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 What Are Your Customers and Competitors Buzzing About?
6 things to listen for on social media
It's so important to actively listen to what's being said about your business, wherever your customers may be talking. You should ask for customer feedback via online surveys, in your email newsletters, on Facebook and Twitter, and by using Facebook's Questions feature. Free tools and services such as NutshellMail, Google Alerts, and HootSuite let you aggregate and track your social media activity, so you can see and hear what customers and industry colleagues are buzzing about.
Of course, there's a tidal wave of information churning through social media. Some of it is relevant to you, but much of it is noise. So what exactly should you be listening for? Filter what you're "hearing" into these six buckets.
1. Things You Are Doing Right
Are your customers raving about you? That's great! Which of your menu items bring out the most favorable reviews? Is there an employee that customers say is doing a particularly great job?
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 4 Tips for Addressing Online Customer Complaints
Be proactive, be polite and be quick
1. Minimize the likelihood of online complaints in the first place. If your friend saw you had your fly undone, would he tweet about it? No, he'd quietly tell you. And if nobody tells you that you're fly is undone, you clearly have no friends!
In this same spirit, why should unhappy customers complain indirectly via Twitter or their blogs when they can use email, the phone or a feedback form on your website and know that it will be answered immediately and with empathy? With their round-the-clock access to the social airwaves, make sure that the first impulse of customers is to reach you directly, day or night, by offering "chime in" forms everywhere; direct chat links for when your FAQs fail to assist; and an easy way to reply directly to every corporate email you send out.
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 Determing your Franchise Structure
Franchising your business is not only a great way to increase capital; it is also a method to expand your brand. First you want to make sure your business is franchiseable! You need to look at the business concept and structure, will it appeal to a wide audience? Is your brand marketable? Is it profitable? Once you've done your homework and decided that franchising is the right decision, the next step is to put the franchise system together!
With the increasing sophistication of franchising practices these days on top of strict state and federal regulations, the process of putting together a franchise program has definitely changed. To start off on the right foot, a franchisor should take these five basic steps in creating a franchise program:
- Determine the structure of your franchise
- Create all necessary legal documents to make sure regulations are followed
- Develop operating manuals covering every detail a franchisee needs to know
- Put together a marketing model to spread brand recognition
- Implement sales strategies to sell your franchises
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 Prevent and Protect
Below are some helpful tips for effective preventive maintenance.
Walk-in coolers and freezers: Keep the doors closed when not in use. If doors are left open for any extended amount of time, ice can quickly build up on the evaporator coils and cause cooling problems. Keeping doors closed will help cut down on unnecessary service calls.
If doors must remain open, consider adding an air curtain or air door to the doorways. Keep evaporator and condenser coils clean and free of dirt and debris.
Commercial ovens: Wipe up spills from your oven cavity daily. This will cut down on rust and corrosion in the oven cavity, while also reducing fire hazards.
Steam tables/warmer wells: If your units require the heating element be immersed in water at all times, it is important that the water level in the well never exposes the immiscible element, as this can cause premature failure. Keep the heating elements clean and free of any mineral buildup as this can also decrease the life of your equipment.
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At Sysco iCare, we've done our homework, so you don't have to. iCare partners are Sysco approved and uphold the highest service levels, quality standards and performance guarantees of anyone in the industry.
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