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STORYTIME (5) - Ever Hear the One About the Chicken Trophy?
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#568 - STORYTIME (5) - Ever Hear the One About the Chicken Trophy? ***** Tickets are available now for the Restaurant Profitability Summit! This is our biggest event of the year, but attendance is capped at 200 people. Get your tickets now. LEARN MORE: https://go.restaurant-strategy.com/summit-2026 ***** This week's episode is brought to you by: RESTAURANT SCALE SECRETSVISIT: https://restaurantscalesecrets.com/Chip This week's episode is brought to you by: OVATIONVISIT: https://ovationup.com/chip/ ***** Human beings are storytellers. It's how we make sense of the world around us, give meaning to the things we experience. Today I want to talk about how one of our P3 Members made a chicken trophy to sell more sandwiches. ***** If you want to snag a copy of Chip's book, The Restaurant Marketing Mindset: https://www.therestaurantmarketingmindset.com/ If you're ready to learn more about the P3 Mastermind: https://www.restaurantstrategypodcast.com/p3-mastermind-program If you want...
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So you are in the middle of a 20 episode stretch where I'm sharing the best stories that I have heard from restaurants. These are from clients of mine, P3 members. These are from real restaurants, real experiences I've had, dining out. They are the stories I tell more than anything else. And it's not me telling you what to do, it's me helping to illustrate some really, really crucial points that we talk about all the time. So much we're going to get to I can't wait to tell you the story of Crafty Cow on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy. There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking. Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. I am your host here of the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. We put out two episodes every single week. Episodes that will help you level up building more profitable, more successful, more sustainable business. I wrote a book. It's called the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. My new book called the Restaurant Profit Playbook comes out in just a couple of months. I can't wait to tell you more about that. I give talks all over the country. I run a coaching program called the P3 mastermind. That's how I work with so many, so many of you out there, so many restaurant owners and operators to help you dial in profits. I also host a big live event once a year, the Restaurant Profitability Summit. Happens every October. This year it's happening October 18th, 19th, 20th in Minneapolis. Two and a half days where you get to be with me and my team to level up Tactical how to series of 30 plus playbooks. All meant to help you manage your expenses, specifically cogs and labor. So how do you hire, trained, develop your people? How do you manage your schedule? What's the difference between leadership and management? How do I take inventory? How do I utilize menu engineering to make a more profitable restaurant? How do I get my costs in line? All of that is handled. Day one, Day two, then is revenue growth. So what are the operational levers available to me to grow my revenue? Meaning how do I look at all my revenue streams and grow them? How do I grow private dining and catering? How do I increase PPA per person average? Meaning how do I make each cover more valuable to me? We're going to show you ways to increase revenue by 15 to 20%. Showing you the scripts for how to do it. And then of course, we cover marketing. This marketing curriculum is all new. It leans heavily into AI because I know it's top of mind for a lot of you guys. How to use AI tools to not just like, you know, come up with social media posts, but actually, actually market your restaurant in 2026 and beyond. All of that is covered over the two days. For the first time we have a headliner, Gavin Case and two time James Beard award winning chef. He has three restaurants in Minne. He'll be on stage with me on Monday afternoon answering questions about how he's grown his empire, how he thinks about profitability, sustainability and success. Everyone who buys a ticket also gets invited to our big party on Monday night. It's food, open bar. It's going to be a blast. VIP ticket holders also get a welcome dinner on Sunday night. Get catered lunch Monday and Tuesday. Extra time to chat with me and my team. You get your tickets there. We're capping this event at 200. It's a small intimate event. We cap it at 200. Those tickets can be found on our show notes. Right, so the link to buy your tickets in the show notes again, general admission or vip. Both tiers of tickets get you access to two days of education and the big party on Monday night. VIPs just get some extra added benefits. Most of the VIP tickets are already gone, so be aware of that. If you want to do that, you got to jump on it soon. Again, the link is in the show notes. Restaurant owners. You want a steady predictable flow of new customers, right? If that is the case, then you need to check out restaurant scale Secrets. They have a fully done for you marketing system that has already helped tons of restaurants, including more than 50 members of this restaurant strategy community. They work with a ton of my P3 members. I recommend Restaurant Scale Secrets because I know it works. They run meta ads, they run Google Ads, and they have an entire automated system to get people into your orbit and to get them coming in and coming back. The program works. Why I recommend it not only here, but to all of my P3 members. You get to fill tables and add tens of thousands to top line revenue. So if you're ready to take that whole piece of marketing off your plate and start filling your seats, head to restaurantscale secrets.com chip book a free discovery call. There's no pressure. Get to meet Monica and her team and you'll see what they do and what they have already done for so many people in this community. Again, restaurantscalesecrets.com chip. As always, you'll find that link in the show Notes. Now, do you want to pulse on what's actually happening in your restaurant? Ovation gives you real time understanding about your guest experience, transforming guest feedback into clear, actionable insights so you can stop guessing and start making smarter decisions about your business. Their AI driven reporting breaks down every review into restaurant specific categories like speed of service, order accuracy, or food quality. And it shows you where to actually focus. One operator put it like this. Ovation is a game changer. It helps us identify issues early before they turn into bigger problems. Another operator starts every staff meeting by reviewing recent Ovation data, giving the team one source of truth to work from. With heat maps, goal tracking and performance dashboards. Ovation doesn't just tell you what's wrong, it it actually helps your team fix it. You can even assign action items and track the follow through on those items. So if you want to get all the answers without having to ask all the questions, go to ovationup.com chip to book a demo, mention this podcast and guess what? They'll waive your setup fee. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes. Okay, so we're talking stories. I've been telling stories about experiences I've had mostly. And now I want to start telling you stories about some of the clients I have. The P3 members that I work with. In particular, I want to talk to you about Devin Eichler. Devin Eichler owns a company called the Crafty Cow. Crafty Cow is based in and around the Milwaukee area. There are three locations. It's an upscale burger bar, craft beers, all of that. It's awesome. Lowkey, actually pretty casual. Right? So the others that I've told you about were mostly nicer restaurants. Right. And now I want to tell you again, again about another casual restaurant. So you don't think that the only way to do this is by having a big fancy restaurant? That is not the only way to do it. So Crafty Cow. Right. So we were talking about evangelism on the last time, right? A little refresher. I think marketing restaurants is simple. I think there are really only three things you need to do. You need to focus on customer acquisition. I call that attraction. What do you do to raise awareness and drive new diners into your place? How do you focus on customer retention? Meaning how do you get those newbies to come back? How do you increase the frequency of visits so that they become repeat customers and soon regulars? And then the last piece is evangelism? If we know word of mouth is so popular, what are you doing to get people to talk about you? What are you doing to make sure that word of mouth actually happens? And I was giving this lesson. We were talking all about evangelism, word of mouth, how do you get more views, how do you get more people to share your stuff, take photos and, and, you know, leave online posts and text videos about your, you know, about your, your restaurant, all of that. How do you do that? And I was sharing examples like Epcot, like the big green Monster, like the Eiffel Tower. I was sharing examples like Jose Andres and the Cocktail with the cloud over Top. I was talking about all of this. And Devin raised his hand. He said, so can I ask you a question? I said, sure. He said, so we have the best chicken sandwich in Milwaukee. In fact, we've been voted best chicken sandwich in Milwaukee three years in a row. But you can't tell. I mean, it's delicious. It. It tastes great, but it just sits there on the plate like it's a bun and chicken and like coleslaw and sauce and like pickles and whatever else you're gonna put on it, like it looks like every other chicken sandwich, but it's not. And I said, okay, so when you won this award, and I said, you know, I was just asking questions. And when you did you get like a plaque or something? Can you put that up, you know, on the wall? And he's like, no, we weren't given a plaque. And I said, okay, could you have it, like, called out on the menu, like award winning, vote at number boat vote at best in Milwaukee? And he said, oh, no, you know, sometimes our servers talk about it, but, but, but no, we don't really do that. Right? And I said, okay, well, it would probably be a big start because maybe people don't know that it's a big deal that you guys have the best. And he sort of got quiet for a minute and then came back and he said, what if we got a trophy? I sort of laughed. I said, what do you mean, a trophy? They're going to give you a trophy. He's like, well, no, they don't give us a plaque, but I could get a plaque made, but why don't I just make a trophy? And I was like, what? And we talked it through, and a week later he came back and he said, I got a trophy made. And he showed it was a chicken trophy. And the little plaque on the trophy, right, like, little part that's, that's engraved, said, you are now eating the number one chicken sandwich in Milwaukee. And I was like, holy crap. And he said, we're gonna think of it like the Stanley cup. You know, there's one Stanley cup, and if you win it, it stays in your city. And then it moves around to different cities every time a new team wins. And I was like, okay. He's like, so every time somebody orders the chicken sandwich, we bring the chicken sandwich and we put the trophy in the middle of the table and we'll tell people, we just want you to know you are now eating the number one chicken sandwich in Milwaukee. And I think it'd be hilarious. And if, you know, crafty cow, it's got, you know, it's got some whimsy to it. And certainly Devin is funny, individual. And I was like, this is right in keeping. It's right on brand with crafty cow, with what they do, who they are, how they operate. And I was like, okay, fast forward another week. He comes back and he's like, I want you to go online. This is sort of becoming a big deal. And you go online and you say, you know, type in crafty cow. And all of a sudden, there are all these pictures of people in the crafty cow with their chicken sandwich and a trophy. People take pictures of the chicken sandwich with the trophy behind it. People take pictures holding the sandwich in one hand and the chicken trophy in another. I mean, on and on, on. It was amazing. Well, then something cooler happened, right? This is all part of the same story. He's like, man, something awful happened. Somebody stole our chicken trophy. And I was like, oh, no. But it was sort of predictable, right? Like, you had to imagine this thing's hilarious. Somebody was going to steal it. And he said, yeah, I should have predicted it. So now we're going to get like, six of them for each restaurant. I was like, okay. He's like, I bought 18 of them. And then what he did is he slapped a little QR code on the bottom of each trophy, and it said, you know, if taken, plea, you know, like to return please scan or something like that. And people scanned it and it took them to a landing page that said, hey, not a big deal. We don't need the backstory, no questions asked, Return this trophy to the restaurant and get your next chicken sandwich for free. And so what happened is that these continued getting stolen, but they started coming back. That people came back and said, hey. And the whole thing was like, hey, listen, we were here the other night. My buddy was really drunk, and the person manager would Be like, no, no, no, I don't need the story. Doesn't matter. Again, no questions asked. Thank you for bringing it back. And without fail, people were like, yeah, no problem. Quick question. Do I really get a free chicken sandwich? And you're like, yeah, yeah, you brought it back. No questions asked. You get a free chicken sandwich. So then that became something that people were talking about in their reviews. They would talk about online, they would post photos and stuff like that. It became a point. So now it actually became not only an evangelism tool, it wasn' something that people were talking about, but it actually became a retention tool. It became something that brought people back, even if it was for somewhat an embarrassing reason for them to come back. So, number one, they talked about how great they were, right? This trophy did that. Number two, it gave them something to talk about. Because I've never been to any restaurant that has a chicken trophy, right? And then the third part is that it got people to come back and patronize the restaurant again. When we talk about, you know, stories, what makes me talk about something? And I will tell you that I went out and visited Devin last summer, and I had dinner at his place. And the chicken sandwich is fantastic. But I don't typically talk about a great meal because I have the privilege of having a lot of great meals throughout the week, because this is what I do for a living. I have a lot of clients. I dine out a lot. So I don't need to tell people about the great chicken sandwich. And honestly, I probably wouldn't have, but I went there, and it's funny, because I went with a buddy of mine, and I didn't tell him that the chicken trophy was coming. So I ordered the chicken sandwich, and without fail, they put it down in front of us. And then they dropped the chicken trophy. And they said verbatim, they were like, you are now eating the number one chicken sandwich in Milwaukee. And we were like. My buddy turns to me. He's like, what the hell was that? And then I told him the story that I just told you. The bottom line is, I'm not gonna go talk about a great chicken sandwich. My buddy Steven is not gonna go talk about a great chicken sandwich. But. But a chicken trophy. I think a chicken trophy is something I definitely will talk about. And I've told this story now dozens and dozens of times. And I know my buddy Steven, who's also in the restaurant industry, talks about it dozens and dozens and dozens of times. The bottom line is, you gotta give somebody something to talk about. That's what the chicken trophy did. Listen, I appreciate you guys being here again. A final reminder, the Restaurant Profitability Summit happens in October in Minneapolis. There are only 200 spots as of this recording. A little more than half are already taken. If you want to be there, I want you to be there. General admission or Vib, get the play Byplay. You know, Paint by Number, how to Playbooks for how to run a more profitable restaurant. We will show you how to make more money in the year ahead. The way to do that is get your tickets. The link is in the show notes. Go grab your spot and I will see you in Minneapolis. Appreciate you guys listening. I will see you next time.