Ken Burgin

Restaurant Productivity

Design & Equipment

restaurant photography

Photo Shot List for a Restaurant or Cafe

July 26, 2022 No Comments

The bar is set high for hospitality images of food, venues, atmosphere and happy customers – phones can take excellent photos. And sometimes you need a professional photographer – their eye for light, composition and subject matter can create pictures that make a much stronger impression. Like all professionals, photographers work best with a clear and detailed brief – the Shot List. If you have it properly worked out and all the food, beverages and

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Customer service problem

Using Restaurant Negatives to Create Positive Improvement

July 10, 2022 No Comments

A little negativity can sometimes be useful – tapping into the very human tendency to complain can yield a whole range of useful material when teaching customer service. A recent workshop I ran on ‘quality service’ was going nowhere fast: a group of strangers, a cold room and first topic in the morning. So I decided to pop the cork and ask each table to come up with their 10 pet hates when visiting a

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Profitable Cafe

How Can Automation Make Your Cafe More Profitable?

June 23, 2022 No Comments

You’ve seen the videos – hot, fresh pizza from a machine, a robotic arm that cooks perfect fries, or a cocktail robot with flashing lights. No people = no wages – sounds like a good move, but what will the customers think? If their priorities are consistent quality, speed and value, more automation can help you achieve that. I talked with cafe owner Matt Lucas of the Coffee Pedaler cafes in Gundagai and Tumut NSW

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Customer Experience for Restaurants

What’s the Net Easy Score (NES) for your Restaurant or Cafe?

August 4, 2021 No Comments

You’re probably heard of NPS or Net Promoter Score, a simple measurement of how likely people are to do business with you again. Another way to measure your business is with the Net Easy Score or NES. Based on work by Sue Barrett, it looks at the restaurant customer experience – all the ways your business is easy, or difficult, to deal with. Here are ten ways NES could measure this in restaurants, cafes and

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Reduce Noise in a Restaurant

10 Ways to Reduce Noise in a Restaurant or Cafe – and Bring Customers Back!

January 31, 2021 No Comments

Why don’t people come back, after they enjoyed your food and the service? It could be the noise – too loud to talk with friends and feel relaxed. Here’s a bunch of ideas for noise reduction, if you have to do it after your venue opens. The fact is, most architects and designers give little thought to effective noise reduction, creating hard-surface boxes with all 6 sides reflective so the noise bounces like bullets to

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5 Ways to Drive Word of Mouth Marketing for a Cafe or Restaurant

June 15, 2020 No Comments

Many people assume ‘word of mouth’ works automatically, and it’s always positive. As if people will say the nicest things without you making any effort. Sorry, that’s not going to  happen! And word of mouth can also be negative – ‘OMG did you hear that place got a food poisoning fine, and they’ve been underpaying their chefs!’. However there are ways to guarantee that people have a lot to talk about, and you rise above

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Sharing ideas about how to make Webinars more interesting

March 2, 2020 No Comments

It was great to share my thoughts with the Facilitation Queen Leanne Hughes, about how to make webinars more engaging and interesting. With looming restrictions on live gatherings, they have to be in the toolkit of every trainer and meeting facilitator. The SilverChef webinars I’ve started have had a great response, and this method of teaching and learning is becoming much more familiar and popular. Here’s Leanne sharing her experience, and drawing on the ideas

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Show the Sparkling Cleanliness of Your Business to Reassure Anxious Customers

March 1, 2020 No Comments

News about the spread of Coronavirus is not good, and people are starting to panic – we need to stand as islands of calm and true hospitality, while taking important precautions. It’s also time to take urgent management action to protect your profitability. You can stand out from the crowd by being spotlessly CLEAN and HYGIENIC. Here are some quick ways to make this obvious to customers. There also need to be special precautions with

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McDonalds is retraining our customers, and it’s a good thing…

February 6, 2020 No Comments

Here’s the revamped McDonalds in Sydney’s inner suburb of Kingsford. 24 (twenty four) kiosks have replaced the queuing area, and the pickup counter is now just a small area on the side. The McCafe remains (on the right). You can order at the counter, but there are no visible registers or signage to indicate this. Cooking is now out of sight. Trays are gone, and if you choose to dine in instead of takeaway, you

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Dealing With Copycats…

May 24, 2018 No Comments

Tell the truth – most restaurant and foodservice ideas are some version of what you’ve seen or eaten before. You could call it ‘creative swiping’ instead of copying or plagiarism, but it’s rare for any chef or restaurateur to create a full set of completely original ideas for a new menu or cocktail list. Remember that trip to Chicago, Bali or Barcelona – tasting, taking photos and dreaming up how you could do an Aussie

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