← Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore
Restaurant Unstoppable with Eric Cacciatore
1230: What you need to know about L.T.O.’s with Anna Neave
01:03:32
This is a LIVE event all about Limited Time Offers (L.T.O.'s) and how to best utilize them in your business, as presented by Anna Neave. Anna is the owner of and in Austin, Texas! Join RULibrary: Join RULive: Set Up your RUEvolve 1:1: ...
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A
What up Unstoppables? We have a very busy week here at Restaurant Unstoppable. The Last week of October. October 27th. The week of October 27th. First event Tuesday the 28th at 10am we have an operations Power hour with Stephanie Robson. To get the Stephanie Robson playlist, head over to restaurantstoppable.com Stephanie with an I S T E P H A N I R O B S O n.
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B
To get the Stephanie Robinson playlist to.
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A
See if she's somebody you want to hear from. Right on the heels of that, at 11am we have the Culture Leadership Strategy Power Hour with Rudy Mick. You can get the Rudy Mick playlist by heading over to restaurant unstoppable.comm I I c k then on Wednesday at 4pm EST, we have the P L Power Hour. Show up with your P L. Fred Langley, CEO of Restaurant Assistance Pro will help you move the needle and find points. There's money on the table, we'll help you find it. And then on Friday at 2pm we have a menu engineering Power hour with Sean Willard and He is from MenuEngineers.com so basically I'm pulling together the all star team guys start this podcast to be the guy. I started this podcast to be a student of the industry and to find out who the best in the industry are. And now I'm pulling it all together in Restaurant Unstoppable Network because we go further together and I want you to be the beneficiary of this amazing network we're pulling together. $47 a month. You get access to experts and not just that, but community restaurant tours from across the country trying to be the best version of themselves, lifting each other up. And on that note, I want to share a special event that was an idea from one of our community members. Answer this question. What is the one thing that you've recently done in your business to improve revenue, profit, whatever that is? What is this one thing that you've recently discovered? We want to hear about it. And, and if you do that, I'll give you one month free access to Restaurant Unstoppable Network so that you can be the beneficiary of other people sharing the one thing that they've done. Head over to restaurantstoppable.com live to join the community. Or email me eric@restaurantunstoppable.com Foreign welcome to Restaurant Unstoppable. For 10 years and over 1, 000 episodes I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable.
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B
Restaurant owners.
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A
What if I told you there is a way to lower your prime cost by $1,000 and get paid $1,000 on top of that? If it sounds too good to be true, it's not. Restaurant Systems Pro is offering that deal right now to 10 of my lucky listeners. Listen closely, Join the restaurant system 30 day prime cost challenge and if you successfully improve your prime cost by $1,000 or more compared to the same 30 days the year prior, they will pay you $1,000. Find the link in the show notes titled restaurant systems pro 30 day prime cost challenge. Click that link and get signed up. Today only 10 people are going to get approved into this program. Get on it. This episode is made possible by Meese. Mies is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus and nail food execution at scale. We know to scale you need consistency because consistency builds trust with your guests and your staff. We all want to know what the job done right looks like and when you have systems, your systems are a picture of perfection of what that job done right is. And that puts us to peace. We are so happy when we know.
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B
We'Re doing a good job.
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A
Me's will be the one source of truth for your entire team. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getmes.com Unstoppable. That's www.g-e T M E E Z.com Unstoppable with excitement.
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B
Allow me to introduce you today's guest, co host and co producer of this podcast, owner of Sweet Treats Independent fractional CMO Anna LT Neve My lady, are you feeling unstoppable today?
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C
Yes, absolutely. It's a, it's after the, the holiday break with the kids so I feel pretty good. Pretty unstoppable today.
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B
Yeah, I'm. I'm stoked to get into today's topic. We're gonna be covering LTOs. What you need to know about LTOs before we dive into the world of limited time offers LTOs. Let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quote or mantra. What do you got for us today?
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C
I have this up in a little post it note on my computer and so I look at it every single day and it Says progress beats perfection.
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B
Ooh, dive into that.
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C
You know, sometimes we can be a little overwhelmed, especially if you have like a profession perfectionist tendency where you, you know, are a little afraid to start because you don't know how it's going to end up. And so a little bit of motivation or a little bit of activation every single day beats perfection every single time.
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B
Yeah. And I think just starting too. We're so slow to start because we want to be perfect and we end up never starting. And you're gonna get better.
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A
If it sucks, that's okay because every.
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B
Time you do it, you're gonna get a little bit better too. But the trick is just starting progress. Yeah. Awesome.
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C
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Just start. It's gonna be fine.
- [05:40]
B
So the world of ltos. I introduced you today as my co host and my co producer. So you, you, you brought this subject to me. I said, anna, we're due for another conversation. What do you said ltos. Why ltos?
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C
I. So as a marketer, I really love a limited time offer LTOs. It gives your marketing team something new to talk about so they're not just going back to the same well about your existing menus or existing specials. Like it gives them something new and it gives reasons for your, your listening audience, your guests out there to also pay attention as well. They. It gives your guests a reason to choose you that week. It creates a little bit of urgency for regulars and when done right, is actually kind, cheap marketing. Right. One or two new SKUs, a handful of social posts, an email, and then you've changed some consumer behavior, which is really helpful. But the secret is you have to make something that you can actually execute well. The price is smart and measure everything. That's why I love an lto.
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B
Yeah. I think one thing, the things I love about LTOs in this world today of consistency is what seems to be working, doing one thing really well and replicating it to scale. It can kind of be boring from like a creator perspective. So limited time offers really kind of open up the door for your team to create something special for a quarter, you know, And I think we can get kind of blossom sometimes in this world of trying to focus on profitability and streamline scale. Like what about the creative side of things?
- [07:09]
C
Exactly, exactly. And LTOs, especially around like different holiday moments or events going on in your town, that can be really helpful too. It. It's also a really great way for marketing and operations to work together, which sometimes can be a little bit contentious. Right. But if we all have the same Goal which is like increase check size or increase weekday traffic or encourage, you know, repeat visits. Then you can craft something related to that goal and it gives the two sides a chance to, to work together and come up with something really fun. You see that a lot, of course, in the fall. Right. So it's been fall up there where you are, Eric, for some time. It's only become fall in Texas this week, but fall is a really good time to like start thinking about your seasonal promotions.
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B
Yeah. Um, okay, so where do we start this conversation in terms of, you know, I guess it would be how to craft. Do we start in the how to craft an offer? Like where, like, does that make like what, what does that look like?
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A
What does a good offer.
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B
What does a good LTO look like?
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C
Yeah, so I would say that like, you really need to think about a goal that's then measurable so that you can create an offer around that. Right. So you're trying to solve a single problem. Is that driving midweek covers, is that increasing check size or is it encouraging repeat visits? So I would pick one of those and design around that. And I have a couple examples if that's helpful. We can get into examples later or I can give them right now.
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B
What do you think? Makes sense. Whatever. You're steering the ship, lady. I'm just asking questions.
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C
Well, let's keep people listening. Right. So let's leave the examples for the end. Sorry, you can't jump off yet.
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B
Okay, let's see. I like that idea. So in terms of. So those three goals are covers, check size, repeat visit. Is there a time or place, like when do you know which goal to use or the house? You prioritize those goals.
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C
You always know, Right. Like if you need to get some incremental sales. Right. I would increase check size. Like that's an easy one to start doing. Of course, increasing check size can be done through increasing prices on your menu. Or it can be adding something really special, like an add on to your existing menu that might encourage people to add something more to it. You don't want to cannibalize it. Right. You don't want people coming in that they were going to order anyway and then they're ordering the special now instead of like one of your regulars, your regular menu items. So you have to think of ways to like add incremental sales on top of that. Okay, I'll get to those examples in a little bit. But there's, there's lots of ways to do it. And you, I mean, you look at it by looking at your numbers, right. Whether you're using Restaurant Systems Pro or you're using something else that tells you, you know, what are your sales looking like this week? You typically know and can make comparisons between this month and last month, or this month and last year, or this month and last month, last year. And that usually gives you an indication of when you need to, you know, solve a problem.
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B
So out of these three goals, covers check size, repeat visitors, which one do you think LTOS is best used for?
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C
Oh, I like encouraging repeat visits. Right. Because like you want to get people in multiple times. Like a loyal customer is more likely to come back. Right. So if you can give them a reason to come back again and then come back again, you're creating a habit. And that's usually the best way, I mean, that's my favorite way is to keep people anticipating. And so they want to keep coming back to you because they're excited about what you offer. And then of course, they get to know your menu and love your, your regular menu as well.
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B
I mean, I tend to lean in that direction too. I think we focus too much on getting new customers that we, yeah. Lose sight of the ones we already have. We don't take care of the people who are showing up now. Right. So if we are, if that is our goal to, to emphasize repeat visits, is there a way that we should approach limited time offers differently for that specific goal?
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C
Yeah, there is. Let me scroll down to my pages of pages.
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B
Am I teasing these? Is this going to be the example at the end?
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C
It's fine. It's fine. This is an easy one because I think a lot of people think this way. So think about if you have a burger concept or a taco concept. Right. A burger series or a taco series. That's a really good way to encourage repeat visits. Right. So think about a burger place. You have a monthly like chef special burger limited to only two weeks each and like a six, six month rotating series of these burger series. So you want people to come in and try these burgers, Try these chef driven burgers. So you talk about them like a series, meaning. Oh, this is a series. Okay, well, I'm having one. That means there's going to be another one. I need to come in and try that one too. I really love this one with like poblano peppers and white queso. I want to come back next month to see like what do they have different. So that's an an example of encouraging repeat visits.
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B
Got it.
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C
Like a series.
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B
Got it. Series.
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C
Right. Let's keep going. I want to talk a little bit more about those offers, like how to do it, because that's only one thing.
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B
Right.
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C
Solving a single problem. The second way to really craft an offer that stands out is to keep it very simple. Right. So I would only bring in, if you can, one to three new SKUs or items to make this LTO. Right. So take a look at your menu right now. You know, all the different products that you're bringing in. What can you make from those products to create a new lto? Or what do you need to add to a little bit in order to make this LTO work? Is that if you're doing like a margarita of the month promo or something like that, are you bringing in raspberry puree? Well, that's only one SKU that you're bringing in, and you're just adding to your existing recipe. That's a really smart way to do it. Ultimately, you want to make sure that you're not bringing something in that's going to increase waste or complicate training, that you want to keep it as simple as possible.
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B
Yeah. Like one ingredient or. Yeah, to your point. Like the raspberry flavor for margarita. Yeah. That mean that is the biggest challenge with limited time offers is throwing a wrench in the operations. Right. That can mess with a lot of people.
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C
Yeah.
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B
So I know you're going to share some examples. My next question, what's actually working right now? But we're going to hold off on that for the very end.
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C
Okay.
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B
What are the biggest mistakes?
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A
Unless there's.
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B
Is there anything else we want to touch on in terms of how to craft an offer that stands out?
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C
Yeah, for sure. I would say that, like, use a hook. Using a hook is really important when it comes to lto. I mean, like, come up with a story. Right. Like, is it a seasonal thing? Is it fall related? Is it holiday related? Is it a chef's creation? Like, are you trying to highlight the work of a chef that you're working with either inside your operation, or is it like a local collaboration? Right. Are you collabing maybe with, like, a local, like, meat purveyor or something like that? Then you want to highlight that. Or if you're looking at the alcohol side, are you working with, you know, a tequila company or a distillery, and you want to highlight some of their flavors? So it's important to find a hook somehow. A series itself can be a hook, but you don't want to just, like, put out a burger and be like, it's a one time burger that doesn't sell me anything. Right. It's not. I need to have like a seasonal ingredient or tell me about why the chef came up with it or like are we collaborating with somebody on that? So that's important.
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B
So do you prioritize the like. So like to your point, seasonal related or individual related or local collaboration like entity related? Is there one that you think works better than others.
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C
Or you know, a series is always a good one. Seasonal is really helpful. Right? Seasonally people, their palettes change. Right? Like, you know that like ritual looking for.
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B
Yeah, they want that pumpkin.
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C
Yeah, yeah, man. They want that PSL. Yeah. 100 they do.
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B
So what goes to my mind when we're creating so hooks. What are hooks? What pulls people in ritual, I. E. Seasonal and also relationships. And I think when I heard you say individual related or local collaboration, like an entity, a company, I think those are powerful because the hook is the relationship. This individual is going to push this lto to their audience too. And I think in today's world with social media and in slingshot off influencers, that is a very powerful hook.
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C
It really is. I mean the more collabs you can do on one item, the better too. Because if you have like you're working with maybe, maybe you get a deal with Mike's Hot Honey. Right? So Mike's is like working with you. So you're trying to figure out how to incorporate hot honey into it. But you also, I don't know, you're working with like a local farm and so you want to use some of their vegetables as well. I think that's. Those are really awesome opportunities to collab on a limited time offer. And when I say limited time, we haven't really gotten into this, like how short, how long is limited time? I would recommend doing at least for one period. For whatever your accounting period is. Better to do it at least maybe two periods so you have enough time to sort of stretch it out.
- [15:33]
B
So you're saying a period would be a month.
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C
Most companies use a period as a month, but I've worked for other companies where they had like 13 periods over the course of a year, which is very messy. But like whatever your accounting period is.
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B
Okay, cool. Should we unpackage what is working or. Sorry, how to craft an offer that stands out before moving on to the next bullet point we have here, which is avoid these mistakes.
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C
Yeah, I think that, you know, as far as like tactics to like talk about it, I have several in terms of like how to market it. Let's go down that hill first because I think one of the things that you should do is test the LTO before you put it out there. Right. And this is a really good way to actually create some buy in as well. I would go with your VIPs to pull 2010-20 core guests of regular. You can either do some sort of pre launch activation event or whenever your regulars come in, say, hey, we're, we're working on this. I did this several times at my last position. I would go, you know, literally downstairs and be like, hey, we're working on this new lto. Do you guys want to try it? Thank you. Oh, it's coffee. Yay. And they always would, they'd be like, yeah. And you know, we'd bring out the plate and they, they tell us their opinion and it was always really valuable to have that opinion. And your regulars are going to tell you what they really think about it because they, they like the place. They come often. They want us to see you succeed. So getting them to try it out is really important. Before you ever do any other kind of promotion, it also creates that buy in in your community, right? I mean, you have people that you like, you see all the time and you're getting their opinion and they really enjoy that and value that relationship.
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B
So how to get buy in, the most significant is to pull your, your guests into the process and to let them influence what the offer is. What else?
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C
I would do that. And then on social media, that's where you can get really playful. I think that you can highlight, you know, sort of behind the scenes of like putting together this, this lto, putting together the burger of the month. We tried all these different toppings and you can show like a whiteboard with crazy toppings and like crossing out different ide ideas that didn't work or whatever. You know, tell a story in a way that's really fun and engaging, not just like, here's the thing and expect people to come in. You want to put a little bit more oomph behind it. I think also giving people a chance to weigh in on it is really great as well. And that's one of the great things about social. You can create polls, right? Which taco should be next in our taco series? Get them to vote on, like what toppings they want to have involved. That's a really nice way to reach out. And then reels of plating, you know, doing some video of like plating. The new LTO is, is really great. It's a really nice Way to show off your brand personality.
- [18:12]
B
Yeah.
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C
And then. Yeah, go ahead.
- [18:14]
B
I was gonna say I can't help but think of lay's potatoes and their campaigns where they let their, their, their customers come up with flavors and it's like a con. I think it's a competition, right? A contest. Can that get dangerous if like somebody like pitches like this crazy idea and it wins?
- [18:32]
C
That's why you should keep it to a poll and not leave an open ended question. Right?
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B
Here are four options based on your recommendations. We've selected four options. Now let's make it into a competition. SEO wins.
- [18:44]
C
Yeah, exactly.
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A
Put some bumpers on, people can get a little crazy.
- [18:48]
B
Yeah, for sure.
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C
Yeah, you want, you want to do that? And then I also want to mention, you know, other great ways to get the word out. Email and sms, always great, great ROI for reservations. If you needed an immediate traffic. I keep it really short. You know, if you're releasing an lto, don't add a whole bunch of other things to that email. You know, short subject, one image, short call to action. This is where to go and get it. Like send that out. SMS marketing works really well. High engagement on there as well. Depending on what platform you're using, you can actually see if people came in and bought the thing, which is really helpful because once they receive the sms, it then tracks their order history for like the next two weeks and you can see that they actually come in and order that. Or not.
- [19:31]
A
Restaurant owners, what if I told you there is a way to lower your prime cost by a thousand dollars month over month and get paid $1,000? That sounds like a deal too good to be true. But that's exactly the deal that Restaurant Systems Pro is offering 10 of my lucky listeners. So why are they doing this? Because they consistently help their clients get between 15 and 25% profit in their business. And when they approach new clients and say I can do thing for you, they get met with a lot of resistance. And because it sounds too good to be true, most restaurants think if you do between 5 and 10%, you're doing good. So to hit 15 or 25%, like what do we have to sacrifice?
- [20:07]
B
What, what scam are you throwing at me, sir?
- [20:11]
A
No, thank you.
- [20:11]
B
But the truth is they really do.
- [20:13]
A
Help people hit these numbers. And the way they do it is by having all the most important systems that are tied to profitability fully integrated into an enterprise solution. I'm talking like accounting, inventory, scheduling, checklist, training systems, general ledger, balance sheets, costing cards. So when you have all those Systems dialed in, ironclad tied, connected, fully integrated in an enterprise solution. You get data. And when you have data, you can make little tweaks here and there. And those little tweaks you can see the fruits of your labor, the the effects of your efforts. And that's how you hit 15 and 25% profit. And on top of all this, they also have support, which is unheard of in today's age. So you get all these things compound that help you hit that 15 to 25%. And if I have your attention, keep listening. Join the restaurant systems pro 30 day prime cost challenge. And if you successfully improve your prime cost by $1,000 or more compared to the same 30 day period last year, they will pay you a thousand dollars. If you're listening on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, find the show notes and we will have a link titled restaurant systems pro 30 day prime cost challenge. Click that link and get signed up today. Only 10 spots, guys.
- [21:27]
B
Do not wait.
- [21:28]
A
Get your spot, lower your prime cost by a thousand dollars and get paid that $1,000. They're actually calling this a reverse guarantee. Get on it.
- [21:36]
B
So relative, how does this LTO play off of menu engineering? Is that a very complicated question?
- [21:43]
C
Great question. No, no, no.
- [21:45]
A
Too far fetched.
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C
No, I think it's great. I think it's great. I think that if you're looking at menu engineering, right, you've got your like four different segments which. Don't ask me what they are right now because I'll forget.
- [21:55]
B
Oh, winners, losers, stars. Dogs.
- [21:58]
C
Dogs. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [22:00]
B
Yeah. I can't remember.
- [22:01]
C
Which is really awful. I think we can't call.
- [22:03]
B
Well, you kind of played off of this earlier. You mentioned that you want to play off your current skew in terms of menu engineering. You don't want to go out and increase your cost of goods and over complicate things. You want to say, what do we have in house and how do we use this differently? Plow horse.
- [22:16]
C
Exactly, exactly.
- [22:16]
B
One of our attendees just typed it out for us. Plow horse, dog, star.
- [22:23]
C
Thank you.
- [22:24]
B
And there's, there's still one missing, right?
- [22:28]
C
Puzzles is one puzzle.
- [22:29]
B
Yeah.
- [22:29]
C
Cash cow is your. What is it? Cash cow.
- [22:32]
B
I know what the quadrants mean. I just can't remember what they're called.
- [22:34]
C
I know.
- [22:36]
B
Anyway, Plow horse. Maybe, maybe star is what I meant by cash cow. That's like the thing that's cheap.
- [22:42]
C
And winner.
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B
Great. Yeah.
- [22:43]
C
Oh, yeah, sorry. Tommy's our backup producer. He's doing the research. All right, so anyway, but related to that, I would Definitely take a look. Like, what are the things that are standouts? What's selling really well? What kind of flavors are included in that menu item that are doing really well? You don't want to go too far away from that. Right. Like, I'd stick with something similar to that. And then if you have a puzzle, yeah, it's dogs. And then if you have a puzzle on your menu, I think that's a really good way to also kind of figure out, like, what is it that people like or don't like about this one? Like what, what's going on here? How can we highlight this series of ingredients in a different way that might make it a little bit more palatable and people want to order it.
- [23:22]
B
Got it.
- [23:22]
C
So it gives you a chance to kind of play around.
- [23:24]
B
Got it. I had a question, I lost it. It'll come back to me. So to summarize, you know, right now we're talking about how to craft an offer that stands out. You want to start with a goal. You want to either focus on covers, check size, or repeat visits. We said repeat visits is probably the biggest ROI of energy right there. And we were talking about tactics, different hooks, and you want to keep it simple. Anything else before we move on? Actually, that question I had just came back into my head. So you mentioned promoting. You want to promote it on social media, you want to promote it with email, sms, Keep it very simple, straight to the point. But what about in house or on the menu? How do you promote it?
- [24:09]
C
Yeah, I'm really glad you brought that up because that was one of my points I wanted to talk about too. So if you have it in store, I think table tents actually are still really valuable, man. Every time we put it, we would put out a table tent, people would order it. Like, it's just kind of crazy. But table tents are great point of sale signage. If you have like a walk up, a walk up concept, that's, that's really helpful. I would make sure it's very eye catching, very clear what the ingredients are. And then other in store that you cannot forget is training of your serving staff. That's super, super important. Make sure that they're bought in well before the LTO goes live. Tell them about it a couple weeks before, a week before, and then make sure they try it right. They need to try the special. I can't tell you. So many times I've gone in and people have said, oh, we have this special going on and they're like, oh, do you like it? And they're like, oh, I haven't had it. What? That's crazy. Make sure your people have it, that they have the talking points, that they know how to talk about it. That's really, really important. Training not just for back of house, but front of house is really critical.
- [25:08]
B
Yeah.
- [25:09]
C
I would also make sure that you have some signage in sort of like, near the server stations so people can be reminded constantly about, you know, what. What is on special right now and.
- [25:18]
B
For how long do limited time offers. Is it. Is it ideal to have them be stars? Are these things that are, like, also, you know, popular but also have huge margins? Is that important?
- [25:31]
C
Well, I was going to talk about margins in a second because, like, I actually don't think you should have giant margins on this. I would keep your food costs just like you do a lot of other things is keep your food cost between 27 and 32% if you can on ltos. Yeah, Tommy's making a lot of face, a lot of face right now. Tommy, where would you aim for your food cost to be?
- [25:50]
B
Well, we're going to have that conversation with the Q and A. I want to try to keep that one. And this is a little teaser. If you show up for the live events when you join RU live, you can engage in conversation after the workshop is presented. So one other question. So I'm thinking LTO's limited time offers. I'm thinking pumpkin. Right. Obviously, people love pumpkin for lots of different reasons, but it's also in season, it's cheaper. So, like, your cost of goods can be way down if you're. If you're playing off seasonal products. Is that something you want to consider?
- [26:20]
C
Sure, yeah. I mean, I definitely think seasonality is great. It also resonates really, really well with your guests. Right. They. They like to know what's in season and buy and buy based on that. You know, I mean, think about strawberry season as well, or you're gonna have a lamb or.
- [26:35]
B
Or a veal special in the spring, you know, ideally.
- [26:39]
C
Yeah. All right. The Italian anyways.
- [26:44]
B
But I mean, that's when those things are in abundance. Right? So I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud right now. Do we want to move on to avoiding these mistakes? What are the mistakes we need to avoid?
- [26:54]
C
Yeah, we can do that.
- [26:55]
B
I know we didn't talk much about using limited time offers for covers or check size. Is there any spec, like, specifics associated with those bullet points?
- [27:05]
C
I have some examples for that, but we can get to those in a second. We'll see if we Talk about avoiding these mistakes first.
- [27:10]
B
Got it.
- [27:10]
C
Yeah. So I, I've, I've basically the, the biggest mistake is like launching something you can't execute. Well. That's, that's the big mistake. Right. So, so red flags to look for is like long prep time, rare ingredients, strain on equipment, long pastimes, like it's sitting there for too long. Your serving staff needs some help. If the service suffers, the brand takes a hit. Doesn't matter if there's an LTO or not. Your guest will not forgive you for bad execution. So you have to make sure that like you can execute it. That means keeping those skus low. Right. Don't add too many, too many skus. Don't make it an overly complicated recipe. Um, more training is going to, you know, if you have more skus that you're bringing in, it's going to create more training time, more waste, slower time in the line. Just have to keep it as simple as possible.
- [27:59]
B
Got it. So. Oh, go ahead.
- [28:04]
C
Wait, back to. But there's another mistake related to food cost. If you price it too low, you're going to blow your food cost target. And if you price it too high, you're obviously going to kill demand from your customer. So you need to consider that. Oh, I had another idea because we ran into this issue before too is you cannot put a. I wouldn't put a soup. If everyone loves soup season, you know, they love to put out like a winter soup or something like that. You shouldn't do that as a standalone item because it's going to kill your ppa, your per person average. Right. So I always recommend having having soups available only as a side or like you get it when you order this, you can't just have it as a standalone app because a lot of people, especially our older customers, love them, will come in and just be like, oh, a soup. So instead of like a twelve sandwich, now they're ordering a six dollar cup of soup. And that's. And they only want like extra crackers. Not a great, not a great mode for your food costs and ppa.
- [29:02]
B
So if you, if you're. What if you're getting it as. Not as they're not ordering the soup as a side, but as an entree. And it's a bowl, not a cup.
- [29:12]
C
Nope, wouldn't do it.
- [29:13]
B
Okay.
- [29:13]
C
I wouldn't do it. I would, I would make a seasonal item. If you're doing a seasonal low cost item like a soup should only make it available as a side with an entree.
- [29:23]
B
Got it. What Happens if they insist on ordering it alone. What do you do? Do you. So you can't have it.
- [29:29]
C
I mean, you don't want to have a fight over soup, right? But I would encourage people you can train your folks to be like, you know, that goes great with this appetizer. Order this appetizer or order this salad, or even get a half of a.
- [29:41]
B
Don't market it as an option, but be sure to upsell it.
- [29:45]
C
Exactly.
- [29:45]
B
But if somebody asks for it, I mean, don't say no, you can't have the soup. Get the hell out of here.
- [29:51]
C
I would never recommend that.
- [29:54]
B
So, so the, the big mistake we're talking about avoiding right now, avoid these mistakes. Launching something that you cannot execute. Well, things to consider, Prep time, special equipment, training. And we also talked about price accurately, meaning not too high, not too low. Can you go deeper into what that means? Like, what does an accurate pricing look like relative to an lto?
- [30:16]
C
Sure, sure. So I recommended your target food cost should be between 27 and 32%. Tommy had a lot of face on that, but we'll get there. So, okay, most of these people listening to this obviously know how to calculate food costs, right? But just as like a quick, like, go over, the price should equal the cost proportion divided by your target food cost, right? So if to hit 30% food cost and your price proportion is 225, 225 divided by 0.30, 30% equals a consumer price of 750. And then you can adjust from there. So like at 27%, you multiply it by, or divide it by 0.27, 32% divided by 0.32. And so you can get these numbers that you should be putting on your menu. That said, you don't want to forget whenever you got your cost of your food cost, you don't want to forget to factor in things like trim or waste portion variance. Packaging if you're doing it for takeout, and incremental labor if prep is really heavy. So those can increase the effective cost per portion. So I build in like a small, like 5 to 10% buffer into the cost per portion.
- [31:29]
B
So you're not pricing it any differently. You're just making sure that you're not just throwing some random price up there, really doing the work to figure out what the, the actual costs should be.
- [31:38]
C
Exactly. And I mean, you can work backwards. You can look at like, I mean, like, I do, I look at the menus of a lot of different restaurants all the time to figure out, like, how are they Pricing things and then knowing what my food cost is, I'll reverse engineer that and figure out, like, where are they at percentage wise and. And go based on that.
- [31:54]
B
Got it. What about relative to launching something you can't execute? What is a good rule of thumb in terms of when do you start the training before the LTO is offered to make sure people are ready to start delivering it?
- [32:07]
C
Well, I would think about your concept, right? Like, if you are a burger concept, I would not throw on a pizza as, like an lto, right? Or calzone, if you will. You want to make sure that it's something that could be executed in the back of house really easily. So I would look at those stars on your menu and say, okay, what is the assembly like for this? Is this a sandwich? Is this like a. If it's a Tex Mex concept, is this an enchilada or something that's like, thrown into the oven or into the salamander really easily? Like, what are those steps that go into creation of the food and then make sure that you can just replicate it essentially with just additional ingredients?
- [32:42]
B
Maybe like a week before. Don't drop an lto. Have your staff show up and be like, all right, do it. Like, get. Let them get. Like, tell them about it. Send them some educational material, like, why this and why we're doing it. Like, get them excited about it, and then maybe have them get a couple reps in the shift before they're actually supposed to be doing it.
- [32:59]
C
I would. I would do it even earlier than that, honestly. Like, I would give them at least two weeks working on it.
- [33:05]
B
Got it.
- [33:05]
C
And then, of course, if you're getting people to try it in store, if you have your regulars trying it, like, that gives the backup house an opportunity to also, or, you know, try out the execution.
- [33:13]
B
Having a short list of the people that, you know, your regular saying, hey, we're going to be releasing an LTO and we're refining it. Come on in early and give us some feedback. Like, that's another. I like that idea. Of course I do. It's my own.
- [33:30]
C
Just praise your own idea. All right?
- [33:33]
B
Avoid these mistakes. Launch something that you can execute and drop prices or make sure you don't price inaccurately. What else should we consider in terms of mistakes to avoid the biggest mistakes that you see happening?
- [33:45]
C
I would definitely have a chat with your distributor. Obviously, I think about this a lot because my husband is with a distributor, and make sure that the distributors can.
- [33:54]
B
Run out of them. Are we allowed to say he's with You. You. As foods. We love you as foods here. Thank you for your support, US Foods. Keep going.
- [34:04]
C
Anyway, wow.
- [34:06]
B
Hey, I. I love my sponsors. Currently. They are very incredibly supportive, and US Foods is on that list, so.
- [34:13]
C
Currently.
- [34:14]
B
Wow.
- [34:14]
C
Okay. Don't mess it up, guys. Anyway, yes. Okay, so he's with US Foods. I would definitely have a chat with your distributor and find out. Okay, we're thinking about bringing on an lto. Do you have any products that you're bringing on right now that you're excited about? Have a chat with your rep and, like, see what they're up to? I would also make sure that whatever ingredient or excuse you're going to start bringing on, they're not going to run out. Right. We're going to be running this LTO from April 1st until end of May. Do you think we're going to have enough of these items to make sure that we can execute on them? And then they're probably going to know, like, what is your target? Like, how many are you going to need? And you can just have that chat with them. I would definitely make sure you chat with the distributor before you bring in an LTO and then find out you have issues in the future. In fact, I have a really good example of that. Hold on. Where is it? Oh, well, it was more of a training issue, but that's fine.
- [35:02]
B
Got it.
- [35:03]
C
We can talk about a little bit. Okay, so Starbucks. We've already talked about Starbucks and, like, the psl, Right. Why do people love the pumpkin spice latte? And I just want to give you, like, two quick examples of, like, winners and, like, opportunity areas for within Starbucks, which this can apply to any of the coffee shops around the country as well. The pumpkin spice thing is a seasonal LTO that has turned into, like, a cultural signal for fall, which is incredible. Lots of repeatability and predictable seasonal revenue throughout the year. It's created this, like a. It's like a yearly ritual to go and get yours. I had my first PSL two days ago, actually. It works. They know it's coming. They talk with their distributors. They know it's. They know that they need that. The syrup or the. The goo, whatever it is, to make sure that they can make that. That psl. There's a lot of strong social sharing on it, earned media, and very careful operational rollout after testing. They're really good at training. Except when it came to the unicorn Frappuccino. So this was back in 2017. I looked it up. I don't know if you remember this, Eric, but it was Like a very colorful Frappuccino with like pinks and purples and blues. And it was visually, because this was during, like peak Instagram era, this was visually very beautiful. So they wanted people to share it on social. There was a lot of huge social buzz and some user generated content about it, but it was very, very difficult to execute. The baristas were really mad about it. It caused a lot of operational pain and many customers reporting disappointment in taste, including myself. I remember actually throwing mine away because it was like, not great. So they were really going after a viral hit. They got it, but then they couldn't execute on it and it. It went bust, basically.
- [36:38]
B
Yeah. I think it's. It's a slippery slope to play. Like, you know, are we in business for likes or are we in business to deliver on our brand promise? You know, and gotta be careful.
- [36:49]
C
We talk about that all the time.
- [36:50]
B
Yeah, yeah. So I'm curious, what about trends? Do you have opinions on trends and how they relate to LTOs?
- [36:59]
C
Yeah, I. I love it. I think that, you know, capitalizing on trends whenever there's an ltos is fantastic way to be. You know, show your audience that you are relevant, right. And want to bond with them over something that is relevant for them in their life. A great example, and I'm sorry, Tommy, to bring this up while you're on, is K Pop Demon Hunters, right? Huge, huge, huge hit. The biggest hit Netflix has ever had. The song golden is still at the top of the charts. I love it. I think it's amazing. Amazing movie. It's really great. But this has been a really great opportunity for places like Ramen shops to go in and create something really interesting that resonates with their audience. Right? It's super fun. It's a happy trend, right, to jump on. I say this because there's a scene in K Pop Demon Hunters where the girls are eating ramen really quickly. And so it's fun. And there's also some really great songs inside the movie that people are utilizing to come up with different menu items that are based off those songs, which is great.
- [37:59]
B
Okay, so trends are moving so fast now. Like, I feel like could that get you in trouble in terms of mistakes to avoid if there's a trend happening right now? You know, this, this viral movie, like, how. Who. Who would have known that movie could have gone viral, right? So now are you trying to create a LTO to catch up with this? Like, I guess avoiding everything we just talked about, like, taking time to really price it, right? You know, making sure that we have two weeks to train our staff on it. The trend might be over in two weeks. It might be a thing of the past in this world.
- [38:32]
C
Yeah, it might be. Absolutely. You just have to kind of be aware of that. Like, I would. I mean, it's the same thing with, like, your social calendar. Right. So in marketing, we obviously map out a really good content calendar. We know what we're going to be saying in email and social for the next few months, but you have to provide a little bit of flexibility within that and make sure that you have the room to adjust based on trends or what's happening, you know, in the zeitgeist. It's the same with ltos. Like. Like you might sense that a trend is coming and create a menu item for it and it's like a big flop. Or it turns out you're creating something based on something a celebrity said, and then two weeks later that celebrity is being canceled.
- [39:09]
B
Right.
- [39:09]
C
Well, you gotta, like, adjust, you know, So I think it's just like being realistic about what you're doing.
- [39:13]
B
I think what comes to my mind, if you have a very specific target market, so what comes to mind is like, restaurants that are geared towards kids. Maybe you can do an LTO for whenever any child's movie is coming out that is predicted to maybe do well in the box offices. It's getting like the, you know, the. That what they call it. The critics are giving it good reviews ahead of the release. Or I'm thinking of like gaming cafes where you have these people who love the world of gaming. You can do an LTO over the release date of a game that you think is going to be popular with your. With your audience. Very specific.
- [39:47]
C
You just don't want to get sued, you know, that's the issue.
- [39:50]
B
Yeah.
- [39:51]
C
Sometimes sued over a special send you letters.
- [39:54]
B
Oh, my goodness. This world, man.
- [39:56]
C
Oh, my God. I know, I know.
- [39:58]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [39:58]
C
I just want to say too, that, like, I think something that's also really important to note is that you as your restaurant could also be the hook and the viral moment and the trend. You can create your own trend or try to anyway, you know, you don't have to wait for something else to come around. I mean, if you're really into like this ingredient and you talk enough about it and people get excited about it, that that's worth it too. Yeah, that's the goal.
- [40:19]
B
Be the trend. Right. If you can be the trend. That's a winning formula right there. Easier said than done.
- [40:24]
A
Okay, so this episode is made possible by me's Mees is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus, and nail food execution at scale. Consistency builds trust with your guest and your staff. No more messy spreadsheets or scattered systems.
- [40:42]
B
Whether they want to admit it or.
- [40:43]
A
Not, your team loves systems because systems equals peace of mind. Because we all want to know what the job done right looks like in and Mies paints the picture of perfection and is the one source of truth for your entire team. By locking in recipes and training before service starts, ME makes sure every dish is consistent, every team member is aligned, and every location runs like clockwork. So when the report rolls in after the sale, they tell the story you're after. Higher profits, better margins, and repeat guests. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getme.com unstoppable that's G-E-T M E E Z.com unstoppable we have.
- [41:29]
B
Talked about how to craft an offer that stands out. We talked about some of the mistakes to avoid Any other mistakes you want to drop on us to avoid before you talk into how to measure success so you can know what's working.
- [41:45]
C
You know, I am, I, I, I've said it already, but I'm just going to emphasize it again because like I made this mistake before. Marketing operations is like going along doing their thing and you leave out training, you leave out the training department or you leave off lead out accounting. They're going to be really mad a but like you're not going to get the results you want if you don't bring them along. So make sure that you're including all segments of your business. In certain cases it can only be one. It might be just one person, so it's fine. But make sure that you have training included. You've got accounting included as well as ops and marketing.
- [42:16]
B
Got it. Okay, so let's move on to the next measure, success. So you know what's working. How do we go about measuring the success?
- [42:24]
C
Yes. Okay. Well, hopefully you have a platform in place where you can very easily grab these numbers. That would be amazing. I hope that for everybody or you have like a really good accounting person who can crunch these numbers for you within relative ease. Units sold and revenue from the LTO daily would be really great. Food cost percentage for those items actual versus forecast. Right. Over time you're actually going to see like, okay, did it, did it actually increase? Are we seeing it's taking more time? Are we, we messed up on the ingredient list and so it's actually costing a little bit more. Do we need. I mean you can't adjust midstream. I wouldn't recommend doing that. But knowing the food cost. Incremental sales. So our total sales up or are they just cannibalizing existing items? So you can compare like same period total sales versus last year week to figure out like what does that look like? Average check ppa. So like your purpose and average when the LTO is sold versus not sold. This really is helpful when you're thinking about like that goal of incremental sales, which we'll talk about examples later. But that's a really important one. There's also some really good numbers in terms of marketing. Right. So online engagement, what are your opens, your clicks, DM conversations for social. How is that looking? And then redemption reservation codes, if you have that. Right. So if people have to use a code to actually redeem it or show something on their phone to redeem it, you can track that and then finally repeat rate. So if you have a way to track your repeat customers. How many customers actually came back after trying the lto? This is really tricky. I actually worked really hard with my last accounting team to try and figure out this metric in particular and it was very difficult to find out. We eventually did, but this one was really, really challenging. So I'll repeat it again just so people know the repeat rate. Like how many customers came back after trying the LTO. Those are all great KPIs.
- [44:21]
B
So how many customers came back after trying the LTO? Does this mean are they a new customer or a past customer or you're measuring both of that and are they coming back for the LTO or are they ordering something different? Do you want to track that?
- [44:38]
C
I just want to know if they came back.
- [44:39]
B
Okay.
- [44:40]
C
I want to know like they came in, they came in new or returning customer, they had the lto. What percentage of them came back after that? Is that different from your normal loyalty percentage?
- [44:52]
B
So this is maybe where I'm getting a little too out there right now. Is there combining what we learned about series and using series and limited time offers that. But say there's a limited time offer and you're doing an offer for just a week, but there's a series that is a month long and in order to get the next offer, you need to have had the first offer first. So that there's this idea of like say it's like four special subs, but in order to get the second sub, you need to have had the first sub in order to get the third sub, you need to have had the second and third sub. And in order to. So it's kind of like a. No. Like, you need to.
- [45:34]
A
Is there a way to do.
- [45:35]
B
Because they say if you come back three times for something, you're 70, more likely to be, like a lifetime customer. So is there a way to incentivize people to do a series but to, like, also make it so, like, you have to buy it? Is that too far of us, like a. Or too high of a hill to get over?
- [45:54]
C
I mean, I don't. You know, you're gonna have some of those people that are, like, super loyal to it. And, like, the most practical way to do this, Eric, is through a passport, right? Just actual, like a printed passport where you come in for the first sub and you get like a star or special stamp or something like that from the server or the person behind the counter and then do it again. The incentive that you can put at the end. There's lots of things you could enter them for a drawing for like a 500 gift card for your restaurant, or they get a special piece of swag or something like that. There's lots of fun things you can do there. It is possible. I have seen people do it. I've also seen, like, there's some real. There's some real wackadoodle people out there that are dedicated to, like, filling out these passport cards. So, yeah, it's possible.
- [46:37]
B
What about limited time offers until you sell out? I don't think we talked about that.
- [46:41]
C
Oh, I love that. Oh, yeah, we didn't talk about that at all. I think that's fantastic. So it's the idea of creating scarcity, right? So you have this special burger that's on a secret menu or only available for, like, this limited time offer. And like, if there's some way to tell people about that scarcity, like there's only 100 a day or 50 a day or something. We only brought in enough ingredients to make 20 of these burgers every day. Like, that's really great and special. So it's a really nice hook as well, is to use that scarcity hook.
- [47:06]
B
So measure success so that you know what's working. Unit sold revenue actual versus forecasted on cost of goods. We also mentioned what else? Incremental sales average Check. Ppa.
- [47:21]
A
You said ppa.
- [47:21]
B
What's that stand for?
- [47:23]
C
Per person average.
- [47:24]
B
Got it. Just making sure Online engagement clicks. What's that?
- [47:29]
C
Could see Tommy Muddler mutter it whenever I was.
- [47:33]
B
I was taught once, whenever you hear acronyms make sure people say the full thing just in case somebody doesn't know. Sometimes I don't know. Online engagement. Click opens. Is there a code associated? These are the questions you want to be asking yourself or ways you can, you know, track what about apps? I feel like there's a lot of evidence supporting people or, you know, when. I think when apps first came out, everybody was like, oh, you need an app. And everybody was like, well, what you.
- [48:00]
A
Can do with an app, you can.
- [48:01]
B
Do on a responsive website. You don't need the app anymore. But now things are starting to sway back in the direction of no, you want an app because apps are getting better and you can now look at your phone and it will be like, are you hungry and want me to order? Like, it, it can like order things for you. So like just literally tap one time and it's done. Where do you fall on that?
- [48:24]
C
Honestly, like, it kind of depends on each restaurant, like whether they want to have an app or not. Like, I think if you're a single location, it doesn't really make sense to have an app. But if you're a multi location restaurant brand, I would definitely consider doing that because then you can track behavior and performance across multiple different stores. Especially if you're like regionally focused. Right?
- [48:44]
B
Yeah.
- [48:44]
A
I mean, I know it's getting more.
- [48:46]
B
Affordable to get those apps. It's like. But the thing is, yeah, it's great. With those affordable options, you have very little room for customizable customizability. So is that just make up a word.
- [48:56]
C
Actually, I disagree. I, I'm not here to like prop up different companies really, because they're, they all have great pros and cons for them. But I would say that, that thanks. As a platform. T H A N X is a fantastic platform that builds apps for restaurants and there's a few others out there and it is very customizable. You can do all sorts of things. It's kind of amazing. And I would also say that, like, there's other tools out there that you can use to customize your language as well. Biky is another one. B I K K Y Being able to look at them and see like your performance over time. It's really good at tracking repeat visits and you can segment those audiences really well. I want someone who did this and then this and then this and it gives you a really nice segmented list that you can use in your marketing efforts.
- [49:36]
B
Yeah, I guess I kind of went.
- [49:37]
C
Off on a tangent, but like, there's a lot of customization.
- [49:40]
B
Agreed. You're absolutely right. Those companies. Thanks. And Biki target larger operations, do they not?
- [49:50]
C
I think Biki can work with you if you, you know, five or more.
- [49:53]
B
Okay, so I'm. So when I said that I had in mind single unit, two unit operators. The one I know of that owner.com offers a app with, it's like a bundle. So you get the website, you get SEO, you get email marketing, all these things and you also get an app. But I know the way that they do that, the way they make it scalable is there's a very little flexibility in what they offer. It's very rigid.
- [50:18]
C
That's absolutely true. I remember looking@owner.com for another brand and I thought what they offered was really great, but we needed a little bit more. But I mean for single unit operators, it is a fantastic platform, right.
- [50:30]
B
So I think I was subconsciously being specific to single unit to two or three maybe unit operators. But I do think those platforms, as you scale, you want that custom ability for sure. All right. Anything else that we haven't discussed relative to how to scale it and why it's or not scale, but to track, measure, measure.
- [50:52]
C
That's really it. I mean those are a lot of KPIs to have in mind.
- [50:55]
B
So the last bullet I have here is build systems that make your next promotion even easier.
- [51:02]
C
Okay, so here's what you got to do. I would standardize your recipe card, right? Some people, you know, depending on what system you're using, you have recipe cards that are online and you can do it that way. If you're still using print, standardize that too with weights and yield. Figure out which weight measurement are you using. Metric, are you using ours? And then figure out which one you're going to use and stick with that. And so you need to have like a standard recipe card with weights and yield. That's really important. I would also include like food costs within that recipe card too. You need a one page prep sheet done for the expo and in line so that they know what to do. They know what this is supposed to look like. They know exactly which ingredients they are and what order they go in. That's really important with like sandwich and burgers, of course. So you need that prep sheet. You need a training script for your staff. So exactly, you know, this is, this is how to say it, this is the name of the item, this is what you say about it, right? Like make sure they have that script and do practice with them. Make sure that you're there pre shift to do the Demo if you haven't done it already, especially on the first day you're rolling it out, you know, they may not have remembered everything. So it's really important, and I think the marketing people should really be part of that. They should be down there talking about it.
- [52:16]
B
It.
- [52:17]
C
Your marketers, they're the ones that get excited, right? They have these typically outgoing personalities and they're sparkly unicorns. And as opposed to, you know, maybe your director of ops, who's a little bit more flat, shall we say? Okay. Also make sure that your POS is set up. You want to make sure that your POS is set up with the item and any modifier codes that are necessary and that those are connected to a reporting dashboard. So even like a simple spreadsheet or something like that, you want to make sure your POS is ready. I would also create a marketing asset pack, right? So just like, you know, you're going to need two to three videos and they need to kind of look like this. And you need one hero image. You need a table tent mockup if you're using those. And you need some basic email and SMS copy that you can use and customize, you know, whenever you have another LTO coming out.
- [53:09]
B
Got it.
- [53:09]
C
You also need to have your postmortem template. So, like, once you roll out on lto, you are going to be asked by the people in OPS or the CEO, like, how is it doing? I want to know immediately how many do we sell? So you need to have that information available. You need to have your sales and forecast side by side so people know, like, what are we. What are we measuring for and what are we seeing actually? And then I think most important, well, maybe not most important, but very, very important, is to also have a promotional calendar, like a Cadence Calendar, so your LTOs don't overlap with each other unless you're doing like a drink special and like a food special. That can overlap a little bit or completely if you want to. You just want to make sure that you're, like, thinking farther out, right? Like, this is something that I highlight with a lot of my clients is Halloween happens the same day every year. Let's not be surprised. Come October 1st, we don't. And we don't have a Halloween special. We need to know what that is back in the summer, back in January, right? Those are the times you need to be having those conversations. You can definitely do it. You can execute really quickly if you want to pop up an LTO and do a cocktail special or something like that. But really, the research and development for all of that should be happening much, much earlier.
- [54:18]
B
Yeah. What about your thoughts on just getting this out to, like, influencers? Like, before the. You know, like, having a separate list of, like, influencers. Like, we have an lto, please come in and try it. Stuff like that.
- [54:29]
C
That. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. I mean, you should have. I mean, those are kind of some marketing, like, basics that you go into.
- [54:35]
B
Your marketing asset pack.
- [54:38]
C
It would go into your marketing asset.
- [54:39]
B
Got it.
- [54:39]
C
Yep.
- [54:40]
B
Got it.
- [54:40]
C
Yep.
- [54:41]
B
Anna, this has been fun. Is there anything we haven't touched on?
- [54:47]
C
I would, you know, I would say that, like, the spirit of an LTO should be one that's, like, exciting. People love new things. They love novel stuff. Like, it should be something that's fun and gets you excited as an operator as well as a marketer.
- [54:59]
B
I mean, the goal is to create that juxtaposition, right.
- [55:02]
C
Drag. What do you mean, the juxtaposition?
- [55:05]
B
I mean, that's kind of the goal of the LTO is to shake things up to, like, the B. To get out of the status quo, to offer something that's unique, that might appeal in a short time. I mean, obviously atl, but I guess you had some examples you wanted to share. Is now the time before we open up for Q and A?
- [55:25]
C
Yeah. Perfect. Do we have an answer? So we do.
- [55:30]
B
Do you want me to help you share your screen?
- [55:33]
C
No, I'm just going to talk about it.
- [55:35]
B
Okay.
- [55:36]
C
Why can't I just talk about it?
- [55:37]
B
You can do that.
- [55:39]
C
Oh, I don't want to be. It's fine. Okay, so let's say we talked about, like, the original goals, right? So, like, let's go back to that. So if we're looking at increasing check size. Right. People are coming in. We just need to get that PPA up. I think that offering like, like, more interesting toppings or more interesting ingredients as a way to, like, increase your check size is a really good move. So as an example, like, if you have a burger concept doing some kind of, like, loaded fry flight, right? So like a rotating premium fry topping. Truffle parmesan, chili crisp, kimchi mayo, Sriracha mayo, which is always my favorite top, like, condiment, you can sell that as, like, an easy add on, you know, if someone's ordering french fries on the side, be like, hey, do you want to grab, you know, our premium, you know, or our fry topping of the week or fry topping of the month? We're doing truffle parmesan this week. It's only $2, something like that. That's an easy way to get that upsell going on. And then keeping it as an LTO makes things seem interesting because there's always something new going on. So that's, that's one okay. For increasing check size. I mentioned the premium. Oh, I didn't mention this. But premium toppings. So like if you have ramen concept offering some additional premium add ons, which I know Waku Waku does, but maybe making them some seasonal ones like that could be really fun too. Maybe it's a pumpkin marinated char, siu pork or something like that. But you can think about that, right? Like maybe, maybe there's something seasonal or something you know, going on in as part of the zeitgeist, as part of the trend, as part of the K pop demon hunters that you want to add as like a premium topping that you can offer. So those premium toppings, that's like a really good way to like increase check size.
- [57:22]
B
One last question, unless you have another example you want to share before I ask my question.
- [57:25]
C
I do, I do, I do. I wanted to talk about, I could mention repeat visits by doing a series. You can definitely do that. I had another example of repeat visits thinking about because you know, I own a bakery. So thinking about it from the bakery perspective and coffee shops and other things is doing like a, another series of like a monthly pastry drop or a monthly sweet drop. So like a single signature pastry item released on the 1st of each month, small run. So remember that scarcity limited to maybe loyal customers or something like that, only available within the first 48 hours for pre order. Like that's another way to like encourage those repeat visits. You're creating anticipation, which is really great. The other thing that I mentioned was driving midweek covers. So I think one way to do this is to maybe offer just maybe maybe sort of a smaller half bowl of ramen plus a small plate. Stop, don't make that face with, with, with maybe a draft beer special or something like that. So maybe you get like a half bowl of ramen and you get like a half order of bao buns for a set price only. Tuesday, Wednesday, 5 to 8pm Something like that. Smaller portions at a lower price point of course are going to encourage some second visits because they get a taste of it, they want to come back. Introducing that is like an easy skew. You're not adding anything new, right? You're just decreasing your portion by half. And then your food costs should be well within that range. If you're, if you're doing these half portions.
- [58:53]
B
Got it.
- [58:53]
C
So those are just a few random ideas.
- [58:55]
B
So the one question I had, and then we'll wrap it up for Q and A. Have you ever seen or do you recommend or advise against using LTOs or limiting LTOs to maybe folks that are only on your email list or maybe who use your app to incentivize people to join your list or to Download the app?
- [59:12]
C
100. 100. We did. When I was with Big Chicken, we did a secret menu drop that was only available to loyalty members. And we said that, you know, we put it out in email, like, hey, we're doing the secret menu, but only available to people who sign up here. And so they had to go and sign up. Some people did, some people didn't. But it was. It was pretty fun. I would. I would definitely encourage people to try that. I mean, there's nothing wrong with experimenting. Try it out.
- [59:33]
B
Yeah.
- [59:34]
C
And then do it. Do it one month and the next month, open it up to everybody.
- [59:37]
B
Right. And that list eventually becomes a tribe of the people who love your ltos. And it creates. It makes it fun. And then you can let them weigh into the points, all the things we talked about before the competitions and things like that, polling, letting them be a part of it.
- [59:50]
C
There was a fun idea that I saw recently or someone told me about recently. A. Where was it? It was a. Like a. A secret menu password. Right. So, like, people who were on the email list were given the password they needed to order the LTO or to get like a special pricing on a deal, like for a promo price or something like that. And so they had to go up and to the counter, and when they were ordering, they're supposed to say, like, Blues Brothers or something like that. And that, like, indicates, you know, you push that button on the POS and it gives them, like, half off. Okay. And, you know, but that creates a little bit of community within the restaurant itself, too, because other person's going to want to share. They want to share that information, like, turn to your customer behind or the guest behind you be like, hey, it's a secret. Blues Brothers. It's, you know. Yeah, it's kind of fun. You know, you want people to have fun with it.
- [60:36]
B
Cool. Well, I want to make sure we leave time for Q and A. So we're going to wrap it up before we say goodbye. Anna, how do we connect?
- [60:44]
C
Oh, well, now that my website's working again, like, that's.
- [60:47]
B
That's always important.
- [60:48]
C
That was annoying. Over the Weekend, goodkind consulting.com is my website. I don't know why you're making face, Tommy. You can connect with me@annagoodkindconsulting.com on email, but then on Instagram and pretty much everywhere else. Anna Tausen. A N N a T a U Z I n and I'm also going.
- [61:06]
B
To work on putting together an anatomy playlist as we continue to collaborate. If you want more marketing content, Anno is really kind of steering my hairstyles, steering the marketing ship right now. Now as we continue to march into the future. So if you want to, if you like what Anna's dropping, it will probably be something along the lines of restaurantstoppable.com I guess I should say. What would you like your. Your slash be?
- [61:33]
C
Anna.
- [61:33]
B
Just.
- [61:34]
C
Just Anna.
- [61:34]
B
Just Anna. I can make that.
- [61:35]
C
I'm the only one.
- [61:36]
B
Okay. Restaurantstoppable.com Anna if you want that playlist. And now we're going to take a break and we're gonna answer some attendee questions. And I guess I'll have to say, Anna, there is no questioning. You are unstoppable.
- [61:51]
A
If today's episode stirred something in you. If you're feeling a little unstoppable, you're not alone. Join us at Restaurant Unstoppable Network where we are guiding restaurant owners to proven experts, tools and services based on real world success stories. You'll get access to my network of restaurant owning mentors, handpicked industry experts and organically referred vendors. You'll get access to these individuals through workshops, power hours, mentoring sessions and product demonstrations. Multiple events, live events every week. You'll get access to me twice a month where I'll answer any of your questions. And you get access to all the recordings through RU Network podcast, early access ad free bonus content, all pushed directly to your phone. Plus the Unstoppable, our closed source AI tool fed with over 2,400 hours of transcripts from the best in the biz and all future conversations that we have, whether that be bonus content or episodes, all fed to the AI. Daily access to our private Facebook group. And I think this is the coolest part, the ability to influence future content here at Restaurant Unstoppable. Your problems are my problem.
- [63:06]
B
Priority.
- [63:07]
A
Look, you don't have to do it alone. As a matter of fact, you will go further if you go together and you are the average of those you surround yourself with. And at Restaurant Unstoppable Network, you're surrounding yourself with the best. Head over to Restaurant Unstoppable.com live if you want all this, including the live events. And if all this sounds appealing but you don't really want access to join us live, then just head over to restaurantunstoppable.com RU library.