Is This a Marketing Problem or an Operations Problem?!?!?

Most restaurants don’t fail because of marketing. They fail because they don’t know which problem they actually have.

Here’s a simple way to tell whether you need better marketing, better operations, or both and how to get them working together.

And the first step?

STOP AIMING THE FIRST FINGER AT MARKETING!!!

Often I find restaurant leaders asking the wrong question (or just assuming the wrong scenario!).

They are wondering if their marketing is working.

A better question to ask first: Do we actually know what problem we have?

Because here’s the truth:

If sales are down, it’s almost never just marketing. And it’s almost never just operations!!!

That is how we end up with a misdiagnosis.

To accurately discover where to focus your energy, run through this quick list of questions:

Do not guess. Run a sentiment analysis.

Start with your first party direct guest feedback. Surveys, loyalty responses, post visit feedback tools. Look at what guests are actually saying.

Then compare it to your third party reviews. Google. Yelp. Anywhere guests talk when you are not in the room.

Look at the last period you are examining and ask:

Is sentiment trending positive or negative? What are guests specifically calling out? Food? Speed? Accuracy? Cleanliness? Staff attitude?

If you see recurring themes, that is your starting point. Not your marketing calendar.

Search. Social. Email. Rewards. etc.

You need an always on, omni channel marketing foundation that ensures you are not only acquiring new guests, but retaining them at consistently stronger rates.

I have tested this over and over again and without a doubt, when a restaurant forgets to send an email or has a lag in marketing communications, sales trend down.

If you are not doing this, then yes, you need to optimize your marketing communications.

If you could use a checklist, grab my Steal THIS Proven Restaurant Marketing System e book. It walks through exactly what an always on system should include so you can compare it to what you are running today.

If retention is slipping, this is not just a marketing conversation. This is an experience conversation. Figure out what is causing it: experience or communications.

More often than not, it is the experience.

One simple test for this is to compare retention rates of in store versus online. If there is a much higher breakage in store, that likely points to experience, not Marketing.

Data does not lie. It just tells you where to look.

If food and service are weak, it requires an operational focus. If they are strong, it is time to ask, what can we do with Marketing?

If both are strong but retention is low, that is a rewards plus experience issue. Ask what can Operations and Marketing do together to enhance the experience?

It’s not Marketing and Operations. It’s MARKERATIONS. They are one system that works best together.

Run the diagnosis. Focus on the right thing. Move forward together.

Eat more nachos.

Wanna go deeper on this? Check out: Is This a Marketing Problem or an Operations Problem?

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Do you need help with your marketing? Send me an email [email protected]

- Rev Ciancio

WHAT DOES REV DO?

*I help restaurants to build guest marketing programs.

*I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.