Have You Done A Sound Check In Your Restaurant Lately?

The opportunity to enjoy an intimate conversation in many restaurants is diminishing. Part of this is due to construction of the interior space, partly it is caused by how the interior is decorated and arranged and in some cases it is intentional. Either way, as a restaurant owner you should take the time to evaluate and do a sound check in your own restaurant to be sure that the noise levels on a busy night are what you and your target audience are hoping for.

So if you own a restaurant that caters to a crowd that is looking for a noisy and energetic place to eat, most of what I will tell you here will not matter. But if your clientele has disposable income and wants a place to enjoy a meal and conversation with their friends and family, your job of making sure the noise levels are appropriate will have a huge impact on whether or not you can turn them into repeat diners.

The first step is to try and test the noise levels for yourself on a busy night. Just sit at a few of the tables with one of your managers or employees and quickly check how easy it is to hear each other. Do this in several different places in your restaurant as there will be big differences in the noise levels at different spots in your restaurant. Now keep in mind that there are many reasons why this subjective measurement can be difficult. Here’s a great blog on the pitfalls of measuring your restaurant’s sound levels subjectively.

Once you know where the louder and quieter places are, perhaps you can train your hostess to try and be more perceptive about the clientele and put them in the most appropriate seats at noisy times. Is anyone in the party wearing a hearing aid? Is it a large party or a party of 2? What age is the customer? All of these factors could help you make this decision.

Think about what is creating the noise levels in your restaurant. Hard surfaces will reflect noise and drive up the overall din. How much is the noise of your kitchen contributing? What about music? Is the music simply driving up the overall noise level as people attempt to talk over it? Perhaps background music is important and valuable at some times of day and should just be turned off at others.

Hanging tapestries or other items on the walls will reduce the reverberant noise in your restaurant. Likewise, tablecloths and carpets will also reduce noise. And watch out for sky lights as their domes can create white noise spots where it is difficult to understand conversations even when no one else is in the restaurant.

Every restaurant is different and each might have a different goal regarding music and noise levels. But what is important is that you take the time to monitor the noise levels at different times of day and night and make sure that your restaurant is providing the atmosphere that you want for your patrons.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in insurance for restaurants in North Carolina and South Carolina. We have helped hundreds of restaurant owners with their restaurant insurance from Charlotte area restaurants to Raleigh restaurants and many small towns in between. We also work hard to increase our restaurant clients’ revenue with our Partners Program. If you would like help with your restaurant insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article can be found at www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Guy Tip – Manage Those Reviews

Most of my blog postings here are designed to help you navigate the ins and outs of your restaurant insurance program. And inherent in that plan is the concept of managing risks. But there is one risk out there that insurance cannot manage for you and you need to take proactive steps to protect yourself right away. If done right, this form of risk management can turn a big risk into a huge reward.

I’m talking about Google reviews. You should know by now that your customers and even your competitors can hurt or help you with the reviews of your restaurant that they post on Google. So you must begin the management process by making it a point to read those reviews regularly. You must know what your clients are saying about you and you must address the negatives in the way you manage your restaurant.

The quickest way to see your reviews is to type in the name of your restaurant , followed by your city name and state in a Google search. Then find the Google maps page link and read the reviews. If no reviews are posted, then you are working with a blank slate. That’s a good thing. Think of Google reviews as search engine gold. The more of these that you have, the higher your ranking with Google and the easier it will be for your clients to find you amid all the internet clutter of competing restaurants.

Now, the next step is to stuff the review box full of positive reviews. You might be tempted to open up a bunch of different Google accounts and do your own reviews. Don’t fall for this. When Google catches you at this game the punishment will be severe and quick. You will probably see your search engine rank drop off the face of the map pretty quickly. Rather, put in place a way to ask for these reviews from your clients that love you, your friends and family and your customers who tell you something good about your restaurant. Make sure that all of your employees have a system for asking for these reviews from customers who tell them how much they enjoyed your restaurant. Once you have set up this plan you need to make sure everyone is on the same page for getting it implemented and you must follow up to check to see that the reviews are being posted.

Now you probably think of your current insurance agent as the guy who sells you a policy and hopefully gives you advice about what policies you should buy. But is your agent taking the time to help you understand what you need to know to survive and prosper in the new digital age? What is your agent doing for you to directly increase revenue and sales opportunities? If you like the information in this blog, you may want to check out another feature that we offer to our clients at no charge at all. This is a coupon posting page on our web site called the Clinard Insurance Partners Program.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all different types of restaurants with their restaurant insurance policies. We work hard to help them become informed insurance consumers and we also know that not every restaurant is the same. We don’t want you to be put into a restaurant insurance program that lacks the special coverage your type of restaurant needs, or one that forces you to purchase coverages you will never need. To that end, we have developed 5 distinctly different restaurant insurance programs: A Fine Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, A Casual Dining Restaurant Insurance Program, A Fast Food Restaurant Insurance Program, a specialized insurance program for Bar and Grill and Taverns, and finally a Caterer Insurance Program. If you need help with your restaurant insurance questions, or if you feel that your agent isn’t working hard to help you develop more top line revenue, then please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on line at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at our restaurant insurance blog at www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com.

Restaurant Owners – What Are Your Customers Saying About You On Yelp?

If you own a restaurant, you know your lifeblood is in the words and statements your clientele says to their friends and family. Most of this you will never know, but there is a place to find out what some people are saying publicly about your establishment. I’m talking about a web site called yelp. If you don’t know about it, you should take the time to find out.

Your digital marketing strategy must include monitoring what people are saying about you to others. Not only that, you simply must have your best customers, your raving fans, help you out in this area. Take the time to visit the yelp web site and poke around in there. Is your restaurant listed? Have you been reviewed? Is the review favorable? You just cannot afford to be ignorant about these types of digital feedback sites. Remember as more and more people begin to rely on their smart phones for help, directions and advice, restaurants are on the cutting edge of businesses most affected by these changes. Take the time to make sure that you are on the leading edge of this huge technological and cultural shift in consumer habits. Then ask your best clients and your friends for help in giving you positive reviews on Yelp.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping dining establishments all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance policies. But we don’t stop there, we want our clients to be successful businesses. For that reason, we have developed our business partners page to help generate inbound traffic to our customers’ businesses. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance, or if you would like to know how we can help drive more customers to your restaurant, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from other articles which can be found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance Help – Slip And Fall Issues And Cheap Ways To Prevent Them

As a restaurant owner you know the importance of minimizing risk to prevent downtime and lost time out of work. But what you may not know is that there are some very simple changes you can make that will not only reduce your risk of loss but can also save you money on your restaurant insurance policies. This article talks about one of the most common sources for claims in the restaurant business and the simple techniques you can employ to help prevent these claims.

The most common restaurant workers compensation policy claim comes from slip and fall claims. These claims can really haunt the restaurant owner because they happen so fast and often happen out of site and can often result in long recovery times. These long recovery times can really kill your insurance costs. The resulting disability payments to your employee who is out of work and recovering will all count against your experience modification factor and drive up your rates for many years to come.

Slip and fall risks in a commercial kitchen are high because of the cluttered and slippery floors with oil water and food on the floor. Also, your employees putting away inventory are at risk because they often can’t see where they are walking while carrying large boxes or sacks. In addition, severs and bussers are at risk while carrying trays and operating in subdued lighting environments.

So here is a short list of what you can do to help protect your employees from this risk. All of the items on this list are FREE, you just have to implement them.

1. Have your employees wear non-slip, waterproof shoes.
2. Do not allow running in the restaurant.
3. Properly store all supplies and equipment and eliminate clutter
4. Apply de-icing products to exterior walkways to protect both employees and customers
5. Clean up any spill immediately.
6. If your employees must carry stacked items, you must have a rule that they can see over the top of the items that they are carrying.
7. Keep and eye on all rugs and carpets and make sure they stay in their places and all corners lie flat.

This next list is of some other things you can do to reduce injury to your employees. This list may involve some minor expense but the cost savings are dramatic compared to the costs of a long term workers compensation claim.

1. Provide two double swing doors with windows at the entrance to the kitchen so that people on both sides of the door can see what is going on before they push through.
2. Install wall and ceiling outlets so cords aren’t left running along the floor. Also, make sure floor plugs are not in areas where spills are common.
3. Stretch or re-lay any carpet that is bulging or bunched up.
4. Use nonslip floor mats and non skid floor waxes on surfaces where water could be spilled.
5. All floors where water is spilled or used to clean must have adequate drainage.
6. Place convex mirrors at blind corners.
7. Immediately replace any broken or damaged drain covers.

Following these recommendations will help you reduce and even nearly eliminate the slip and fall hazards to both your employees and your patrons. This will help hold down the costs of your workers compensation insurance and your restaurant insurance program.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all kinds of restaurants across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance policies. We understand that not every restaurant is the same, and that is why we have created 5 specialized restaurant insurance programs. We don’t want you to be the round peg jammed into a square hole that so often happens with restaurant insurance. We have a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program as well as a specialized program for caterers insurance. If we can help you with your restaurant insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article can be found in articles at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – How To File A Workers Compensation Claim

Savvy restaurant owners buy workers compensation insurance as part of their restaurant insurance program. If you don’t and you are paying someone to work there for you, then you shouldn’t go a day more without a policy. But assuming you already have a workers compensation policy, how exactly do you file a claim?

Filing a workers compensation claim is easy and simple. You want to do this as soon after the employee injury as possible. In NC the claim form states that you must file the claim within 5 days of the injury. To do so, you must complete a Form 19 claim form and mail, fax, or email it to your insurance company claims department. The Form 19 is a standardized claim form to be used for all workers compensation claims in North Carolina. The reason for this is that the policy and claims payments are all overseen by the NC Industrial Commission.

If you don’t have a form 19 on hand, check your policy as most insurance companies will insert a few blank ones in the policy that they send to you. It’s ok to make copies of this form when you run out. You can also do a google search for form 19 and get a pdf file that you can print or download.

The Form 19 will ask for contact information for you and for your injured employee. They will also need to know the details of the injury, how and when and where it occurred. This information usually comes from the injured employee’s supervisor. Next you will need to fill in the occupation of injured person and information about how many hours they work each week and what their wagers are per hour and per day. This information will help settle the disability portion of the claim.

The rules require that you provide a copy of the completed Form 19 to the injured employee or the employee’s representative (read lawyer) at the same time that the Form 19 is submitted to the insurance company. Last of all, you must give your injured employee a blank Form 18 which is a form they can use should they wish to contest the claim settlement. You can obtain blank Form 18 copies the same way you got the form 19, or you may call the NC Industrial Commission at 800-688-8349.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help all of our clients become informed insurance consumers. Understanding how to file a workers compensation claim for your restaurant is important as you will want to move fast in the event of an accident or injury and spending time trying to figure out how to file a claim will only slow you down.

Should you need help with your restaurant insurance policies, from workers compensation to your business owners policy, please consider us as we specialize in insuring restaurants of all types and sizes all across North Carolina and South Carolina. We understand that not every restaurant is the same and we help you avoid becoming the square peg jammed into a round hole with our 5 different specialized restaurant insurance programs. We have a fine dining insurance program, a casual dining insurance program, a fast food insurance program, a bar and grill insurance program and a catering insurance program. We can put our extensive knowledge to work for you with one quick phone call. Call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found in their entirety at www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Understanding The Basics

If you are considering opening an eating establishment, then one of the hurdles you will have handle is purchasing restaurant business insurance. You will need to know what types of insurance policies you might need and how they will affect your business. This article approaches this problem from an overview perspective and covers really the basic outline of the types of insurance policies that you should consider. For more details on any of these types of policies, you may want to read more of my restaurant blogs at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Property Insurance – You will need to consider coverage for your building and your contents. If you don’t own the building, check your lease to be sure that your landlord is requiring you to carry coverage on the building. Also, if you are a tenant, be sure to carry a high enough limit to replace all of your contents in a total loss. Also, don’t forget to include enough building coverage for the improvements and betterments that you make to the building itself in order to decorate the restaurant as yours.

Liability Insurance – You will need protection for your company for premises liability in case someone is injured on your premises. A good example of this would be someone who slips on a wet spot and is injured in your restaurant. In addition, you will need products liability for injury caused by the product you sell, that is the food. This would protect you if someone breaks a tooth on a meal or claims food poisoning as a result of eating at your establishment.

Business Interruption Insurance – This coverage will provide your lost income and ongoing expenses that occur while your business is out of business due to a covered loss such as fire or tornado. It is very important to have this protection to make sure that once you rebuild, you are still able to stay in business.

Mechanical Breakdown Coverage – What happens if your air conditioner stops working in the middle of July? No one will visit your restaurant and suppose it takes 5 days to order the part and get the air conditioner repaired. How will you deal with the loss of earnings that occurred during this time? This protection solves that problem. For more detailed information on mechanical breakdown coverage visit my blog by clicking here.

Liquor Liability – If you sell alcoholic beverages then this protection is a must. You can be sued by a third party if they are injured by one of your patrons who may have imbibed an adult beverage while visiting your establishment. These claims can be huge and can come out of nowhere so it is very important that you don’t overlook this protection.

Automobile Insurance – This is a no brainer if you purchase a vehicle in the company name. But even if you don’t you need this coverage. At the very least you need non-owned auto protection in case you ask one of your employees to run an errand for you and they have an accident while on that errand.

Workers Compensation – In NC the rules say that you don’t have to purchase a workers compensation policy if you have 3 or less employees. But what most don’t realize is that you are still on the hook for paying all claims yourself if you don’t purchase a policy. For more help with workers compensation rules and audit tips, be sure to visit my general blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Life Insurance – You may need additional life insurance to cover the money that you had to borrow to set up your business, or you may want to fund a buy out in the case of your death with a key man life insurance policy.

Disability Insurance – don’t forget to protect yourself in the event you become disabled and cannot work for a period of time.

Many of these coverages can be combined into one package policy so that you won’t have 10 or 15 different policies to keep up with. The best way to handle your insurance needs is to seek out an insurance agent that specializes in restaurants, one who knows the ins and outs of insuring restaurants and already insures 100 or more of them. At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in restaurants and write them in both NC and SC. We understand that not every restaurant is the same and so to avoid making you a square peg jammed into a round hole, we have designed 5 different insurance programs for different types of restaurants. We have a program for casual dining restaurants, one for fine dining restaurants, one for fast food insurance, one for the bar and grill or tavern insurance and one for catering insurance. If you would like help with your restaurant insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles found at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – If You Have a Vintage Building, Consider This Approach

If you are a restaurant owner who also owns the building where your restaurant is housed, then you should take the time to consider exactly how the coinsurance clause on your property insurance policy works and what it means for you. To gain a better understanding of the coinsurance clause itself, please read my blog called, Coinsurance for Restaurants. In addition, if the building that you own is an older one, then you may find that the coinsurance clause is punishing you in a big way. In that case you may be looking for an alternative. That alternative can be a policy with a functional replacement cost clause.

As my earlier blog indicated, your coinsurance clause is based on the replacement cost of your building. But with older buildings there are many issues that skew the replacement cost of the building far too high. Simply stated, the functional replacement cost clause allows the building to be replaced with similar property that performs the same function but is less costly.

Functional replacement cost provides a combination of three separate coverages. They are:

Building limit of insurance – This covers the value of the building that you are going to replace at the time of the loss.

Demolition Cost -- This covers the cost to demolish and clear the site of the undamaged portion of the building which is caused by enforcement of ordinances.

Cost To Reconstruct In Compliance With Ordinance Or Law -- Generally speaking, you must repair or replace the building for this coverage to apply.

So who should use the functional replacement cost clause? This form is recommended when any of the following situations exist:

You own the building but in the event of a loss, you would only want to replace a portion of the building. Or, your building contains materials or design that is costly and difficult to replace. For instance, your building may have plaster walls but would happily replace them with dry wall after a loss. Another example would be if you would want to change the entire construction type of your building after a loss, perhaps replacing a masonry noncombustible building with a frame one.

What are the advantages of using this form in these cases? First of all, you can usually purchase a lower limit of insurance without putting yourself in jeopardy of the dreaded coinsurance clause. Secondly, total and partial losses can be settled on a replacement cost basis without a deduction from your claim for depreciation. Third, ordinance or law coverage for increased construction or repair costs is included in the form.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC we specialize in helping restaurant owners of all types of restaurants with their insurance needs. We want all of our clients to be informed insurance consumers and to understand exactly what they are buying. To make this process a bit easier, we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs so that you aren’t a square peg forced into a round hole. We know that all restaurants are different and that is why we have develop specialized restaurant insurance programs for fine dining, casual dining, fast food, bar & grill and even catering. To see all of our restaurant insurance programs, visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com or call us, toll free at 877-687-7557.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles found at The Restaurant Answer Guy blog site.