Reduce customer order times by 50%

Beth Hussey is a staff training expert and founder of staff training app Shifty.

You can check out some longer clips about Beth's approach to staff training here and here, but for this week Beth just offers some quick advice on how to treat your staff: treat your staff like you would your customers.

Check out the interview clip to learn more about what Beth means and why you should do it:

And if you're interested in hearing about Shifty, check out the the website or email Beth at beth@shiftyinc.com.

Imagine a busy night at your bar/restaurant. Customers stand 5-deep at the bar. It takes 5 minutes to talk to bartender.

And when customers finally get to that point they still have questions: "what's on tap?" "Do you have any IPAs?" and so on.

Now imagine if customers could use that 5 minutes of waiting to decide what they want, so that when the bartender arrives customers could just fire off their order.

That could speed up your whole operation. Your customers could have a better experience because of shorter waits, you could sell more drinks, and your bartenders could increase their tips accordingly.

That can happen. BeerMenus customers have reported that using digital TV Menus can reduce customer wait times by 50% on busy nights.

How can I try it?

• Craft distillers in crisis mode. Food & Wine wrote up an great article on the challenges facing craft distillers. It primarily comes down to challenges with the distribution system in the US, specifically legal requirements and company consolidation. This feels like yet more evidence that the current distribution system needs innovation.
• Spirits giants aren't doing great either. Diageo posted $20.4 billion in sales in the Americas during its fiscal year 2024. Thats obviously a ton of Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and Guinness, but it's a 1.4% decline vs. the year prior. It's a big decline, and the company warned it expects weak demand to continue through this year.