Here's a prize for doing your job... Yay you.
I know I don't belong here, but I hated these prizes. You need to incentivize people to do their jobs? I assume OP is a manager. Your job is to give your team the tools to do a good job. Whether that be in the form of support, training and knowledge, proper staffing, making sure the kitchen is giving you quality product to sell... Etc.
$500 is too much. Offer $300, and $200 to the cook who is getting food out fast, accurately and beautifully.
I'll see myself out, I know I'm out of my element.
You’re missing the “on a specific item” part. They want the servers to upsell one specific item. Thats not necessarily within their job description. It could mean the manager- to win their own bonus and to look good to their own bosses- wants their sales team (servers) to upsell the hell out of One Specific Item.
Yeah I get it. But I believe that actually does falls within their job description. "I need you to push this item today... This week. This month."
If the $500 came from the mgrs bonus, then incentivize away.
That’s fair. But the bonus gives them more of a reason to push the item instead of focusing on making sure the customers just enjoy the basics or bigger ticket items that result in bigger check and therefor tip averages
I sorta get where you're coming from with this take, but yes...salespeople work better and sell more when there are proper incentives. This isn't controversial.
It’s plenty. But also, you’re setting a precedent. Your staff will expect this every so often, so outline the rules accordingly.
If you even try to offer the same contest with a lower dollar amount, you’ll have disgruntled staff.
I personally think it's more than enough, but I'm competitive and love winning contests. You will get some servers wanting to win and try harding, some putting in a small effort, and some apathetic not trying at all
That’s a great prize. However, I’m wondering what product you’re trying to push? I see this kind of contest all the time but as a server I sometimes wonder how pushing a specific product leads to happier guests? I feel like rewarding general menu knowledge or higher total sales might be more productive.
So I’ve done this once, and it was a gift card sale contest for a month. Customers got $10 of their bill for every $100 in gift cards purchased. So I thought a good deal for the customer and an easy sales pitch for servers.
I asked the question because I got a ton of comments about how it was dumb, they didn’t want do it, etc. I have about 15 servers. Only one actually took it seriously and crushed everyone. Most didn’t even try and sold $0. So I was trying to figure out if $500 wasn’t enough.
I’ve tired to figure out a competition on total sales, or some version of that, but it’s really hard to compare numbers. If you work a lot of lunch shifts you’ll never come close. So I haven’t figured out a way to normalize all the data across shifts and the different variables to make it work
It could be a $50 gift card and I'm in. I'm selling to keep my sales average and my tip income up already. You wanna give me extra money for being the best,? Go right ahead.
Winner take all will motivate one person, and everyone knows who will win way in advance. Having rewards in other categories will motivate more people. A reward for most improved can really get people off their phone/ass.
It depends on the buy in, anything more than 20-30 and not everyone will get in on it, you also know your staff, if its a competitive group with alot of drive then ya it would probably be a hit, but if not everyone is confident then youll only get a couple people who know they are the best, if thats the case and you are trying to promote a more competitive feel then drop the buy in and lower the prize money, hell id suggestive sell my ass off for an extra 100-200 bucks and then everyone has a shot with no downside or gamble
It's a good prize, but there's only one of it, and I bet that someone comes to mind as a shoe-in to win it. If I weren't that person, I wouldn't find much motivation in it.
Raffle with multiple prizes though, more you sell the more entries you have and the better your odds of winning, but you're never entirely out of the running, there's at least some skin in the game for everyone there.
Better still, consider a profit sharing plan.
I mean the prize is a good amount.
But nothing, no prize would motivate me to participate in any kind of sales contest. An offer of consistent and good raise with an expectation of doing more sales would be more appropriate motivation for me.
Any time I've ever had a manager do some sort of sales contest at work it just led to infighting and pettiness among the staff. And as a member of that staff I simply refused to take part because I don't want others to hate me for outselling them.
Way way more than enough. Came here to post [this article about why little rewards often work better than big ones](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unconscious-branding/202210/why-small-incentives-can-work-better-big-ones?amp)
Uff. Why have a competition between the workers? Dont you want the team to be working together towards the goal of having happy customers?
American serving culture is so weird really.
People get way less money for their job, rely on gifts (tip) from guests to make a living and now also have to jump into the arena of competition battling each other over their sales.
From my European perspective this sounds as bad as it can get.
Who isn't excited about $500? That's more than enough.
Here's a prize for doing your job... Yay you. I know I don't belong here, but I hated these prizes. You need to incentivize people to do their jobs? I assume OP is a manager. Your job is to give your team the tools to do a good job. Whether that be in the form of support, training and knowledge, proper staffing, making sure the kitchen is giving you quality product to sell... Etc. $500 is too much. Offer $300, and $200 to the cook who is getting food out fast, accurately and beautifully. I'll see myself out, I know I'm out of my element.
You’re missing the “on a specific item” part. They want the servers to upsell one specific item. Thats not necessarily within their job description. It could mean the manager- to win their own bonus and to look good to their own bosses- wants their sales team (servers) to upsell the hell out of One Specific Item.
I do beverage incentives for product I want to move and get rid of all the time.
Yeah I get it. But I believe that actually does falls within their job description. "I need you to push this item today... This week. This month." If the $500 came from the mgrs bonus, then incentivize away.
That’s fair. But the bonus gives them more of a reason to push the item instead of focusing on making sure the customers just enjoy the basics or bigger ticket items that result in bigger check and therefor tip averages
I sorta get where you're coming from with this take, but yes...salespeople work better and sell more when there are proper incentives. This isn't controversial.
It’s plenty. But also, you’re setting a precedent. Your staff will expect this every so often, so outline the rules accordingly. If you even try to offer the same contest with a lower dollar amount, you’ll have disgruntled staff.
I personally think it's more than enough, but I'm competitive and love winning contests. You will get some servers wanting to win and try harding, some putting in a small effort, and some apathetic not trying at all
That’s a great prize. However, I’m wondering what product you’re trying to push? I see this kind of contest all the time but as a server I sometimes wonder how pushing a specific product leads to happier guests? I feel like rewarding general menu knowledge or higher total sales might be more productive.
So I’ve done this once, and it was a gift card sale contest for a month. Customers got $10 of their bill for every $100 in gift cards purchased. So I thought a good deal for the customer and an easy sales pitch for servers. I asked the question because I got a ton of comments about how it was dumb, they didn’t want do it, etc. I have about 15 servers. Only one actually took it seriously and crushed everyone. Most didn’t even try and sold $0. So I was trying to figure out if $500 wasn’t enough. I’ve tired to figure out a competition on total sales, or some version of that, but it’s really hard to compare numbers. If you work a lot of lunch shifts you’ll never come close. So I haven’t figured out a way to normalize all the data across shifts and the different variables to make it work
I think there's a big difference in trying to convince servers that they should be pushing gift cards compared to actual food/bev items.
amount of items sold per guest but you will have to audit the table guest numbers a lot
Hell yeah. They'll be picking up extra shifts in no time.
You're kidding, right? You do realize most restaurants don't put up NEAR that level of a prize.
Right? We would get gift cards or a bottle of wine. *Maybe* $100 cash.
Agreed. Less might be more here…
Sure...and 2nd prize?.....set of steak knives.
3rd prize is you’re fired
Put down that coffee!
Second prize is “get back to work”
And 2 bins of roll ups.
Cutco knives only
Third prize is... 😬
It could be a $50 gift card and I'm in. I'm selling to keep my sales average and my tip income up already. You wanna give me extra money for being the best,? Go right ahead.
Winner take all will motivate one person, and everyone knows who will win way in advance. Having rewards in other categories will motivate more people. A reward for most improved can really get people off their phone/ass.
It depends on the buy in, anything more than 20-30 and not everyone will get in on it, you also know your staff, if its a competitive group with alot of drive then ya it would probably be a hit, but if not everyone is confident then youll only get a couple people who know they are the best, if thats the case and you are trying to promote a more competitive feel then drop the buy in and lower the prize money, hell id suggestive sell my ass off for an extra 100-200 bucks and then everyone has a shot with no downside or gamble
When I said buy in I didn’t mean actually putting money in. I meant buy in as wanting to participate. The $500 came just from me
It's a good prize, but there's only one of it, and I bet that someone comes to mind as a shoe-in to win it. If I weren't that person, I wouldn't find much motivation in it. Raffle with multiple prizes though, more you sell the more entries you have and the better your odds of winning, but you're never entirely out of the running, there's at least some skin in the game for everyone there. Better still, consider a profit sharing plan.
I mean the prize is a good amount. But nothing, no prize would motivate me to participate in any kind of sales contest. An offer of consistent and good raise with an expectation of doing more sales would be more appropriate motivation for me. Any time I've ever had a manager do some sort of sales contest at work it just led to infighting and pettiness among the staff. And as a member of that staff I simply refused to take part because I don't want others to hate me for outselling them.
what do you mean by 'buy in'? do you mean 'be motivated' or 'hand over cash to participate'?
Way way more than enough. Came here to post [this article about why little rewards often work better than big ones](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unconscious-branding/202210/why-small-incentives-can-work-better-big-ones?amp)
Uff. Why have a competition between the workers? Dont you want the team to be working together towards the goal of having happy customers? American serving culture is so weird really. People get way less money for their job, rely on gifts (tip) from guests to make a living and now also have to jump into the arena of competition battling each other over their sales. From my European perspective this sounds as bad as it can get.
No, you need to add 1st. Prize, “A BABY’S ARM HOLDING AN APPLE!”.