Establish trust between guests and servers

When Alicia Rogers was serving at age 20, a table asked her what White Zinfandel they served. She froze—she had no idea. In that instant the guest lost trust in her.

That's obviously not an ideal feeling for anybody involved.

After that experience she knew she needed to know more to be an effective server and thus establish guest trust, so she started developing some tricks and strategies to make sure that'd be the case.

Here are some of those tips and strategies that Alicia—now a manager—teaches at her bar:

• List specials in a separate section on the menu, and instruct servers and bartenders to literally point guests to that section when they drop menus.
• Commit to memory a couple kinds of each common beer style so you can quickly answer when somebody asks "what IPAs do you have?"
• If that’s too much, use the rule of 3. Be able to name 1. a beer that recently tapped, 2. a beer that’s selling well, and 3. a beer you like. This proves to customers that you know your stuff.
• Keep a whiteboard in the server station where you can list things that are new, remind servers about specials, or anything else.
• Hold a staff meeting when the cocktail menu turns over so you can go over it, provide tasters, etc.
• If a customer’s having trouble, ask them what they like when they go to other restaurants. If they’re able to describe it, you'll hopefully connect the dots to something similar on your menu.

Check out the interview clip for more info and background from Alicia:

Why?

Because it helps customers order faster, which can mean better beer sales for you and a better experience for them.

Beer drinkers generally know what kind of beer they want when they walk through the door.

For example, summertime me is looking for something hoppy. There's no world where I'll get a sour, stout, or amber. But, of course, some folks avoid IPAs at all costs.

If I see a section called "Hoppy" on the menu, I go there straightaway: "awesome, no need to scan the whole menu." For those IPA haters, if they see that "Hoppy" section, they can just skip on by: "ok, great, I'll just go find the section I'm looking for."

In each case, sorting the beer by style makes it easier for customers to find the beer they want. And that's a great thing for them and for your beer sales.

How?

You can do this manually. How you'd implement it depends on what works for your team, but it could look like this:

• Create an editable menu doc in Google Docs, Word, Powerpoint, or whatever and give everyone who needs it editing access.
• Make the beer style menu sections you need: Hoppy, Crisp & Bright, Toasted & Nutty, Dark & Roasted, Fruity & Spicy, Tart & Funky.
• Copy and paste your beer (and the beer info!) into the relevant category.
• Anytime your beer selection changes, delete the beer that's gone, then add new beers to the relevant category.

It certainly takes some time, but doing this would definitely be worth it.

• Strike over after 3 months. Teamsters voted to ratify a new contract with Molson Coors at the company's Fort Worth, TX brewery. It's a 3-year contract and secures better pay and benefits for the ~420 workers at the plant.
• Uncle Nearest Whiskey buys Square One vodka. Uncle Nearest, started in 2016 to honor the enslaved man who taught Jack Daniels how to make whiskey, made the purchase in order to occupy some space in the vodka market. Altogether the company is now worth north of $900 million. Not a bad trajectory in 8 years of existence.
• Osama Bin Lager. A brewery in the UK had an un-prepared for hit of virality over the last week, as their new Osama Bin Lager drove so much traffic that they had to shut down their website. The brewery also makes Kim Jong Ale and Putin Porter. They've got a schtick, I guess.
• Red Lobster sinking. Sometimes a never ending shrimp deal can bring you down. It brought Red Lobster into bankruptcy. 99 locations are slated for closure. Having been to the place once, in beautiful Coon Rapids, MN, I don't care that there'll be fewer. But it definitely sucks for the folks losing jobs.

This isn't an ad. Just a shout out to a small brewery in a beautiful place that makes some of the best farmhouse and funky beers I've had in years. Here's their website.

If you find yourself up there this summer, stop by the taproom. And if you're in Wisconsin or Michigan and happen to see their beers on any lists make sure you order them. They're outstanding.