How to Retain Local Professionals?

Discover now the ten golden rules for managing a venue: a quick and easy guide for bar managers who have little time on their hands and are eager to improve their professional performance. Many tips to apply immediately for instant results!

Becoming a bar manager means having responsibilities and tasks to sell! Managing a venue is by no means simple; beware of what they tell you on television and in various mixology talent shows. A bar manager wakes up early and goes to bed late, like any good (and reliable) professional worth their salt. Hard work, discipline, and skills. All of this, along with our ten golden rules for better venue management, will make you a bar manager with flair.

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Managing a local venue takes into account a very large number of factors. You will probably have to do somersaults to keep everything under control. From storage to inventory, from equipment maintenance to accounting, not to mention the end customer and managing their purchasing experience. A nightmare for some, a dream for others. Learn about the ten golden rules that will help you manage your local business and your bar management venture.

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Optimize Product Costs

To ensure your venue maintains a very high standard, are you perhaps spending too much? Being a good bar manager also means knowing where to cut costs. Yes, you read that right: saving does not mean neglecting quality, but optimizing costs and redistributing them. When performing a cost analysis for your business, try to review expenses and investments: a substantial change in your spending report is certainly a useful action for your venue.

One tip: Identify the costs that most affect your monthly budget. Narrow the list down to just ten items (among the most expensive) and try to reduce the cost without sacrificing quality. You might consider buying larger quantities at a lower price or consulting a supplier to find a product that, at a lower price, has similar (or even superior!) quality. The ability to choose the right products at a reasonable price is one of the skills of a good bar manager.

Customer Loyalty

A returning customer is (almost) better than a new customer. Offer your local customers a quality experience rather than just high-end food or drinks. You need to ensure, in short, that they feel truly good. To do this, in addition to learning to be genuinely hospitable, your staff must also learn to be friendly and helpful with customers, starting with a simple welcoming smile.

Customer satisfaction should be your priority: a good customer returns easily and will share their fantastic experience at your venue, spreading the word to friends and family, even through an online review. It’s not complicated to be kind: it’s the little attentions that make your customer feel truly at home and will lead them to fall in love with your business. Always consider, moreover, that a loyal customer returns and brings others with them: that means earning more. Is it enough to be less grumpy and make your venue an (even) more welcoming place?

Consistent and Dedicated Inventory Care

Although it’s a fairly obvious concept, some bar managers still do not apply what is more than just good practice; it’s part of the ABCs of local management: inventory management. To manage it better, you need to ensure not only that nothing is missing but also that nothing goes wrong. Analyze the needs of your venue and its clientele and research to understand what the useful quantity is.

The Menu is Your Most Valuable Sales Tool

Believe it or not, your local menu is the most valuable sales tool you have. That’s why creating the menu is one of the tasks on which you should invest a lot of resources and is one of the main skills you will acquire in a bar management course.

To develop a menu with flair, you need to ensure that:

it is easy to consult and visually appealing to those ordering. People should feel drawn to order;
you select a few products suited to your clientele’s tastes: too many options risk causing confusion. The appropriate number seems to be between 6 and 10 products per category;
you do not exaggerate with the prices.

Social is Better, Did You Know?

Customers do not come only from word of mouth, did you know? The quality of your restaurant, bar, or venue you manage also depends on how you present yourself on social media. People, in fact, before booking a dinner or an aperitif, increasingly check reviews on social media and review sites like Tripadvisor. You need to be there too, obviously in the most appropriate way possible. Use social media to gain better visibility and engage with your (future) customers. This will ensure you create a link between your business and the people who, virtually, and physically, if you do a good job, are your social parameters.

Promote your events, create promotional posts, and tell your story. A well-taken photo of your dish or your latest guests captured with you can create what is called engagement: people become interested in your venue, interact with your posts, and become your customers.

Always Consider Your Customers’ Opinions

Always take care of customer opinions: repeat it like a mantra every day. Always give your guests the chance to have a dialogue with you: whether it’s a complaint or a compliment, you must always listen. Ask for online feedback, accompany the bill with a card, ask if everything is okay: in short, always interact with your customers. You will never regret it (okay, maybe one day).

If a customer takes the time to write a review, even a negative one, take the time to respond. They will certainly appreciate it and increase your online visibility; in one way or another, they will reward you. If the review is negative or the complaint is unjustified, never take it personally, put on a nice smile, and avoid responding poorly. Always be kind and respond firmly.

Don’t Forget to Study the Competition

Without letting this become an obsession, study the competition. Pay attention to how they move, what they offer, and how they present it; you could learn an excellent lesson. How to do it? Step out of the manager role and play the role of any customer. It works!

Stick your nose out of your establishment and see what your competitors are doing, eat from them, and take notes. Is there something they do that works? Consider if it’s a strategy you can also adopt. If the answer is yes, then go for it. The same goes for mistakes: observe where the competition makes mistakes and avoid making the same ones in your area.

Surround Yourself with the “Right” People

Working in a venue means working closely (all day!) with many people. It’s not easy; sometimes it becomes unbearable. Surrounding yourself with the right people is a strategy that works in all sectors, especially in hospitality and the restaurant industry. Building a team that works and is also a true “brigade” is not easy, but certainly not impossible.

The basic requirements of a working staff are (surely) a good leader who knows how to assess individual members, create the right synergies, and maintain the balance between the various tasks and the professionalism involved in managing venues.

You Don’t Need Consultants as Much as Knowledge to Choose Them

Managing a venue is certainly not a game: you need extraordinary knowledge and skills. Asking for help from external consultants often becomes a necessity that, however, can be handled with the right skills. I mean, to be able to command, you need to know how to do, at least a little. From human resources management to marketing principles, you need to be aware not to be fooled by the consultant on duty who promises you seas and mountains. You need to know how to evaluate (and well too!).

When evaluating an external consultant, you need to:

understand the costs: work must be paid!
understand how to measure the results of the hired professional: set goals.
know if you can (and what) delegate.

In short, hiring a professional (or more than one, depending on your needs) is not a defeat, in fact. It means that you can be mature enough as a professional to have learned to delegate and organize the management of your venue. You just need to deepen your knowledge with a bar management course!

Teach Your Staff the Art of Hospitality

As we have said several times throughout this article, creating an unforgettable experience for the customer is the only thing we really care about. Teaching your staff to take care of the people who choose your venue is a consequence of this reasoning and the most you have used for your business.

Give a helping hand by recommending something off-menu, explaining the origin of a product or the preparation of a dish, giving advice on food and wine pairing. These are all details that make a difference for a customer.

Knowing who to ask for advice is worthless to the customer if they are not satisfied, so train your staff to respond quickly to questions and provide the right explanations when needed.

In addition to following our ten golden rules for managing a venue, you can further become the professional you dream of being: specialize. Take care of your training and acquire the right knowledge and skills to reach your milestone. How can you do that?