Another Easter weekend is just days away, and as you can imagine with lots of clients making changes to their trading hours, we’ve been very busy. We’re not complaining by any means, we enjoy getting to work with varied owners and operators to guide and assist them and are also looking forward to a bit of down time ourselves. Gorging ourselves on hot cross buns and eating as many chocolate eggs and bunnies before either the enamel from our teeth is compromised or a diabetic coma comes on (whatever happens first).
We always know this time of the year will be busy for us. There’s a lot to be done and ensuring that all boxes are ticked to ensure an easy transition and most importantly to ensure that your customers and clients know what’s up is key.
There’s nothing worse in my opinion than making plans to go somewhere, you check online to see if they’re open, then make the treck there. Arrive at said location, to find they’re not open (even though both their website AND facebook said so) How annoying right? I mean you could of called them just in case to check, but the internet, well isn’t that largely where we get our information from now days.
Now you’re there, likely hangry (if it was a restaurant or cafe you were headed to) and the same device you took your knowledge from is essentially a loaded weapon where you can tell these arseholes via a comment, review or IM how dare they! That’s when I get those awesome messages to reply and respond to – plus it’s what we get paid for and we’re really good at handling!
Anyone that works in Marketing and Digital/ Social Media Management will tell you that come a long weekend, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but more so we’re on high alert for putting out fires and handling complaints. If your staff get the weekend off, they’ll know (or you’ll already be dreading if you trade the shit fight you’ll have to deal with come Tuesday morning) but why does it have to be that way?
“But why do these issues always come up on a long weekend? I had so many people say what a great experience they had to my face when they were leaving”.
The real world have days off, they have time to spare and are largely more social. Therefore with an increase in customers the odds are more in your favour that there might be incidents or issues. I always ask my clients if they’re going to trade on a public holiday. Ask yourself these questions:
Will you make more money than you’re going to spend on public holiday rates and staffing?
If you’re not going to be there yourself, are you confident the team you have on will and can do the job you expect and to your standards?
Do you essentially trust them not to F*@! things up?
If we close will it affect our business and brand?
What did you do last year?
We get that it costs more to open and trade on a public holidays, because penalty and public holiday awards and rates still exist. Should they? I’m of the opinion our consumer behaviour has changed then these should be looked at too. I get met with a lot of arguments from my hospo friends whenever I bring this up. In short – you chose this career, you knew what you were in for and it comes part and parcel with the job. Feel free to argue your point with me!
My favourite, and also the biggest headache of my life too “Well if we’re opening and have to pay more for staff, we’ll make the customer wear this”.
Restaurants, every time I hear and see this, I die a little inside. I get your point, I see your point, damn I worked my fair share of public holidays (as a salaried staff member so was totally aware of managing wages and costs) but it’s a massive pain and if not executed can also land you in some hot water! We don’t want to come in and then get screamed at post public holiday because a duty manager didn’t display the signage properly *said EVERY hospo marketing person ever*…
It’s not us wanting to stay back and laminate menus, but more we know about the ACCC‘s strict rules and laws in place, and know if not executed a breach is very possible.
When you present prices to your customers, it must be the total price of the good or service as a single figure, which is the minimum total cost that is able to be calculated. This should include any tax, duty, fee, levy or other additional charges (e.g. GST or airport tax). This rule generally does not apply in business-to-business transactions. This means you do not need to include GST if a price statement is made exclusively to businesses.
You do not need to include optional charges or extras or delivery charges – unless you are aware of a minimum delivery charge that must be paid in which case you can choose whether to include it in the total price or as a separate component.
If you promote a price that is only part of the total price, the total price must also be displayed at least as prominently as the part price. This means that customers should be able to identify the total price in the advertisement just as easily as prices for all the other aspects.
Restaurant’s, Bars, Cafe’s and Bistros
Restaurants, cafes and bistros that charge a surcharge on certain days do not need to provide a separate menu or price list or have a separate price column with the surcharge factored in. However, the menu must include the words “a surcharge of [percentage] applies on [the specified day or days]” and these words must be displayed at least as prominently as the most prominent price on the menu.
If the menu does not have prices listed, these words must be displayed in a way that is conspicuous and visible to a reader. These measures apply to pricing for both food and beverages. You need to display this on your website and everywhere your customers might need to know about this.. If not not only can they send shitty emails to us but also report you to the ACCC and these guys don’t play.
Read more here Plus it’s likely your own council and liquor accords have their own rules too. So many rules!!
Be organised…
It’s no secret that when you leave things to the last minute or they’re an after thought it’s when shit often hits the fan. We all know and should have marked out for the year when things like Public Holidays and long weekends are due to roll around. Why people continually say they forgot about it, or it snuck up on them, or they forgot about it. I don’t see any of these excuses as viable, but more in that they’re excuses! The Easter Eggs and Christmas decorations are often in out and about to remind us in advance months ahead of time. If the grocery stores can get it sorted there is no excuse why you can’t.
It all comes down to planning, structure, strategy and also looking at your action plan, outsourcing and also making informed decisions based on the history of your business, knowing your market and demographic and really ask yourself, is it maybe just not easier to close, or is the cost greater than the headache?
Our clients are sorted.. We’ve been working on this for a while, but it’s something so many people don’t know about and is super important!
If you’ve any further questions at all, would like some support, signage or information then feel free to send us a message to assist you with your compliance and marketing needs.