appear at smaller venues if there is a good reason for them to do so. If a celebrity will be in your area, contact the their publicist and give them the most compelling reasons you can for appearing at your establishment—be it a charitable cause or some other motivation. Celebrities tend to draw a crowd, and if your bar gets a reputation for celebrity sightings, you can expect a good crowd on any given night. Be sure to give them the ultra VIP treatment, and ask for an autograph that can be prominently but discreetly hung behind the bar.

 

 

This article is an excerpt from the The Professional Bar & Beverage Managers Handbook: How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Bar, Tavern and Nightclub, authored by Douglas Robert Brown, published by Atlantic Publishing Group. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:

Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com

By Douglas Robert Brown

Atlantic Publishing

 

• Offer your bar staff incentives to make sure that you are getting the business you need. Your staff can help customers find a venue (your bar) for functions or can promote a drink that is a known profit maker if they know that they will get more money for it. If a staff member books an event that brings in $500, a $50 incentive for the staff member is well-spent money indeed.

• Know which drinks make the most profit and advertise them. Knowing which drinks can help bring in the money is key. Once you have figured out which items bring in the most money, make sure that you advertise them. Have staff mention these drinks by name, and make these drinks more visible and more visually appealing. In many cases, suppliers will help by providing you with coasters, posters, or other items that advertise certain brands.

• Make sure your customers get value. Too many business owners (and bar managers) cut corners, thinking that spending less means more profit. Studies have shown that the opposite is true—if the customer thinks they are getting more than they can expect, they will often respond in kind by patronizing the bar and bringing their friends. 

• Make it easy to linger. Have interesting television on in the background. Have your staff ask "How about a round of coffee?" rather than "Would you like the bill?" The longer people linger at your pub or bar, the more they will buy. Also, if your bar has some people in it, it will be more appealing and lively to other customers. Customers are valuable—never rush them out.

• Stay flexible. Keep eyeing the crowd, and if you notice shifts in the crowd, be flexible enough to change to suit the crowd. Did a bachelor party just come in? Adjust by running a one-off special on beer or by turning on dance lights. Is there a more sedate crowd tonight? Bring things down a notch with softer music and lights. Your customers will appreciate the extra touch and will be more likely to stay if your place is just what they're are looking for.

• Make sure that there is always someone on staff who can make executive decisions. If there is a profit to be made and a customer to be satisfied by veering from the ordinary (by preparing special drinks or booking special functions), be sure that someone on staff can make the right decision for the bar, fast.

• Cut down on how often you say no. There is no way to satisfy each customer, but do try to keep a variety of things on hand so that you can make the drinks and snacks customers demand. Don't spend lots of time or money trying to buy every item, but do stock up on items that can be used in the near future (sodas, non-perishables). Make sure your staff know what is on hand and have them suggest an alternative when the customer asks for something that is not available. Whenever someone at your bar says no, they are giving a patron an excuse not to return.

• Consider merchandise. A great logo on T-shirts, pens, golf shirts, baseball caps, key chains, lighters, and glasses takes up little room but can bring in as much money (or even more) than your beverage items.

• Consider vending machines. Vending machines are easy places for customers to get anything from antacids, breath mints, phone cards, bottled water, condoms, feminine products, snacks, to cigarettes. Vending machines allow you to make a profit without taking much effort. Your local Yellow Pages can easily put you in touch with vending suppliers near you. You can even place your snack vending machines outside the bar proper so that you keep earning money while the bar is closed.

 

This article is an excerpt from the The Professional Bar & Beverage Managers Handbook: How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Bar, Tavern and Nightclub, authored by Douglas Robert Brown, published by Atlantic Publishing Group. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:

Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com

By Bob Johnson

Part 1 of 2: Do Bartenders Steal?

Do bartenders steal?  I've worked with some outstanding bartenders over the years, men and women who are honest, hard-working, team/family-oriented and loyal. I'd like to think all bartenders are like that, but according to some, I'm misguided.

Joe Motzi of Entrepreneur Consultants in New York wrote an article on the subject for Restaurant Hospitality magazine, in which he said: "The theft is incredible! In the past three years we ran across only one bartender who wasn't stealing from his employer. That's out of about 1,000 clients! Only one bartender went by the rules of the house!"

Employee Service Reports in Fort Myers, Florida, a surveillance service to restaurants and lounges since 1950, reports that more than 50 percent of bartenders surveyed are not recording sales. That's a polite word for stealing. After weeding out the undesirable employees, the theft problem goes away - at least until after the new hires are comfortable with taking advantage of management.

A Michigan bar owner I know fired her last nine bartenders for stealing - in just one year. The owner of the Au Main bar in New York City has filed a $5 million lawsuit against 12 former bartenders and his chief financial officer for "working together (collusion) against the house, not recording drink sales and splitting the money amongst them for the past 8 years". The CFO changed the numbers in the books to cover up the missing inventory.

The temptation for a bartender to steal, and the ease of doing it, is scary. Receiving cash each time you sell a drink creates the temptation to keep the money (is anyone watching?). The drink sale is simply not rung up. The money for the drink goes straight into the cash register drawer by hitting "00" (No Sale), or they work out of an open drawer. They keep track of how much they are "over" by using a type of abacus system - 3 match sticks in a nearby empty glass equals $30, or a black sneaker mark on the floor equals $20 (3 black marks and they're up about $60).

The bartender takes the "over" out of the cash register drawer before turning in their money. Selling a cup of coffee or a "virgin" daiquiri (non-alcoholic) increases the temptation for bartenders or servers to take that money, too. Most bars do not inventory non-alcoholic type drinks, and most do not require their bartenders/servers to issue a receipt for each sale.

While taking from you, there's a good chance they're also cheating your customers. Your bar might feature "tooters", which are 24 shots of liquor served in a one-ounce tube. The bartender is supposed to sell them for a buck apiece, but decides to charge the customer $2 - and pockets $24 at the customer's expense. Of course, the house gets hurt when the customer discovers the scam.

The theft process starts when first hired. The bad bartender usually looks for areas where management is lax. They run little "spot tests" - seeing what will work and what won't. Once it's established what works it's full steam ahead.

Another type is the overt thief - one who steals openly, thinking no one, including the customer, realizes what he or she is doing. Professional spotters describe this type of bartender theft as "wide open". These people fear no one - customer or management.

This is reason enough to use professional surveillance companies, or spotters, routinely. Spotters are hired to watch for, and report, any act of theft by a bartender, waitress, manager, or any employee working on the premises.

However, there can be problems with spotters. Many don't understand a bartender's organization, motion, or actual transactions. Many are also "minimum wage plus expenses" employees of a local security company and have never tended a bar before. The best spotter is one who has bar experience and can detect a discrepancy in another bartender's work routines.

 

Bob Johnson is a nationally recognized Beverage Management consultant who specializes in multi-unit management of nightclubs/bars and bartending. He is a 50 year veteran of the bar business and is known for creating America’s first certification program for bar managers, “CBM” (Certified Bar Manager). Mr. Johnson has taught at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, serving as Professor of Beverage Management.

Mr. Johnson can be contacted at:

Website: BobTheBarGuy.com

Email: bjbarhop@aol.com

Tel: (800) 447-4384

By Douglas Robert Brown

Atlantic Publishing

 

Outdoor Areas Deserve Focus

Most customers will be people who have passed you by in the past and decided to try your venue. In order for this to happen, you need to pay far more attention to the exterior of your venue than most bar operators do. Here are some easy ways to spice up your outside areas:

• A graphic projection lighting system. Also known as a "bat light," this type of system can provide a highly effective way to advertise your bar to passersby. It also looks great when used on the inside of your establishment. Bat lights use a light and optic setup to project your logo or other related graphics onto any surface, including walls, ceilings, the outside sidewalk, and more. They can be purchased or rented for far less than you might think. 

• Signage. From how far away can your bar be seen? If you can't be seen at least a block away, consider increasing your outside signage. While this is not a small expense, there's no point in hiding the fact that your bar is nearby. If you talk to your distributors, you might find that one of them is prepared to subsidize the cost of your signage, in return for mention of their product.

• Neon works! Why do you think every bar has neon beer signs in the window? The answer is simple: because people notice them. An impressive neon sign is a local landmark. Think of those huge neon signs in Times Square and how many tourists know of them and send photos of them home to their family. You don't have to go to quite that scale, but a small investment in neon will bring people in to take a closer look.

• Don't discount the appeal of a nice paint job. Is your exterior freshly painted? A new paint job isn't just about aesthetics. The outside of your venue is usually assumed to reflect the inside. Consider asking your staff to come in after-hours and paint the walls for you, in return for a bonus. Most bar staff could use a few extra bucks now and then. It'll be a lot cheaper than hiring a professional.

• Landscaping isn't a luxury. Just as your exterior walls say a lot about your interior, so, too, do your grounds. If all you have outside your venue is a gravel-covered parking lot and a few beat-up pickup trucks, you're not going to attract a broad demographic, no matter what you offer inside. Plant some hardy greenery outside that will survive any weather extremes (choose varieties that will not need constant trimming and watering). This will soften the outside of your bar exterior. A few trees around the outside of the parking lot won't hurt, and some up-lights underneath them can offer a particularly breathtaking look, for not a lot of money.

• Keep things neat. Remove snow in the winter, have an awning to protect patrons from the elements, and make your entrance attractive to ensure that more people will peek into your bar.

• Who is greeting your customers? Is someone making them feel welcome right away or are they being greeted only by a suspicious security pterson? Do not give customers an excuse to walk away after they have made it all the way to your bar's door. Make them feel welcomed.

Add a Touch of Class

Sometimes the only element that separates successful bars from those that fail is in the small professional touches of excellence. This extra effort implies that tremendous thought has been made all around to attain the highest level of quality possible. Professional bartenders and courteous cocktail waiters/waitresses can be found in any well-managed restaurant. However, it is the small, un-demanded touches and extra procedures that separate good lounges from superb ones. Described in this section are some simple, inexpensive suggestions that will give your bar the extra touches—the finesse—that will separate yours from the rest.

Simple signs of quality that make a big difference include:

• Real napkins and table linens.

• Fresh ingredients, real fruit juices, and high-quality garnishes.

• Elegant presentation of drinks—garnishes, fancy napkins, and pretty glassware can turn even ordinary drinks into extraordinary ones.

• Elegant cutlery and dinnerware.

• Fresh flowers and candles.

• Quality tables, chairs, and seating. Comfort is always appreciated.

• Entertainment. Giving patrons something to do or something to look at while drinking is appreciated, especially by those customers who arrive alone.

• Beautiful bathrooms. Many customers judge a bar by the bathrooms. If yours are beautiful, clean, and offer extras such as a sofa and breath mints, your bar will seem all the more impressive and wonderful to your customers.    

• Elegant decor or a unique ambience. Even sipping a beer in a visually exciting place seems more interesting and fun than staying at home. Lights, colors, and artwork can easily create ambience on a small budget.

 

 

This article is an excerpt from the The Professional Bar & Beverage Managers Handbook: How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Bar, Tavern and Nightclub, authored by Douglas Robert Brown, published by Atlantic Publishing Group. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:

Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com

By Douglas Robert Brown

Atlantic Publishing

 

Your market and competitor research will likely reveal that most bars that are successful pay a lot of attention to customers. In fact, great service is one of the surest ways of drawing repeat customers. To draw more patrons to your bar on a regular basis, you do not have to spend a lot of money. However, you do have to think like a customer; you will likely notice a few things that need to change at your establishment:

• Waiting lines. If there's a line outside the door, all it takes is a little creativity to either bring the line inside or disguise it on the outside. Remember, those people waiting outside are probably thirsty and they'd be more than happy to do their waiting in a courtyard area, at a temporary bar, or in a cordoned-off outside area where drinking is permitted. Of those who are prepared to brave the line, most will do so gladly if they know they can be inside within 30 minutes. Also, it's simple to change waiting-time perceptions by making that wait a little more comfortable or entertaining.

• Parking can be a big hassle in many venues. If there tends to be a traffic jam outside your venue, consider installing a valet service on busy nights or posting a staff member outside to direct patrons to parking around the back or down the road. Signs pointing to parking areas also help.

• Offer creative extras. Whether it is free hand massages, glow sticks, or a live band outside, making the outside dazzling will make people all the more eager to see the inside of the bar.

• Think about your TV screens and sound system in relation to your waiting area. Can waiting people catch a glimpse of the big game? Can they hear the music inside? These things will keep a waiting person keen on staying around, whereas a blank brick wall and a disinterested bouncer isn't inviting to anyone.

• Keep clientele informed. If there's a wait for a table, set up an electronic sign indicating how long their expected wait will be. Add to this anything you can think of that will make their wait more entertaining—sports scores, trivia questions, coming events. It might be a little more work, but if you can keep just five people from leaving, it'll be worth it. 

• Freebies and incentives. Offer your waiting patrons a little something extra and they won't just "not mind" waiting, they'll do so gladly. Coupons to be used on a later date are a good option.

• Create a waiting area if you know that there tends to be a wait to get into the bar. This can include comfy chairs or an outside patio where customers can wait and sit. This is a great way to make sure that customers do not get tired and leave.

• It doesn't have to be expensive. Giving your waiting customers something to do doesn't have to be expensive, high-tech, or take up your employees' valuable time. Consider offering free reading material in your waiting area or even Internet access.

• Act first. A long wait doesn't seem quite so long when a staff member keeps you informed on how long your table will take. Don't wait for the customer to ask you; go out and tell the customer.

• Make your bar irresistible. Why will some bar patrons wait forty-five minutes to get into a bar instead of giving up and going elsewhere? They have a sense of urgency to get inside. Whether you are offering a hot live act, celebrities, or some other enticement, make sure it is worth the wait

• Offer free appetizers to waiting patrons. A tray with a nice selection of different foods from your menu can actually be a great advertisement and may even generate increased food sales.

• Supply your customers with pagers. Offering waiting customers a pager to notify them when their table is ready is a great alternative to the usual "public address" announcement or a yell over the crowd. When a table becomes available, your host simply dials the waiting customer's number, and wherever they are in the building (or outside), they know that their table is ready. 

• Build suspense. If it appears as though there is something really exciting going on in your bar, people will be willing to wait to get inside.

• Make sure waits are fair. Patrons who have been waiting for a whilewill get rightfully angry if it appears as though the staff are letting in people who are paying extra or who are simply "flirtier." Make sure that your security staff respect the queue and try to get everyone inside in an orderly and fair manner.

• Keep your customers informed. Be honest. If there'll be a half-hour wait, don't tell them it will be a fifteen-minute wait and hope they don't walk out. Similarly, ensure your staff keeps them updated on the wait so they know they haven't been forgotten. Small things like this make a big difference in the eyes of a waiting customer.

Customers are your mainstay in the bar business. If you treat them better than other bars would, you are ensured repeat business. Customers love to feel like VIPs, and the more patrons you make feel like this, the more business you will have. Share these tips with your staff to ensure they treat every customer as through he or she were a star.

 

This article is an excerpt from the The Professional Bar & Beverage Managers Handbook: How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Bar, Tavern and Nightclub, authored by Douglas Robert Brown, published by Atlantic Publishing Group. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:

Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com

BAR MANAGEMENT
by Bob Johnson

In an adult nightclub, cocktail servers are required to do much more than simply take orders and hand out drinks. According to bar management ex pert Bob Johnson, there are several nuances that, if employed correctly, can turn a good cocktail server into a great one.
 
In part two of this two-part series, Johnson  provides servers with detailed information on how to  properly handle  house and serving policies, while  offering dentitions on some common drink ordering  phrases.
 

Part 1:

How important are servers?

 
The server is the main person that interacts with the customer during their visit to your club.  Being a good server is perhaps the most difficult job in the bar business.  It requires many skills, a mature attitude and a great personality.  You should reconsider the ago old adult entertainment theory of turning a cocktail server into a dancer.  A cocktail server who can easily converse with customers, gives great service, remembers names, remembers drinks and shows personality is more effective on the poor than being a dancer on stage. Plus, they are more accessible than a dancer.  The following  article  provides  detailed information for cocktail servers on how to properly  administer  house and serving policies,  and includes  dentitions on some common  drink ordering  phrase s.  Being a good cocktail server  means more than just taking orders and bringing drinks; hope fully, this article will help de ne their roles in a  successful adult nightclub.

e-mail: "bjbarhop@aol.com, web page  

www.BobTheBarGuy.com

phone number: (800) 447-4384 

     Why hire a bar consultant? I get asked this question a lot. So I felt the best way to answer is by sharing what I experienced  on my last consulting job,  which took place at a Mexican restaurant/bar outside Los Angeles that was owned by a young couple who knew a lot about the restaurant business, but didn’t have a clue about the bar. They did, however, know that the majority of their profits should be coming from the bar. It wasn’t. 

     By explaining some of my consulting procedures and techniques, you might get a better understanding of how much difference a qualified bar consultant can make in having a better-run, more profitable bar. We’re talking money here—bottom line results putting more money in the owner’s pocket. Isn’t that why you got into this business, to make as much money as possible? Everything I do as a bar consultant translates into making more money for the owner.

     The first thing I tell anyone using my consulting service is, “don’t take anything personally.” It’s easy to offend egos amongst so much correction and professional critique. Many people have a true passion for their rather hefty investment, and sometimes they take not knowing how to run it very personally. But it’s just business.

    Once on site at the Mexican bar/restaurant, I looked at the drink stations and the general arrangement of everything behind the bar. There was no standardized order or arrangement of liquor bottles at the two drink making stations. Nothing was labeled. The high-usage items were not at the bartenders’ fingertips. Motion was reduced and drinks could not be made quickly. The drink stations did not “mirror” each other. Bartenders had to cross behind or reach over each other to get certain liquors. The soda guns were in the middle of the ice bin instead of on the far left side, so the hose of the soda gun was in the way of icing glasses, making it difficult to make drinks. I suggested putting a call in to the manufacturer to get the guns reinstalled in the right place.

    The lack of prioritized organization here reminded me of how important it is to do an analysis of liquor usage—what sells and what doesn’t. So we analyzed POS sales reports. From that analysis we culled a “dead stock” inventory of liquor product that wasn’t selling and we placed it away from the bar and storeroom, far from the active liquor inventory.

    With the remaining product—the “active liquor”—we created a bottle arrangement system for both drink making stations and the back bar that made it easy to know where everything was located, then labeled every bottle location.easy to pinpoint two reasons bars go under: Lack of manage is usually created by the lack of management skills, but a Next I looked at how they were pricing their liquor “by the shot,” and discovered they were missing out on an additional 20 to 25% in gross profit because they didn’t understand how to price properly. They only had three categories—well, call, and premium. I changed that to five categories: well, call, premium, super-premium and top shelf. I estimated that correctly pricing the liquor would add an additional $30,000 to $40,000 gross profit to their business by year’s end, at their present rate of sales.

    I also recommended discontinuing the use of quarters behind the bar, making all drink prices even-dollar amounts. I changed the way they charged tax on each drink; we made all drink prices inclusive with tax—in other words, $4.50 for the drink, not $4.25 for the drink plus $.28 tax. 

    I noticed the venue’s POS register system needed upgrading to better reflect actual sales. It was recording “doubles” but wasn’t identifying what liquor was being poured as a double. We called a technician and had drink prices reentered according to the new five-tier categories. Most of the recipe drinks were also incorrectly priced and were subsequently changed as well.