Study: tariffs good for huge conglomerates

Josh Hurst has encountered his share of angry guests throughout his time at Pies & Pints, a beer and pizza chain with locations in the midwest, interior east, and south.

Through all the downs (Covid) and ups, Josh and his team have relied on the same 5-step process to deal with customers. Here it is:

1. First: don't get defensive or accusatory. You just need to understand this guest is upset and for them that feeling is very real. Whether it's justified or not isn't relevant.
2. Apologize. A genuine "I'm sorry this happened" can go a long way—for Pies & Pints, a sincere apology redirects the interaction to positive about 75% of the time. (Admittedly, prior to Covid this % was higher.)
3. Ask the guest: what can we do to make things right?
4. Follow through on what they request. Give them a new pizza on the house. Discount their meal. Provide a gift certificate for a future visit. It's almost certainly worth it, since they'll be more likely to return.
5. After the dust settles, figure out what went wrong on your side. And when you figure it out, use the situation as a teaching opportunity (not a punitive one).

Check out the interview clips for more from Josh about angry guests, including how complaints are different in the post-Covid world (e.g. oddly, scams have become more common!):

❓ Why is it worth it?

Because if it’s not listed on the menu, customers won’t know to order it, and it won’t sell.

Even if your servers are ready to answer the question (which, honestly, often isn't the case), many customers just don’t want to have to ask. Instead, they’ll just order something else that they know is available, or maybe nothing at all.

❓ How can I do it at my business?

For starters, anything is better than nothing here. If all you can muster is just a half sheet of paper with your rotating beers listed on it, that's still much better than "ask your server."

If you'd like to up the design a bit, you could of course do something manual—create an editable menu template in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Excel. And once you have your template designed, just edit it whenever you get a new beer in and print it out.

• Study: tariffs could stimulate domestic beer production, but only among the huge guys. It's most likely that the country's craft beer producers will be hurt by the tariffs. That's insult to injury for the already struggling industry.
• Government shutdown worries alcohol companies. We mentioned this last week in the brewery context, but wine and spirits makers are feeling it too. Around now is when brands would be squeaking in any holiday-timed new products for TTB approval, but that can't happen so long as the government—and thus the TTB—can't approve new products.
• Asahi plants suffer cyberattack in Japan, but back on line. The attack affected order processing, and the conglomerate was forced to totally shut down production in all 6 of its breweries. 7-Eleven, a huge presence in Japan, even warned that it was on track to actually run out of Asahi, which would have been a wild occurrence. But they got back on line in time to keep the beers flowing.