Four keys to beating the competition
By Jeff Hookham

I was playing UNO over the weekend with my four-year-old daughter. I “let” her win a couple of hands (I had lousy cards) and then I finally snapped my losing streak and won a hand, which went over like a lead balloon. She started crying, “I want to win.” It’s hard to teach the “losing graciously” life lesson to a four year old.

It’s hard for me to teach because I want her to lose graciously—but I don’t want her to like losing. I want her to grow up with a big competitive spirit—the kind of competitive spirit you need to be successful at running a restaurant.

I can’t think of another segment of the business world that has as much competition as the restaurant industry. That’s why when I’m working with an owner and he or she says, “I want to beat my competition,” I always talk about four key things.


1. Know your enemy.

In the ancient words of “The Art of War” author Sun Tzu, you must “know your enemy as you know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.”

In today’s world, I hope you look upon your competition in a friendlier light then Tzu did, but the message still holds true. It is extremely important to know the details of your competitors.

Go eat at their establishments and find out for yourself how their food tastes, what their service standards are and what their marketing message is. My advice, make sure your food is as good and your service is better.


2. Market your specialty.

Once you know everything about your competition, you can identify what it is you offer that is unique or special. So, what do you do if you don’t have anything that makes you unique or special? You get it! When a guest asks their waiter “What makes this restaurant special?” or, “What’s your specialty here?” they need something to talk about.

Once that specialty is defined you can build your marketing message and spread the word with the help of your sales—I mean service—team.


3. Tune in to your customers.

If you want to be competitive, you have to give your guests what they want while keeping in mind their wants may change quickly. Of course, we all know they want great service, but there are other things as well.

For instance, if a large percentage of your lunch comes from a business that just implemented a strict lunch hour, you need to make sure your staff understands that those guests need to get in and out in less than one hour. If you notice people aren’t ordering as much chicken because of the bird-flu scare, then run beef specials.

If you really want to know what your customers want, then ask. Say something like this: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about my restaurant, what would it be?


4. Touch your guests.

In any business, complacency is the enemy. If the owner, general manager and service team aren’t continually working the floor, thanking the guests for their business and asking them to come back, you can be sure your competitors are. People like to eat out at places where they feel welcome, special and important. So make this a top priority in your restaurant.

Setting up an ongoing marketing program—such as e-mail—that “touches” your customers is a great tool to build your business as well. An effective e-mail campaign can help you crush your competition.


Crush the competition. OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but by following these four keys you will come out ahead. Now if I can just figure out a way to beat my kid at UNO…