BEST PRACTICES

TECHNOLOGY

Social mediaisn't all

marketing^How to integrate it more deeply

into your business

• • • • •

R uby Tuesday's narrowlyaverted cheese-biscuit

apocalypse demonstrateshow social media's role isevolving from marketing tooperations. The chain hasspent several years work-ing through a major brandrefresh, migrating from adown-home bar-and-grül to amore upscale-casual concept.To that end, the companydecided to phase out the freecheddar biscuits given to din-ers, testing the new programin one area where the biscuitswent AWOL. The reactionwas telling: customers had afit, sharing their displeasurethrough social media.

In the olden days, a restau-rant chain may have toddledforward, unaware of theunhappy customers who werebusy telling their friends inperson about their disappoint-ing experiences. These days, itwas all over social media.

Fortunately, Ruby Tuesdaywas listening, and a crisis wasaverted.

Social media no longer

tucks neatly away into themarketing fold for restau-rants. It's now a key part ofoperations, informing every-thing from new menu items tohow staff training is handled.Making that shift involveslooking beyond the surfaceof social media commentsand discovering the hiddeninsights and trends.

Kristin Muhlner, CEO ofnewBrandAnalytics, a social

media monitoring firm,advises restaurant operatorsto look past the star rating ofan online review and delveinto the details. Was the serverexcellent, but the food cold?Was the food slow to arrive,but the atmosphere given highmarks? Look for these sorts ofitems from multiple sourcesover time. You may discovera trend showing that custom-ers are waiting too long fortheir meals. This is a problemthat can then be correctedby implementing new pro-cesses or adjusting employeetraining. You can even trackfeedback on individual serversor see how the competitionis stacking up based on socialmedia commentary.

Fifth Group runs seven

fine dining restaurants inAtlanta, Georgia, two of whichfeature Mexican cuisine. Oneparticular dish made withchilies seemed to be gettinghotter and hotter, leadingto an internal debate aboutwhether to leave it alone orchange it. Social media feed-back led to a toning down ofthe dish.

"Eventual ly , we sawenough people saying thesame thing online so that eventhe chef could not argue," saysRobby Kukler, co-founder ofFifth Group. "It was a subjec-tive view coming from mul-tiple people online via socialmedia that got our attention."

Fifth Group also uses socialmedia as one component thatplays into regular bonuses.

Smashburger tracking

1.

2.

3.

Category distribution. Sorted by loyalty.

When someone tweeted "I'll definitely be back,"

for example, these are the operational

categories they most often commented on in

their post/review.

Tiieme cioud. Users can see how many

positive reviews mention "Smashburger"

and drill down further to see examples of

terms actually used online (to the right.)

Location distribution. Smashburger tracks

which locations are raking in the most reviews

from social sites.

Category DlsMbutlon

" ^ smashburger "^Z^ Z

Locaron Distribution j j^ j j^^^^^T.-

18 Restaurant Business July 2013 www.monkeydish.com

BEST PRACTICES

The company t rackssocial media sentimentabout each restaurant."We believe in quantita-tive measuring. We tie it toguest awareness bonuses,"says Kukler. Positive onlinefeedback helps play intohigher bonuses, giving staftextra incentive to provideexcellent customer service,the kind that customerswill talk about online.

Fifth Group is also plan-ning to integrate socialmedia into the hiring sideof its operations. "Findingquality people to work inrestaurants is as hard as it'sever been. We want to usesocial media to help driveawareness of Fifth Group asan employer," says Kukler.

Smashburger, a fast-casual chain of burgerrestaurants, was foundedduring the age of socialmedia. Making social mediaa part of the company'soperations just came natu-rally. "It's always been anintegral part of our strategy.It is part of our DNA to beconstantly communicatingwith guests in that context,"says Jeremy Morgan, seniorvice president of marketingand consumer insights atSmashburger.

Social media chatter ledto the chain's launch of aveggie burger. "It was ournumber one guest com-plaint," says Morgan.

He has some advice for

keeping a handle on thewide world of social media."A brand has to decide whichchannels are most impor-tant and most relevant forthem and their guests, andpick their battles. It's moreimportant to do fewer chan-nels really, really well than awhole lot of channels not sowell," he says.

For example, you mayfind that Facebook and Yelpgive you the most usablefeedback. Responding tocustomer complaints orcompliments is only halfthe battle. The rest is aboutdeep listening and reactingto what you've learned.

Whether you choose tohire a social media moni-toring company or planto handle it on your own,keep track of the trendsthat appear in customercomments and look to theoperations side of yourbusiness to correct problemareas or stay the course inwhat you're doing well.

"Don't get overwhelmed.Start with the basics.Understand how you'regoing to use this acrossthe organization," saysMuhlner. "Using socialdata, which is unsolicitedand freely given, really getsto the key aspects of theexperience that people aregoing to talk about andcare about."

Are you listening?-AMANDA C.KOOSER

A SAMPLING OF CUBA LIBRE'S RUM SELECTION

PURCHASING

Sing^le-mindedbeverage lists

Operators are finding successdoing one thing well

While most operatorsdevelop beverage

programs with a balance ofoptions, others boldly focuson a single spirit category.Vodka bars, tequilarias, whis-key bars and ronerias are allmaking their appearance inthe marketplace, tying theirdestinies to the rising starsof these trendy liquors. Suchidentities are strong points ofdifferentiation. But building a

reputation as an expert, pur-chasing and growing a worthycollection of bottles and man-aging all that inventory can bechallenging.

Compiling the coiiection"Before we opened our firstrestaurant, we conducted a lotof research on rum," recallsBob Gallo, founder anddirector of operations for thePhiladelphia-based, four-unit

20 Restaurant Business I July 2013 www.monkeydish.com

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