Defending Your Turf: How to Beat all the Non-Restaurant Competition Stealing Your Customers

Competition for customer dollars is steeper than ever as brands are not only going head to head with one another but also with grocery stores, gas stations and subscription meal services.

While these nontraditional restaurant experiences are a threat, especially by catering to those trying to maintain a certain type of diet, brands can learn a lot from them.

Executives in this session will share how they are offering innovative products and customer experiences to beat these trespassers at their own games.

Panelists:
• Jacob Brewer | Sr. Director, Restaurant Excellence | CKE Restaurants Holdings

Are You Protecting Your Frontline?

Nothing stands between customers and your frontline employees, so staff must be equipped with the proper tools and social skills to handle an ever-increasing demanding consumer.

This session will show you how to teach your employees how to handle customer demands and complaints without feeling abused in the process.

Panelists:
• Dennie Laney | VP of Training & Development | MOOYAH Burgers Fries and Shakes

Are Your Customers Phygitally Attracted to Your Brand?

Between now and 2023, restaurant delivery is projected to grow at more than three times the rate of on-premise sales, and more than half of delivery consumers already order food directly from the restaurant’s app or website. Although those numbers are staggering, they also mean a lot of customers still order in more traditional ways.

This begs the question: Are you pleasing both types of customers? By the end of this session, you’ll have a plan in place that will allow you to answer, “Yes.”

Panelists:
• Nicole Bushnell | CMO | Garden Fresh Restaurants
• Beto Guajardo | President | Schlotzsky’s

Cannabis-Infused Cauliflower Crust with Vegan Cheese: Wait, is that a Thing?

If you haven’t heard of Cannabis-Infused Cauliflower Crust with Vegan Cheese, don’t worry, it’s not a new menu trend. We made it up, but would you be surprised if it were all the rage? Customers’ obsession with trying the newest craze [think CBD] before everyone else is forcing chefs to add dramatic flares to the menu, but when is it too much?

This session will explore the latest menu trends and when or if brands should implement them.

Panelists:
• Michael Mohammed | CEO | Chronic Tacos
• Jamie Powell | VP Menu Design & Development | Burgerville

Don’t Unfollow Me: Protecting Your Social Game from Getting ‘Facebooked’

If your social media engagement is down, you are not alone. Recent data shows a significant drop in customer engagement on business Instagram accounts.

And, if you remember, that’s how it all went downhill for Facebook business profiles. Customers caught on quickly to corporate profiles and eventually filtered them out in favor of seeing their friends’ posts. That lead to equaled fewer impressions for restaurants which resulted in lower traffic. To stop that vicious cycle, brands were forced to focus more on paid ads guaranteeing that customers would take notice.

Some believe Instagram is heading toward the same fate, but the good news is that 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business account. That means they still want to hear from their favorite brands, as long as their posts are “Insta-worthy.”

This session will help you figure out how to make the cut and discuss when and if paid ads are the way to go.

How to Know When it’s Time to Grow Up

Loyal customers love everything about their favorite brands from the food and atmosphere to the logo and tone of marketing materials, but how does that change as they enter different phases of their lives? And will they outgrow you if you don’t grow with them?

Branding and marketing experts will help you decide if your business is ready to move on to the next stage whether that means implementing a total rebrand, enhancing your social media presence or adding a bit of creativity to the menu.

Panelists:
• Frank Belatti | Managing Partner | Equicorp Partners, LLC
• Steven Chan | Founder & CEO | Tin Drum Asian Kitchen
• Erik Hess | President | Moe’s Southwest Grill

Solving Labor Woes

Managing labor is time-consuming and expensive but takes frustration to a new level when you add in the ongoing changes regarding employment rulings and laws.

From minimum wage to health care issues, this session will provide an update on labor laws facing the restaurant industry as well as offer best practices on hiring and managing workers.

Panelists:
• Ken Lineberger | President | Waters Edge Wineries

How to Help Customers End their ‘Searches’ with Your Brand

More than 5 billion queries for restaurants are entered into Google’s search bar each month with results moving more toward zero or no additional clicks. Although most purchase decisions begin with an online search, the majority of engagement happens on local brand pages, which requires companies to manage their Google pages for customers to get quick and accurate results.

This session will teach attendees how to use search tools to help round out localized social marketing strategies.