Link Inc - How Healthy is Your Business

Method Marketing Newsletter: Volume I Issue 15
October 22nd

Exactly, How Healthy Is Your Business?

"Where you are is where you start."

Julia Cameron

In the last issue, I suggested the world is changed. Now it is time to get to work. I have a test for you to take. Every one of the questions goes to the heart of what makes a business healthy or not. What ties them together is their focus on your branded experience. Is your unique 'experience' understood by and practiced by your staff? Is it communicated to your guests, and do they get it?

Business Assessment Survey
DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM?

		Yes	No
1.	Are your guest counts up versus a year ago?
2.	Are your real sales (sales less price increases) up versus a year ago?
3.	Have your beverage sales increased versus a year ago?
4.	Have your profits increased versus a year ago?
5.	Have you kept all associates from leaving who really add to the business?
6.	Do you know how often your guests come to you in an average month?
7.	Do you know what percentage of them are your most valuable medium and heavy users and do you plan your business with those facts in mind?
8.	Have you conducted statistically valid, quantitative guest research in the last year?
9.	Do you know, based on that information, exactly what your guest likes and dislikes about you?
10.	Do you know what they consider to be your most important attributes?
11.	Does you marketing reflect that wisdom?
12.	Can your management, without your prompting, tell you what your operational values and passions are?
13.	Can your hourly associates tell you, without your prompting, what your operational values and passions are?
14.	Are your famous for any specific product or service?
15.	Does your staff know what to sell and do they actually do it?
16.	Do you have an accurate menu mix?
17.	Do you have a system to reward an hourly employee's performance, on the spot, for 'living your values' and delivering on your promise?
18.	Do you have enough staff to properly cover your shifts every day?
19.	Are you satisfied with the quality of your managers?
20.	Have you spent serious money (beyond paint) to re-freshen or redecorate your restaurants in the last year?
21.	Have you systematically gone through your restaurant both in the front and back of the house in the last three months to ensure that everything the guest sees reflects your values and meets their expectations of 'who you are'?
22.	Have you visited all the restaurants your guest sees as similar to you in the last 3 months?
23.	Are you convinced your advertising works?
24.	Are you convinced your spending your advertising dollars effectively?
25.	Do you measure the level of your guest's satisfaction in any systematic, statistically valid way, at least quarterly?
26.	Do you prepare a yearly business plan that takes these issues into account and addresses them?

The first five take your vital signs. A 'no' with any of these represents trouble. Every one of the questions goes to the heart of what makes a business healthy or not. The importance of the score depends on the length of time you have been experiencing the negative situation. My rule of thumb is Two months of a negative trend is too long. The other questions are no less meaningful. They should provoke thought about how you operate.

Unlike other tests, the only truly good score is "all YES". Anything less should be considered problematic. Is your unique 'experience' understood by and practiced by your staff? The more "NOs", the greater the need to take action. Study the "NOs" and ask yourself, "What does a YES mean for my concept and how do I get there?"

In a recent management seminar, six senior managers of a successful, longstanding concept gave me fifteen different answers on what made them 'unique and famous' of which only three attributes came up more than once. If your key 'evangelists' are not sure what makes you special, how will anyone else?

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The Method Marketing newsletter gets published twice a month and concentrates on concrete ways you can take advantage of the emerging "Experience Era".

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