How should I treat my staff?

The last couple weeks Beth Hussey, staff training expert and founder of staff training app Shifty, walked us through both the mistakes most bars and restaurants make when doing training and the proven staff training process she's used with thousands of servers and bartenders.

This week Beth just offers some quick, general words of wisdom about how to treat staff—a simple turn of phrase that can make staff training easier and staff retention a reality for your business: treat your staff like you would your customers.

Check out the short interview clip to learn more about what Beth means:

And if you're interested in digging into Shifty, head over to the the website or send Beth an email at beth@shiftyinc.com.

Why worry about menu design?

Imagine this: you've done the significant work to have an always-up-to-date beer menu. Every single time a keg kicks or a new can arrives you update the menu accordingly. And that happens multiple times a month/week.

But you're not seeing an uptick in beer sales. Why? The up-to-date menu should be helping. You're starting to wonder if maybe it's not worth maintaining the menu.

If this is the case, your issue might be with the design of your menu rather than the content. A poorly designed beer menu can flatline your beer sales. But a well-designed menu can:

• Make your customers want to spend time with your menu.
• Help customers figure out what to order more easily.
• This puts customers at ease: coming back to the menu to order another beer isn't a daunting task. It's a pleasant one.

How can I get a well-designed beer menu?

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

• Locate a graphic designer, ideally one who has experience with menu-making.
• Work with them to create a well-designed editable menu template. Make sure they understand the use case—you'll be editing this often, so it can't be a fragile design that breaks if a beer name is too long, etc. It also needs to be editable in an approachable software program, not a difficult-to-use design program.
• Train all necessary members of your team (managers, bartenders, etc.) on how to edit the menu template file. Make sure they practice so they know where to locate it, how to edit it, etc. You don't want them to be handcuffed on a Friday afternoon.
• Anytime your beer selection changes, you/a team member visits the file to delete the beer(s) that's gone and add the new beer(s).

It certainly takes some effort to track down a talented graphic designer and to train your team, but doing it manually like this could be worth it if that's your only option.

• Restaurateurs report an end to menu price increases. Check out the full story from NBC. A couple of the reasons owners cited: 1. diners are seeking out value so increasing prices doesn't make sense anymore; and 2. the economic outlook is improving. That said, president-elect Trump's promised tariffs could lead to more inflation, so the industry is holding its breath a bit.
• Beer drinkers have worse lifestyles. A new study found that beer drinkers have worse lifestyles than wine and spirits drinkers. According to the study it's worse pretty much across the board: diet, activity level, more likely to smoke, and so on.
• Michelin Guide comes to Texas. The inaugural guide found 15 one-star restaurants in the Lone Star State.