Bringing my passion of music to training was a natural progression for me. The strategic use of music to train restaurant employees has proven to be an invaluable tool to engage employees, impact learning and affect behavioral change.

Music sets the mood and atmosphere; and also touches emotions, breaks walls of resistance, energizes, and relaxes. Here are some examples of how music can be used in ways that are appropriate, motivating, and memorable:

New Menu Item Rollout
We had a restaurant that was going to be adding a line of rollup sandwiches to their menu, so we tied training into a “Shake-Rattle-and Roll” theme. We used Joe Turner’s old “Shake-Rattle and Roll” song as the theme for the staff training and even called it “The Shake-Rattle-and Roll, Rollup Menu Roll Out” training session. It was a blast and we had every team member shake, rattling, and rolling rollups!

Clean Is Mean!
During cleaning and sanitation training for a restaurant that employed mostly high school-aged workers, we created a “Clean Is Mean” rap contest. I used rap music during the training session and then we had the employees team up in small groups and compose a rap song that was called “Clean Is Mean” (mean meaning “cool.”) The objective was to include all our major cleaning and sanitation points covered in the session into their songs. We then had the teams perform their composition and awarded rap CD’s for prizes.

Holiday Specials
I once used a surfing music theme before, during, and after a training session focusing on our Memorial Day weekend specials. We played surfing music from the 1960’s during the training and throughout the weekend in the restaurant. We used music from the Beach Boys, The Ventures, The Trashmen, Dick Dale and the Deltones, just to name a few. We even called our servers, “surfers” for the weekend and had them all “surfing” up food.

It’s important to choose the right music for the right situation and the right audience. Before you embark on using music to engage employees, remember the following “4 P’s”:

• Preparing - Choose, in advance, the music appropriate to your audience and purpose.
• Precaution - Music published before 1900’s is considered Public Domain and can be used free of charge. Most modern music, however, is protected by copyright laws, unless used by non-profit organizations. Contact ASCAP at 800-505-4052 or BMI at 212-586-2000 for details.
• Practice - Be comfortable with the equipment and music chosen.
• Premier - Your use of music slowly. Test it out to make sure it produces the desired results.

No matter what the training topic or setting, I never leave my office without my CD’s and boombox! Have fun and rock on!

Article by Lanny N. Okonek, member and past President of the restaurant training Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART)

We didn’t cover everything of course, but he got me to totally spill the beans on a number of secrets and tactics I use in my business and for my clients.

Normally Jaime would make a long form informational call like this available to paid members only. But it just has too much in there of value that folks can use and grab for their business. So he chose to host it in the public arena (for now). He’ll most likely move it to the member area in a week or so get to it ASAP.

Click here to listen to RunningRestaurants.com - Using Online Restaurant Coupons Interview

In the call we hit on:

• Nathan’s “CSER” system
• Why “BOGO” is dead
• What a “clever coupon” is
• How to think about and do email list building
• Why tracking results is key
• Calulating return on investment
• Lifetime value mentality
• New way vs. the old way
• Challenges of “same-ness”
• Relationship building through email
• Secret method to having a wildly successful Tuesday night
• Why “hyper-responsive” customers are so important

Seriously. Did our businesses meet the goals set for 2007?

Do we have EXACT figures for restaurant business sales and marketing that we hope to meet in 2008?

For all the “strategies” and “tactics” that Restaurant Revolution and others will bring to you, please don’t lose sight of basic goals. And remember: Goals are SPECIFIC. They can be MEASURED.

When we have a plan, complete with goals that can be measured and tracked, we have CLARITY. The more CLEAR we are on what we want to accomplish, the easier it is to filter out the noise that’s encountered on a daily basis… including the phone calls, walk-in salespeople and everyone else that wants a piece of us.

So, with all the great information that is (and will continue to be) available… please remind yourself at the sub-conscious level to write down your restaurant business goals and stick them in a place you will see them every single day.

I’m warning you now that 2008 is only going to deliver another truckload of new information. It will be interesting, some of it will be amazing… and most of it will do absolutely NOTHING for you… but the only way to really know is if you have a plan to judge it by.

Check the next post on How to Reboot Your Brain for more in-depth information on exercises I recommend and personally use.

Terrasynth LLC was closely involved with a similar video contest earlier this year for T-Mobile’s Sidekick phone, hosted on Myspace. You will see here that not only did the video contest go extremely well, but the popularity of Myspace alone was able to drive interest in the new product.

What does all this mean to you?

People will do creative work for you absolutely free. Period. It’s simply a matter of you being creative about it in the first place… and making sure that you have high standards (otherwise your contest is likely to bust).

So, what are steps to consider when asking your customers to make advertising images for your restaurant?

1. Remember that contests don’t have to be Video. You can have a contest for people to create newspaper advertising, radio spots, logos, billboards… just about anything you want.
2. Giving recognition and value is the key. Artists want recognition, praise… and free food. Giving a combination of these will drive benefits to your restaurant and the designers fighting for the prize(s).
3. Make your contest a newsworthy event to double the miles. When was the last time a local restaurant had a contest worth noting? Make the contest interesting and when you start to promote it on-site, tell your local news station about it.

After you have entries coming in, prepare your customers to get involved!

People get weirdly excited at the opportunity to make a difference. Get the public involved and have votes taken as a way to decide the “winner” for your contest. Quickly design little voting slips, and request the name, email and any other information you’d like ON THE VOTING SLIP.

DO YOU SEE THE POWER OF THIS IDEA?

By running a contest for advertising ideas, having the public vote on the winner, and getting each voter’s contact information… I have no doubt that you could easily revolutionize your restaurant for an entire year or more!

If you’re on a tight budget, and don’t already own Microsoft Office (which includes Excel), I recommend downloading the FREE application OpenOffice. OpenOffice is 100% compatible with Excel, it’s just missing a few of the bells and whistles… which is fine for what you need to start.

After you have an application open, you’ll be making columns for the information to be collected. The information itself will go in the rows.

This is basic… basic… stuff. And that’s good because it means you have NO REASON to avoid doing it! And everything you create by doing this will be capable of being imported into any fancy system you get in the future.

You can see in this example that I’m asking for:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Address 1
• Address 2
• City
• State
• ZIP Code
• Phone Number
• Email Address

Some might consider this to be ambitious… but if you’re providing enough UP FRONT value to receive the information, any customer that’s serious about your restaurant will give it. I think it’s fair to hand a $5 Gift Certificate to every guest that is willing to fill out such a card. (That’s actually very low cost!)

Regarding the two address boxes — this is thinking long term. You can probably get away with only one box, but having two will let you split off Apartment numbers, Suite numbers and other secondary information.

This can make things easier when migrating to a database system later because you’ll be able to sort by streets and have the secondary numbers come up separate. (There are other, more technical reasons too.)