SUPPORTING OUR CUSTOMERS WITH COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS BEYOND FOOD.
Michael began his career in New York City after studying Marketing at William Patterson College in New Jersey and Culinary Arts at Peter Kump’s Cooking School in New York. He worked at several fine dining restaurants in Manhattan, earning the position of Executive Chef before opening his first of nine operations in Northern New Jersey.
He also worked as a staff writer and chef instructor for a multi-channel specialty retailer and piloted a continuing education program for a private school group, providing high functioning special needs young adults with an accredited skill set to enter the foodservice workforce.
After nearly 30 years of business ownership, an opportunity came to open several restaurants for a growing regional concept. Seeing the rapid evolution of the industry after the great recession, Michael evolved his
Meet Michael Schmitt, Business Development Specialty Segment
“I am honored to work with such a talented group of people whose passion for food and service are inspiring to our customers.”
operations to focus on working with food business operators as a start-up and restaurant consultant before moving to the Broadline business. Michael currently leads our Special Segments Team, providing resources for our customers including:
• Product mix analysis
• Cost analysis
• Menu voids & ideation
• Menu engineering
• Menu design & printing
• Social media strategies
• Dietary & nutritional resources
• Branded product placement & resources
Independent Restaurant Operators agree they need help growing their business and controlling their costs.
Did you know? CUSTOMER TRAFFIC
• 85% of restaurant customers will visit a restaurant’s website before deciding to dine there.
• 90% of all visits to a restaurant’s website are conducted on a mobile device.
• Mobile Map Apps direct more patrons to your front door than search engines.
• Only 40% of Independent Restaurants have text.menus available online.
Increasing Foot Traffic
Most Independent Restaurant Operators know how important customer engagement is, the problem is that its evolution has passed the operator’s bandwidth. Using an outside agency or local Marketing firm is not only costly, but the results are usually very poor. They monitor social media impressions instead of traffic. They typically use generic content that reduces the opportunity to gain followers due to the lack of sharability.
We coach operators on social media strategies that leverage their own employees for shareable content. This will not only convert their followers into an online community, but it will grow their reach beyond any generic content campaign.
Consulting with operators on updating profiles and organizing virtual pathways increases their search engine optimization and online visibility.
Today small businesses are hyper-focused on branding. In fact, the independent operator’s livelihood depends on it. Branding brings your customers closer to you. As they feel a connection with your brand, they patronize more often. Repeat business is a solution to growth in today’s market as we share more and more customers with our competitors. As our industry’s foot print continues to grow, developing customer loyalty strategies has become a top “ask” for our operators.
LABOR
Staff Training (FOH & BOH)
There seems to be a bit of “human nature” in that restaurant employees listen and retain better from a third party consultant than they do from their manager. We offer special staff training services for: Operations & Procedures, Steps of Service, Menu Selling, BOH New Menu Training and BOH Line Flow Improvements. This gives the operator the chance to be a part of the training instead of conducting.
Digital Engagement | Website
We all know of the double-digit growth in the take-out industry over the past few years. The NRA reports that 70% of all restaurant orders will be “to-go” by 2020. Technology has enabled this with the adoption of better organized online ordering platforms. It is common for an independent operator to see an average to-go check increase of 20% along with an increase in order frequency of 2.5 times through online ordering. Hiring the right online ordering service is an important decision for operators.
Website updates are critical to earning more prospective customers. The front page should depict the restaurant’s vibe, giving a good impression on what the patron can expect from their experience. The menu should be clean and concise, in a text format so that it can be translated through other virtual touch points. Pictures should be current and professional, including food photos in the proper lighting that depict the plates a customer can currently purchase. “Get Directions”, “Contact Us” and “Call Now” buttons make the customer experience easier and lead to a quicker adoption rate.
We work with operators to diagnose their virtual presence and find solutions to enhance their visibility. Our partner, Menuetta is a restaurant marketing firm specializing in website design and support specific to our industry. Their integrated system options make digital marketing easier and more responsive without “breaking the bank”.
Potential outcomes vary, but it is not uncommon to see significant sales growth based on simple conversations teaching a server to work as a seller in order to put more money in their paycheck each week.
WASTE & PROFITABILITY
Menu Ideation | Menu Engineering | Costing
Your menu is the most important marketing tool you own. The process of engineering is used to grow your sales with keyword descriptions, point-specific highlighting, compartmentalization and sizing. We create menu suggestions and design elements to grow profit and repeat business. Within this process, we identify menu voids to make expert-driven recommendations and show operators how to cost out plates. For final designs and printing, we partner with Menuetta. Menuetta offers a fully integrated platform that eliminates all the timely steps involved in coordinating a menu change and/or promotion across multiple platforms.
Social Media Engagement
Social media is an inevitable part of running a modern day restaurant. With over 200 million posts tagged #food and 23 million with #drinks, food and beverage photos are easily some of the most popular types of content on Instagram. Customers are most likely posting about your restaurant whether you interact with them online or not. The good news is social media isn’t going anywhere, so it’s never too late to build an online presence!
How do we serve operators?
We coach operators on how to successfully build brand recognition, improve trust and loyalty, and stay connected with their guests, while creating a consistent voice that accurately represents their restaurant.
Waste Culture & Profitability
Without thinking about it, Independent Operators may lose an average of $100 (or more) per day in waste.
•Extra dressings, napkins & straws in a to-go bag
•Mis-prepped items in the kitchen
•Staff snacking and meals
•“On-the-fly” orders not entered in the POS
•Unauthorized comps
Increasing profitability starts with changing waste culture. Many operators may agree that $100 in waste is the cost of doing business, but when looking at the lost opportunities that waste creates, that cost is more expensive than independent businesses can afford. Though this process starts with the operator, the buy-in from the staff is how culture truly changes. We help by identifying potential issues, provide solutions and work with operators to train staff on changes.
A restaurant has a lot of moving parts. We help keep them moving smoothly. Our PFG One Source Solution Partners program is designed to help you gain additional customer consideration, compete more efficiently and reduce your costs. When our customers join the PFG One Source program, they may receive discounts from our PFG One Source suppliers.platform that eliminates all the timely steps involved in coordinating a menu change and/or promotion across multiple platforms.
