Hospitality Careers Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-07-2024

Running a bar isn’t for the faint of heart. Besides the daily needs of running a bar — for example, what condiments to keep behind the bar and what to put on the menu — you also have to deal with the rigors of management, such as keeping your employees honest, staying on the right side of your state alcohol control board, and dealing with patrons who've had a few too many.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-20-2022

To run a bed and breakfast (B&B) inn, you need to take care of business issues first, then go about the business of caring for your guests. To make sure guests get the best impression of your B&B, train everyone who answers the phone, get rooms ready the right way, and do the prep work for the "breakfast" part of the service. You also need to keep important phone numbers handy for those unexpected but inevitable problems.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Running a restaurant is a tough business. Coming up with the concept, designing the menu, hiring the right staff, and running it from day to day are all difficult and time consuming. You need to develop the right attitude, promote the restaurant, keep an eye on the competition, and communicate with your customers. And you have to perform all of those tasks while you're cooking awesome food and providing top-notch service.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Running a successful food truck is tougher than it may appear. You must plan and prepare everything that a fine dining establishment does (except the china and linen napkins), such as concept development, menu planning, and hiring and keeping a great staff, but then you have to take your kitchen on the road and provide your customers with out-of-this-world food and service. You need to have special traits to run a successful food truck operation, promote your business, and communicate with your customers, especially via social media.

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

Email marketing is great from a customer retention standpoint, not only because it enables you to include promotional information for your food truck, but also because it helps you develop a more intimate relationship with your customers. Email is personal. When a customer gives you access to his inbox, it’s a sign that the customer trusts you and your brand and wants to further the relationship You can use your email list to update customers on what you’re up to, share personal business stories, and include information about promotions and special events you plan to attend or host to bring people back to your service window. So how do you build an email list? After a customer has finished ordering her meal and is waiting for it, have your staff ask her to provide an email address (or business card) for future correspondence. You can add this information to a paper list that you keep near the cash register and then enter into a computer later, or you can use a point-of-sale (POS) system that allows for this type of data to be manually entered at the time of purchase. There are many Internet email marketing sites you can use to monitor your email lists online. A few options are A weber, Constant Contact, and Mail Chimp. Explain that your food truck occasionally offers specials and free meals to its most valued customers and that you’d like to include the customer’s email on the list. Most likely, customers will provide their email addresses, which allows you to create a database of information (including email, name, and zip code) about your customers. You can ask for more information, but many customers are leery of providing too much personal information at the point of purchase. If you want to gather this information at a later date, you can request it during an email marketing campaign. Use this database to distribute special offers to previous customers and drive business to your service window on slow days. For example, if your food truck constantly sells out quickly on the weekends but typically sees little business on Tuesday nights, send out an email on Tuesday morning to invite customers to redeem a gift certificate for a free side dish. Explain that the offer is valid only for that Tuesday evening, and encourage your customers to stop by and redeem the gift. Suddenly, your line will fill up with customers who may have otherwise had dinner at home that Tuesday night. By reaching out to your customers with a few simple emails and giving them a reason to visit you again, you can turn a slow night into a busy one. The goal of this strategy is to keep your business clearly positioned in the forefront of your customers’ minds. Your customers likely won’t think of your business unless prompted by an email, advertisement, or special occasion. In fact, they may always think of your truck as their Friday lunch stop unless you give them a reason to track you down on Tuesday night as well. Make it your goal to casually remind them of the fun they had the last time they visited your truck, and invite them to repeat the experience with a special offer. By doing so, you’re encouraging repeat business by reaching out to customers who you know already enjoy your services. It sets them apart and lets them see how much you value their loyalty.

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

Expectations are the nonverbal agreements you establish with your food truck customers about the food and service you and your staff provide them. These may be things such as the quantity or quality of your food, but they may also include the timing involved in getting an order completed or even the plating and appearance of their meal as you serve it. These expectations are the basis on which your customers evaluate your food truck and measure their satisfaction with it. The more you meet — and even exceed — your customers’ expectations, the more likely those folks are to become loyal followers of your food truck. Setting expectations for your food truck Meeting customer expectations is essential for creating repeat customers; if you don’t, your customers will seek out an alternative to your truck, no matter how good your food tastes. The process of setting customer expectations requires careful attention to the beginning of the initial customer experience. Your job is to describe what you provide, how you prepare it, and what the customer should expect. If you don’t make this clear from the start, customers may define their own expectations, which may or may not match the expectations you want them to have. You can start this process as soon as your service staff greets each new customer. Ask each customer whether she’s been to the truck in the past. If she hasn’t, explain the style of cuisine, the ingredients, or each menu item and any special cooking techniques used, such as how long your beef brisket is marinated before it ever gets on the truck. If a customer is a regular but you have a new menu item, you can provide her with this same type of information and even compare it to other food she’s already had. If you’ve modified your operations, such as preparing a dish in a new way or a new chef trying a new cooking technique, share this information with your customer so you’re able to set her expectations from those she may already have. Going beyond your customers’ expectations After you set your customers’ expectations, set a goal for your staff to exceed them. Exceeding expectations simply means delivering your food on time and as advertised while at the same time providing your customers with excellent service. This formula leads to long-lasting relationships with the individuals who frequent your food truck. You can exceed expectations with simple things, such as giving a first-time customer a sample of a couple of your menu items to help her determine which one she wants to order. Or if a customer orders multiple items off your menu, throw in a free side item or drink. You don’t necessarily need to give anything away for free; just add more value or over deliver to each customer. You can do so by something as simple as a smile on a rainy day or a hand-written “thank you” on each receipt. You’ll find that using these tactics is a great way to create buzz around your business and to get your customers referring others to your truck. Consider two food trucks with comparable menus, meals, and prices: One delivers its services strictly to expectations. The service is good but somewhat impersonal. Customers get what they pay for — no more, no less. The second food truck owner has set a different standard for his employees. Returning customers are greeted by name when they step up to the service window. The individual taking the order remembers the menu item the customer ordered and enjoyed on her last visit and suggests another menu item that he feels the customer may like as well. The chef even comes to the service window before the customer leaves to make sure everything is prepared to her satisfaction. At the first truck, the customers’ expectations were met. At the second, the customers’ expectations were exceeded because of the way they were treated. It didn’t cost any more to provide this extra service, but it did require a customer-focused business owner and staff.

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

If you haven’t created a food truck Instagram account yet, you may want to consider heading out to do that. An Instagram presence could just be the ticket to garnering new business for your food truck. All you will need is a username that ties into your food truck brand (hopefully it matches your Facebook and Twitter user names), and a few photos to get started. One of the things food truck vendors need to understand is that more and more consumers are paying attention to social media while they are outside their homes and offices, so nothing will grab their attention and draw them to your service window than some perfectly timed photos of your business and the food you offer. Today’s social media society thrives on exclusivity. Not only do customers want what everyone else has, but they want it before everyone else. Followers yearn for VIP treatment and first class service in whatever form they can get it. Those on Instagram are no different. One of the best ways to provide exclusivity to your Instagram followers is posting a special code in the form of a photo and letting your followers share it at your service window to get a discount. Giving them, and only them (don’t post it on any other social media platforms), this special attention is what will keep them coming back. Just make sure that posting these types of deals doesn’t become an everyday occurrence. Not only is it showing appreciation to your food truck Instagram account followers, but the lines at your food truck should also see a spike in traffic. Instagram hasn’t always been about marketing and advertising for brands. In fact, most people view Instagram as a private place to share photos of themselves, their friends, and family. So make sure your food truck Instagram account isn’t strictly setup to sell. Keep in mind that most people following your truck are going to want an insider’s view on what’s really going on behind the scenes.

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technical term for techniques used to make it easier for search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to find your food truck’s website. These search engines are the primary means by which many of your potential customers will find out about your food truck. By increasing your search engine ranking, you raise your site’s popularity and influence. And the greater the number of people who visit your site, the more often (and even higher-ranked) your website will appear in search results and the more likely you’ll be to outrank the millions of other websites out there (including your competition). Although an entire profession is dedicated to assisting website owners in accomplishing this task, here are some basics to help you maximize your website’s visibility on the World Wide Web. Try the following steps to improve your site’s search rankings, and watch your site jump ahead of your competition: Develop a list of relevant keywords that relate to your food truck business. Think about these words and phrases in terms that someone may use to search for a restaurant or food truck serving a particular style of food. Do you plan to have a rolling hamburger joint? Then start your list with terms related to hamburgers and food trucks. Create a list of keywords related to your location. Does the city you plan to work in have a nickname? Add the proper city name, its abbreviations, and its nicknames. After you create your lists, determine which keywords are primary terms and which ones are secondary. A primary keyword is the main keyword you want your website to rank for and should be placed in your header, footer, and primary titles used on the site. A secondary keyword is placed in your content or is used to support your primary keywords. For example, in the phrase Middle Eastern Food Truck Business in Los Angeles, the primary keywords are Middle Eastern food truck, and the secondary keywords are business in Los Angeles. Use these lists to place keywords throughout the text of your website. Proper keyword placement maximizes your SEO efforts. Placing your selected words and phrases within your website’s content enables the search engines to establish your relevancy to them, which results in a higher ranking for you. Within your content, use your primary keywords in titles and sprinkle secondary keywords throughout the body of the content. The best placement within the content is in the opening and closing paragraphs. Using keywords in the opening paragraph helps you immediately establish relevance, and closing out your content with keywords serves as a reminder of the terms’ relevance. The more information you circulate through your site to the Internet, the greater your exposure will be. Search engines love fresh, new content and seek it out. If you have lots of relevant content online, you’ll attract many more search engine visitors. There’s no greater way to provide fresh, updated content on a regular basis than to have a blog on your site. Because blogs are updated on a regular basis, they’re able to attract a lot more search engine attention. Sound complicated? No worries! Check out the latest edition of Search Engine Optimization For Dummies by Peter Kent (published by John Wiley & Sons) to get an even better understanding of SEO and how you can maximize its use on your food truck website.

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

One of the best ways to promote your mobile business is to issue press releases to your local media. You can distribute most of your press releases by email or through online distribution services, such as PRweb or PR Newswire, to editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television stations. Using distribution services may lead to your news getting syndicated by all your local or regional media outlets. If you plan to regularly send out press releases, you must be aware of the standard format that these media sources use and accept. Include the following elements in every release you write: Title or headline: Use headlines (like those you see in newspapers and magazines) to attract the reader’s attention. The headline is the first single line of text in the press release and tells what the press release is about, so it should be descriptive but not too long (try to limit your headline to 100 characters). Capitalize the first letter of each word and lowercase the rest. A striking headline must communicate your subject matter instantly and convey why the content is new and interesting. It must grab the reader’s attention by creating curiosity while specifically defining the information provided in the rest of your press release. Date and place: Note the release date and the originating city of the press release. Introduction: Highlight the importance of the news in this paragraph, which usually contains three or four lines. The introduction generally answers who, what, when, where, and why. Body: Provide further explanation, statistics, background, or other details relevant to the news in the subsequent paragraphs, which comprise the body, or bulk, of the release. The body is a good place to share some personal quotes. Boilerplate: Include a short, standard “About” section that provides background on you or your company. You can use your Twitter bio as a template and simply expand on it. But don’t make it too long; this section should be only one or two paragraphs. Contact information: Don’t forget to give your name, phone number, email address, mailing address, or other contact information (such as your website URL or Twitter account) so editors can track you down. Ending: Insert a line with the characters “###” centered on it to indicate the end of the press release. Check out the sample press release , which provides a story with quotes that journalists can use as the background of a longer story. Here are a few handy guidelines for writing a press release: Write the news for journalists and media, not as articles or stories; if you do, a good chance exists that they’ll be rejected by the media. Unless you’re submitting your press release to be reprinted word for word, many journalists use the data and quotes from the press release to add to a story that they write themselves. Keep it short (five paragraphs at most in the body of your press release). If you write more than that, you risk losing the interest of the reader and you risk the press release being too long to reprint by some publishers. DON’T WRITE PRESS RELEASES IN UPPERCASE. Copy editors won’t use a press release in this format and won’t rewrite the press release to eliminate your all-caps text. This is just a general set of guidelines for press releases; for more detailed information, pick up a copy of the latest edition of Public Relations For Dummies, by Eric Yaverbaum, Ilise Benun, and Richard Kirshenbaum (published by John Wiley & Sons).

Article / Updated 12-12-2016

Too many food truck owners center all their attention on their food instead of their entire business. Your food is important, of course, but your truck is the platform for getting your food to your customers. If it isn’t properly maintained, you may find yourself in a situation where you waste money not only by throwing away the food you’ve already prepared for the day but also by sinking in a lot of money to get your truck back on the road. You need to incorporate regular preventative maintenance into your recurring scheduled to-do list for your food truck. This maintenance not only helps to provide your truck with a longer lifespan but also keeps your business out of the shop when you’re not planning on it. Unexpected trips to the mechanic can mean lost days of business as well as a lot of extra expenses for problems that could easily have been avoided by having regular checkups performed. Regular maintenance can be difficult to afford at times, but it’s priceless when it comes to maintaining the good health of your vehicle. Regular checks and replacements of the following items will help lengthen the life of your vehicle: Air filter Antifreeze Brake fluid Brake pads Engine oil Fuel filter Oil filter Power steering fluid Tires Transmission fluid Wiper blades The condition and amount of each of these items will depend on the make, model, and age of your truck, so verify how often they need replacement from your vehicle’s service manual or a local dealer. Finding a mechanic When it comes to finding a reliable automotive repair service shop or mechanic, you have various options in your local area. Choosing the right one for you depends on the type of vehicle you select for the base of your business as well as the proximity of the repair shop to your location. Looking for an auto repair shop when you begin the process of purchasing a food truck is always advisable. Many mechanics can help you inspect the vehicles prior to their purchase. They know what problems should be avoided and what to look for to prevent you from buying a lemon. Here are some tips to find a reliable automotive repair service for your food truck: Ask local food truck owners for their opinions. This strategy is one of the best and most reliable options for finding an auto repair business. Many other food truck owners have already experienced the good and bad mechanics in your area, so why not hear what they have to say? You may be able to find a quality service in a very short time by using this tip. Expect the shop to have qualified professionals to perform any repairs or maintenance work. Using an auto repair shop with a National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification ensures that the shop and its mechanics have undergone thorough training. Find out whether the shop has technicians with certification from vehicle manufacturers. Mercedes, Ford, Nissan, and GM are examples of manufacturers that offer technician certification. This certification indicates how serious the technicians are about their job and the service they provide. It also means that the technicians are up-to-date on the latest automotive technology. Keep in mind that bigger isn’t always better. A backyard mechanic can provide service that’s as good as — if not better than — the service of a full-sized service shop. Ask for references. This advice applies to all potential repair shops, regardless of whether they’re big or small. Look for state-of-the-art equipment in the repair shop. Without a well-equipped shop, complete in-house repair can’t be guaranteed. Having to allow the shop to farm out work to another mechanic who does have the proper equipment can cost you more. After you find a mechanic you like, show your appreciation by dropping off some leftovers or a goodie bag filled with your truck’s delicious food once a month. Doing so will pay you dividends when you need them. Knowing what to do in the event of a breakdown From time to time any vehicle may need to pull over due to engine or tire problems. Here are some important tasks to perform in case you have issues while driving your truck: At the first sign of truck troubles, gently take your foot off the accelerator. Don’t brake hard or suddenly. Carefully work your vehicle toward the shoulder, preferably the one on the right side of the road. If you’re on an interstate, make your best attempt to reach an exit. Use your turn signal to inform drivers behind you of your intentions. If changing lanes is necessary, watch your mirrors to monitor the traffic around you closely. After getting off the road, make your truck more visible than it already is. Put reflectorized triangles or flares behind your vehicle to alert other drivers; use your emergency flashers. If it’s dark, turn on the interior lights in the cab and kitchen. When you have a flat tire, be certain that you can change it safely without being close to traffic. If that’s possible, change the tire as you normally would. To help prevent being stranded with a flat tire, check that you have a properly inflated spare tire onboard before you hit the road. When your truck’s issue is beyond your ability to make repairs, get professional help. Wait inside the vehicle with the doors locked, and use your cellphone to call for help (make sure you keep the numbers of your mechanic and a towing company written down and stored in your phone). If someone stops and offers to help, open the window slightly and ask him to call the police.