Restaurant Promotion Ideas: - Promotional Letters

Towards the finish of the year, most schools will organise Annual Dinners and Gatherings. That is when they start to think and source for venues to hold their dinners. I was  thinking of ways to give them our menus and prices to get them interested and also to show them that our prices are affordable. I normally try to visit the Headmaster or the President of the Parent Teacher Association. But this was not always feasible as most of them were always busy and some had classes to teach.

Sending out Promotional Letters

So what I did was to search the World Wide Web for addresses of the surrounding schools. I then send out promotional letters with different types of menus to these potential customers & followed up with a visit where feasible. I dropped in a couple of my business cards in to the envelope together with the letters & menus. We got a few calls enquiring about doing their dinners from this schools, of which we told them that we can also tailor make their menus to suit their visitors. I didn't get all the schools but I managed to secure 40% from the total letters sent out.

How to Write a Promotional Letter

To write promotional letters, write with a warm and polite tone without being over friendly or imposing and demanding. Make it short and simple. Avoid using flowery long winded words; your potential customers might not have the time read your letters. The first impression matters. By this I mean that the first sentence must capture the reader’s attention or it else it will finish up in the trash bin. If the first sentence is lovely, the reader will certainly read the second sentence and the next and before they know it the letter is done. Avoid sounding like a sales pitch. State the facts and don't lie, most readers can see through your lies. Don't forget to put in your contact number although your letterhead at the top has the details. Most people don't read the letterhead. It is better to sign the letters by hand or get a stamp along with your signature. This will makes the letter more personal to the reader.

This idea is lovely in case you have a specific prospect to mail to. Also the date when you mail it is also important. If early the letter might get lost with other letters or files. Or even worse land up in the trash bin. If late the prospect might have already booked another venue. Another thing to note is doing send out this letters to frequent as it will be regarded as junk mail.

The hardest thing about writing sales letter is coming out with things to say. You can hire anyone professional to do this for you. But it will be pricey & time consuming. Or you can purchase a program that generates sales letters for you. Such program is the Sales Letter Generator. To know more about this program, Click Here! It also helps you to generate newsletters.

Later I plan to also send out these promotional letters to the Corporate and Governmental Agencies in our mailing list. To learn how I collected my Mailing Address List you can go to my earlier post Restaurant Promo Ideas #6- Collect Mailing Address

ECH Lantern Making Contest

For the past 2-3 years, Equatorial Cameron Highlands have organised a Lantern Making Contest in conjunction with the Mid Autumn Festival. The contest is open to all children in Cameron Highlands. The theme is to recycle and reuse. Some of the lanterns are really beautiful and its hard to believe they were made from waste. This year the contest was held on 11th September 2011. Below are some of the most beautifully created lanterns.

This was made by the kids from the Day Care nearby

Made from plastic tupperwares

Made from a biscuit tin

Made from plastic bowls

Papercups

By the way the weather was really cold that morning, the temperature outside was about 15 degrees. This was what it looked like

This was done by their pastry team for the Ramadhan and Hari Raya Holidays

A Layman's Guide to Cameron Highlands

Restaurant Promotion Ideas #11. Menus

Another great promotional tool that is often overlooked is your restaurant menu. Like I have mentioned in my Previous Post “Creating Great Customer Service Culture", first impression counts. Remember that the entire menu will compliment the restaurant theme. If your menu is not appetizing to look at, people will have the same impression of your food. Most restaurants put fancy words to describe their food. But fancy words and fancy fonts to me can be a deterrent for people to order something different from what they know. Most people will not take a chance in ordering an item that they are not sure about or they might not like. Also avoid jargons or terms that only a few people can understand. I have seen some menus that are so beautiful like a works of art, a masterpiece but if your customers finds it hard to read then what's the point. It’s like a beautifully painted house without any door, you can't get in. The menu must also be easily readable, so the size of the font is equally as important as what font you plan to use. The lighting in your place is another factor to consider when choosing your characters. If your place is designed to be dimly lit, then a bright colored font will be great. Usually, dark colored font on a white or light colored paper is much easier to read. I worked in a pub where the words in the menu were luminous as the place was dark. I felt that this is a great idea.


Recently in the Coffeeshop that I manage, I have added pictures of the food to our menu. I recently took up another hobby. Its photography which I took up after our owner gave the hotel a DSLR camera. Reason is he saw that with today's technology we could add food pictures to our printed materials and didn't need a professional to take out the photos for us. We could do it by ourselves and put in on the menu easily. By adding pictures next to the description of the food, I have noticed that the customers were more adventurous. Trying out different items. But make sure your kitchen brings out the food exactly as what is in the picture, or else you will have a lot of problems. Take mouthwatering shots like the pink area of a lamb, the juicy part of the steak. I usually use Google Image to see what other restaurants use to get an idea on how my pictures should look like. In this sense the saying “A picture says a thousand words" it’s true. A beautifully photographed picture of your food is thousand times better than all the description you can write.

Also pay attention to how your menu looks. If it’s old and tattered discard it. A dirty menu will also turn away the guest.

For more of my Restaurant Promotional Ideas, please go to my website Restaurant Promo Ideas

Don’t Eliminate the Middle Man—Add One!

I came across this interesting article by Richard Saporito. It highlights that the service personnel in your restaurant is equally as important as the chef at the back. As mentioned in my Creating Great Customer Service Culture , 60% of restaurants fail in the first year. Reason being is that the food is only 20% contribution to the sucess of the restaurant. The article is as follow.

Don’t Eliminate the Middle Man—Add One!

Today, there are situations when we actually add a “middle person” instead of eliminating one for increased service efficiency. If it’s cost-effective and demand is high, then proper market positioning will make it a worthwhile endeavor. For example, my sister just informed me of a food delivery service in New Mexico that will let you choose one out of many different food outlets (all types of ethnic/fast food)- and then guarantees delivery within a specific time period. This not only gives the customer assurance of reliability, but more choices for dining take –out style.


In other areas of industry, the same idea holds true. There are electrical suppliers that no longer manufacture the product of electricity, but now are involved only in the delivery process of electricity to the customers. Because of market fluctuations, the new delivery supplier will utilize many other different energy suppliers to get the product of electricity to the customer efficiently and at the best market price. Again, adding the middle man seems to benefit all around.

In relating this theory to restaurants, it is the food runner that has become popular, especially in the larger dining establishments that rarely existed years ago. Food runners are employees who only work the rush hours of the dining room- only running food back and forth from the kitchen to the tables with light dining room table interaction (condiments, fresh pepper etc.). It is a 2-4 hr. shift, depending on how long the dining rush lasts.

Before large restaurants existed, the waiter would complete the process of order taking and delivering of the food. Today, the food runner can be implemented (additional middle man) relieving the waiter of this time consuming and sometimes painstaking process. The waiter must share a percentage of his tip with the runner, but in return his job is eased because the food is delivered for him- allowing extra time to work more tables and up sell to customers thereby increasing sales. Though, it does remain the waiter’s nresponsibility to check the table for additional diner needs-- either while the food is being placed by the runner or shortly thereafter. The tip-out to the runner is usually 10-15% depending on the service system, but well worth it if waiter sales can increase by 20-30 %.

The main point is the food runner addition improves delivery service efficiency while being cost-effective (if the sales increase outweighs the payroll increase). Properly integrating employees into the dining room with exact middle man connections always makes for smooth service flow. It’s not a matter of just blindly throwing extra employees at a service problem, but organizing the best system possible with the minimal amount of labor.

Adding the middle man can sometimes streamline operations in such way that it becomes irresistible and impossible to ignore. Always, the demand arises when delivery routes of a service system become overloaded.

*************************************************************
About the author: Richard Saporito is a NYC Restaurant Insider with more than 30 years experience. He is currently the President of Topserve Restaurant Consulting, Inc. and the author of "How To Improve Dining Room Service." Discover how to improve your restaurant's dining room service and dramatically increase your profits here: How to Improve Dining Room Service E- Book


Restaurant Promo Ideas

I came across this book after reading Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" books. Its one of his recommendations for a must read for people who want to be financial free. As with most books in My Little Inspirational & Self Help Books lense, this book is small, in story form and simple to understand. Below is a short review of this book.

The Man Who Desired Gold
The book starts with Bansir, the chariot builder of Babylon, who was thoroughly discouraged, sitting on the fence thinking. He was deep in thought, not caring about the hustle and bustle of the city around him. He was interrupted by the smiling face of his best friend—Kobbi, the musician. Then they discussed how their lives have evolved. How they took the trouble to learn their skills, hoping that if they increased their knowledge, their richest will increase too. But this is not always the case, their skills improve but their richest didn't increase in value. Then they remembered their friend Arkad who was wealthy. They planned to meet up with him and ask what his secret to building wealth is. I too had the same mindset like Bansir and Kobbi, thinking that if I improved my knowledge then my wealth will follow suit but now I have found that this is not the case.

The Richest Man in Babylon
In old Babylon there lived a certain very rich man named Arkad who was famed for his liberality, his generosity to charities and his family. And each year his wealth increased more rapidly than he could spend it. Because of this, his friends came to see him to learn how they can increase their wealth. Arked then told them a story on how he met Algamish, the money lender. Algamish taught him the first step to financial freedom. It is to pay oneself first. What this means is to save a tenth of your salary. I have found that if we set our mind to it we can live on 90% of our income. That's why most Personal Finance books, blogs or guru's say in order to build wealth; we need to have some sort of savings. Reason being when an opportunity comes, you have the resources to invest. This brings us to the next lesson by Algamish, which investing your savings. Algamish suggest that we invest with people who know how to invest. People who are successful in investing.

Seven Cures for a Lean Purse
After defeating the Elamites, King Sargon returned to Babylon to be confronted by another problem. The people of Babylon were no longer able to support themselves. His chancellor reported that the wealth of the people was accumulated by only a few men. This is due to their knowledge on the workings of wealth. The king asked the chancellor to search for such a person, so as he is able to teach the people. The chancellor then selected Arkad, who was then summoned to see the king. To which Arkad agreed to teach a few people so as they can teach others. He taught them the "Seven Cures for A Lean Purse"

THE FIRST CURE
Start thy purse to fattening.
What this means is that we need to save, a minimum of 10% of your income. This is so when the opportunity comes, you have the money to invest.

THE SECOND CURE
Control thy expenditures
The second cure is a continuation of the first. It is to budget yourself so as to spend within 90% of your income. You can save the other 10% as advised in the first cure. Now I am listing down my daily expenditure. I have found that there are expenditures that I really don’t need. As my company provides lunch what’s the use of having lunch outside. Take it from someone who is going to be financially free. List down daily what little things you spend and you will be surprised as where your money goes. I do it on my PDA but if you don’t have a PDA then do what one of Orpah`s guest suggested. Write on a piece of paper and put it in a box or basket. Later you can review what you spend either daily or weekly.

THE THIRD CURE
Make thy gold multiply
After saving your 10%, of your earnings and seeing it grow. But by just keeping savings in a safe place, your wealth will not increase. You need to invest to let it grow. What you should do is look for the right advisors as to what and where to invest.

THE FOURTH CURE
Guard thy treasures from loss
When your money increases, make sure you do investment that is safe. Investment that doesn't have any risk to your principal. Consult with wise men. Secure the advice of those experienced in the profitable handling of gold so as their wisdom can protect your savings from unsafe investment.

THE FIFTH CURE
Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment
To buy property or your own house. This I found to be true. When were growing up, we always stayed in a rented house which we had to shift once the owner needed the house or sold it. So for about three decades we were paying for a house that we didn’t own. So imagine that if we took a loan to purchase a house, after three decades the house would be ours. And after we pass on our children would have a place to stay. We only need to worry about paying property tax. And if we don’t want to stay there, we can rent it out. Let another person pay our loan for us, like what we did when we were young.

THE SIXTH CURE
Insure a future income
The sixth cure for a lean purse is to prepare for the day when we are not able to work. The day when we are old, sick and unable to work. In some countries they have saving program like the 401K and the Employee Providence Fund, that your employee and you contribute a percentage of your income monthly to a saving fund. You can take out your savings when you reach the retirement age. But as what Robert Kiyosaki said with the ever increase in inflation this call may not be enough. So we need to look at other avenues. We also need to plan for the day when leave this world, so as our loved ones are provided for.

THE SEVENTH CURE
Increase thy ability to earn
This is the same thing highlighted by Robert Kiyosaki in the Rich Dad Poor Dad Series. In order to be financial free, we need to have another source of income. What he suggested that works for him was real estate. There is alot of other avenues to make money, choose one that suits you. There is the Multi Level Marketing or what I am trying out now is Internet Marketing. Its hard work but people have succeeded in it, so I intend to be one of them.

Meet the Goddess of Good Luck
In old Babylon, there is an important building called Temple of Learning where people came to discuss on any matter no matter what levels they were. One such person who had his own special hall was Arkad. He came here frequently to discuss to ways to improve them. Tonight they were discussing on how they can attract good luck. What they have found out that betting on the gaming tables doesn't attract the Goddess of Fortune. They continued to discuss on missed opportunity. How opportunity comes in a few seconds only and how they were not grabbed fast enough. So what this means is good luck follows those who grabs opportunity fast.

The Five Laws of Gold
Around a campsite Kalabab tells his slaves the story of Arkad the richest man in Babylon as told him by Nomasir, Arkad's son. He tells the story of Arkad wanting his son to proof to him that he is capable of handling the estate that his father will leave him. How he send Nomasir out with a bag of gold and a clay tablet, asking him to return after 10 years. When Nomasir returns he gives an account of what he did. How he lost the bag of gold to a scam. He then tells the tale how he used what was written on it. On it was written the Five Laws of Gold.

The five laws of gold were

THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD
1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one - tenth or his earnings to create an estate for his future and that or his family.
2. Gold laboureth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slip peth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.

Then Nomasir goes on to tell how he used the wisdom of the Five Laws of Gold

The Gold Lender of Babylon
This chapter starts with Rodan, the spearmaker walking towards Mathon, the moneylender. He just had received a large sum of money for his work, now he asking Mathon should he lend to his sister's husband to invest and whether it’s a good idea. Then advises him, that he can lend the money if it doesn't burden him. Then Mathon goes on to show Rodan his token chest and explains the contents, so as Rodan understands the importance of lending money to a person who can pay back.

The Walls of Babylon
The story continues with Old Banzar, a grim warrior guarding the passageway leading to the top of the ancient walls of Babylon. The city is under attack but there are only few defenders. Banzar from his vantage point gets first hand news on the fight below. One by one the citizens come to him for reassurance that the wall will hold against the attack. He reassures them not to worry. The walls of Babylon again protected the citizens as the enemies retreated. The moral of this story in life we should also build some protection with insurance, savings to be used for a rainy day.

The Camel Trader of Babylon
Tarkad, the son of Azure was very hungry because he had only eaten only two figs in two days. He was looking for someone who could spare him some food. But he meets the person who he has been avoiding, Dabasir, the camel trader. Dabasir invites him to join him for dinner in a restaurant but only orders water for Tarkad. While he eats his meal in front of starving Tarkad, Dabasir tells of tale how he conquered his enemy- debts.

The Clay Tablets from Babylon
The story starts Alfred H. Shrewsbury from the Department of Archaeology writing to Professor Franklin Caldwell. He says he has translated the five tablets the Professor sent to him. He says that he found it interesting; it’s about the story of how Dabasir clears his debts. Dabasir writes on the tablet how he lived on 70% of his earnings, saved 10% and he used the last 20% to clear off his debts. So the Professor tries it with his wife. By following the writings of Dabasir, he created a plan as to get out of debt. Which he did. And later the Professor wrote to Shrewsbury that's he is financial free by following Dabasir's plan.

The Luckiest Man in Babylon
In this chapter you will hear how Sharru Nada on a camel caravan journey tells of a tale how he came out of slavery. He was telling Hadan Gula, grandson of Arad Gula how his grandfather also got himself out of slavery. Hadan Gula didn't believe it at first. Then Sharru Nada continued his tale. Relating how Arad Gula brought helped him to get out slavery. He also related what happened to his friends that was sold wih him in the slave market and how he worked hard to save some money. Then only did Hadan Gula believe and promised to follow the success of his grandfather.

An Historical Sketch of Babylon
The last chapter is a historical account on the city of Babylon.

It is hard to believe that this book was first published way back in 1926. Reason being the ideas in this book can still be used in today's world. This is also a great book given as gift to young person.

For more Inspirational Book reviews, please go to my Little Inspirational & Self Help Books lense

PDF Viewer

PocketXpdf

I have always loved reading. When I was young it was books like Secret Seven, Famous Five, Three Investigators and so on. Nowadays I look for books that inspire and motivate me. So when I travel normally always have a book to read especially before I sleep at night. Now it’s even better, there are books in PDF format. Now I can store a lot of reading materials in my pc and bring it with me anywhere. Before if I wanted to read on my mobile, I had to convert the PDF document into a word format but you normally loose the pictures in the process. Now I found great free software. Its called PocketXpdf. You can save all the PDF files on your memory card like I do as you can easily open each file. Another thing that I like about this program is that I can bookmark where I left off, so I can come back to read it later. By bookmarking it I can load it to the right page without having to look for it and waste a lot of time. One of the bugs that this software has is when you zoom too close you will get a "Not enough free memory warning" and the software will cancel the zooming. But I normally click on the "View as text " key. Then you can enlarge the text as you prefer.

What’s in my Pocket Pc

People who will Inspire You- Against all Odds

We all need heroes, someone to look up to. The people who you choose as heroes,mentors or idol(whatever you may call them) are a reflection of who you are or who you want to be. So choose people who add true value to your life. When I was young my heroes were the firemen, nowadays they are people who have succeeded inspite of difficulties. Someone who have become successful like Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Donald Trump and many more. I don`t admire movie stars, sports stars or celebrities. Reason being these people will normally disappoint or distress us when they fall from grace. People like Tyson, Tiger Woods and even Lohan are bad influence to youngsters today.


Even Robert Kiyosaki said in his Cashflow Quadrant book that you need heroes to succeed. Someone to look up to, to learn from. Apart from reading inspirational books, I also like to read about the lives of successful people. I like to read about how they succeeded through difficulties, their rags to richest stories and how they live. To my surprise most of them are very frugal. I like to catchup on the news of how they are doing now. Even closer to home, there are people who has succeded against all odds and they are my inspiration. To name a few there is Lim Goh Tong of Genting Highlands, Dr. Mahathir our former Prime Minister, Tony Fernandez of Air Asia and more.

Lim Goh Tong

Lim Goh Tong is the guy who took an unexplored hilltop to make it one of the famous holiday destination in Malaysia, the Genting Highlands. I came across his bio in the Genting Highlands website. He is a fine example of the results of what a `Can Do` and `Never Give Up` attitude can do. Lim Goh Tong was an immigrant from a little mountainous county in Fujian, China. He came to Malaysia to work as a carpenter and rised up to be a building sub-contractor. The idea for Genting Highlands came when he was having dinner in Cameron Highlands. He thought it would nice to have a cool place where people can escape from the heat in the lowlands. As Cameron Highlands was too far from Kuala Lumpur, he had to search for another location. He did some research and that's where he found an unexplored hilltop called Genting Highlands. He started building a casino up there. And he continued adding building after building until it is what it is now. As he was building at a new unexplored location, there were many difficulties he had to face. But all the difficulties didn`t stop him. You can click on the link below to read about him. He has since passed away in 2007, now the Genting Empire he created is being run by his son

My Heroes- People who inspire me

Have Heroes that Inspire you

We all need heroes, someone to look up to. The people who you choose as heroes,mentors or idol(whatever you may call them) are a reflection of who you are or who you want to be. So choose people who add true value to your life. When I was young my heroes were the firemen, nowadays they are people who have succeeded inspite of difficulties. Someone who have become successful like Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Donald Trump and many more. I don`t admire movie stars, sports stars or celebrities. Reason being these people will normally disappoint or distress us when they fall from grace. People like Tyson, Tiger Woods and even Lohan are bad influence to youngsters today.

Even Robert Kiyosaki said in his Cashflow Quadrant book that you need heroes to succeed. Someone to look up to, to learn from. Apart from reading inspirational books, I also like to read about the life of successful people. I like to read about how they succeeded through difficulties, their rags to richest stories and how they live. To my surprise most of them are very frugal. I like to catchup on the news of how they are doing now. Even closer to home, there are people who has succeded against all odds and they are my inspiration. To name a few there is Lim Goh Tong of Genting Highlands, Dr. Mahathir our former Prime Minister, Tony Fernandez of Air Asia and more.



Datuk Tony Fernandez

He is the guy who you normaly see in the media casually dressed and wearing his signature red Air Asia Cap. But he is the guy who had a dream, mortgage his home, bought an ailing airlines for RM1 which landed him with a RM40 million debt and finally turn the airlines company around to make it one of the best low cost airlines in the world. He started AirAsia after the September 11, when everyone was afraid to fly. And many airlines was going into the red. But Tony Fernandez said this timing was perfect. The leasing cost of planes were low and airlines lay-offs meant that that experience staff were readily available. He is a great example of turning lemons into lemonades. He is also a great example of Managing by Walking Around, people have seen him carrying luggage, checking in guest and so on. He believes that if you are closer to the ground you can hear more. On reading his bio I was surprised that he was from my hometown.

Inspire You, Inspire Me

How the Boss or Owner can bring down a company

12. There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:--



13. (1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.


14. (2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldier's minds.


15. (3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers. Chapter III. ATTACK BY STRATAGEM verse 12 -15

What this verses means is that the boss or CEO should leave the running of the operations to the managers that is closer to the operations. This is because these people know how bad or good the situation is. They know whether they can win or lose. If the CEO insists of his orders being followed without knowing the outcome than his company might fail. One example is when I was working as a waiter in a hotel that has just been taken over by an international chain. The Group General Manager insisted that we serve the local dishes in woks. We tried to explain to him that the local taboo is that its bad manners to eat from the wok. He didn't want to listen. The result of this came in the form of bad publicity and lose of business from the local community due to the fact that they didn't want to eat from the wok and that the hotel was not sensitive to the local culture. In some companies, there are times when the bosses or owners insist on put personnel even though the person is not experienced. This will then make the experienced staff there feel very frustrated working for a boss that doesn't know their job. Sun Tzu has verse for that to.


33. If there disturbance in the camp, the general's authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary. Chapter IX. THE ARMY ON THE MARCH verse 33

How I use the Art of War

Putu Bambu

Putu Bambu or Putu Buluh is a

Malaysian street

food that my wife introduced to me when we were in Cameron Highlands. It’s made from rice flour, fresh grated coconut and coconut palm sugar which are all stuffed into the bamboo tube. Then the prepared bamboo tubes were then steamed on a container of hot boiling water that had little holes to allow steam to come out. Once they are well-cooked, the fillings will sink into the bamboo tube. Each of them is then pushed out from the bamboo tube and wrap with banana leaves. It has a soft, cottony texture and is sweet due to the gula melaka in the middle.






Product Traditional Malay Kuih Recipes E- Book
Cost : $29.95 USD

This Recipe Cookbook Reveals 101 Sinful Recipes of Traditional Malay Kuihs or Sweet Delicacies

Delivering Great Customer Service

This is very important especially if you are new to the community. Anything that you do, you must be sensitive to the local culture and beliefs. Do some research on the taboo in that community. If they find it offensive than avoid doing it. One example to this point is, when I was a waiter for a hotel that had just been taken over by an international chain. The Group General Manager, a foreigner insisted that for the new menu, we serve the local dishes in a wok. To the local community eating out of the wok was a taboo. We told him about this but he brushed it off, saying it was rubbish. We went ahead with this menu. The result of this action is that the locals avoided us and those that came were very annoyed. After a few bad reviews from the customers eventhough the food was great, the Group General Manager finally gave in to change the menu but it was too late. It took us another year to build back our local clientele. Even the design of your place or the uniform is also important. In the East Coast of Malaysia, the people there don`t take too kindly to their waitresses wearing revealing clothes. When I was working in Thailand, they have so much respect for their King and Queen to the extend that they don`t serve alcohol on the King`s and Queens` birthday.


Also if you know their culture you can use this to your advantage too. One episode of Restaurant Makeover, the designer found out that it was a culture for the Somalian families to dine together in a private dining area. So she created an area just for that. By the way they were making a Somalian restaurant. Well this a great customer service to the Somalian community.

All this means is that different cultures have different beliefs and taboos. In order to give great customer service and be on the good side of your customers, you must know what is the beliefs and taboo of the community around you. Even Sun Tzu has a verse for this in his Art of War. It goes like this
"We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country--its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps." Chapter VII. MANEUVERING Verse 13

To know more on how I use the Art of War, please click here. How I use the Art of War

A Restaurant Promotion Idea- Watch Reality Shows

I know this goes against what some parents told us when we were kids. That in order to succeed we need to watch less TV and study more. And I'm aware that some reality shows bring out the bad side in people. But there some if you cut out the backbiting and bad sides of humans, can be a great learning process. One such show that I loved to watch was "The Apprentice", the show with Donald Trump. The show is about people working in teams at projects in order to be the last one standing to be "The Apprentice” for Donald Trump. There is one episode that is an example to what you can learn from it. It was the one when each team had to promote a product using a limited amount of money. One team used their money to promote at the back horse drawn carriages. As promoting on horse drawn carriages was expensive, they managed to get only 10 carriages. Another team promoted on sandwich boards carried by people walking around. Promoting on sandwich boards were much cheaper, they managed to get 50 sandwich boards moving around the town. So from there you can see who had the most coverage. From this episode I learnt that if I put up one banner, how strategic the location may be. You will only capture a certain amount of coverage. But if you put up buntings around you will capture more people. And I have also learnt that the overhead for putting up 30 buntings is the same as putting up one banner. So now I put up more buntings. Another great reality show is "Restaurant Makeover". It has a lot of ideas on how to design a restaurant. And the ideas are very simple and nice.   This Reality Show is about two people (a designer and a chef) helping people to revise and revitalize their restaurant. The Restaurant Makeover team has only 6 days to make the restaurant with a new menu and design with a limited amount of money. The ideas that come out are great and simple and also don’t take too much money. I have also learnt that you don’t need a large menu to attract people just a small one with all your specialties.

For More Ideas on Promoting your Restaurant you can go to my website Restaurant Promotion Ideas

Cashew Shoots (Pucuk Gajus)

The cashew tree originated from Brazil, was brought over by the Portuguese immigrants to Malaysia. Its botanical name is anacardium occidentale. It’s a low shady tree about 15 meters high which is normally planted at the sides of padi fields for shade. The bark gives out the a type of sap that gives a burning sensation to the skin where it touches. The fruit shaped like a pear with its kidney shaped seed on the outside.


The locals normally eat the young shoots with sambal belacan or cencaluk as an ulam. My wife showed me this tree when we were working in Cherating, I have never seen this tree or fruit. The only cashew nut I’ve seen came out from a tin.

Health Benefits

The young cashew shoots when eaten raw as ulam is believed to prevent and control diabetes. The Malaysian Forest Research Institute has done research to prove this point. The young shoots contain anti oxide properties that can neutralize and fight toxins in the body. From a research done by the Institute of Bioscience in the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), the other benefit of cashew shoots is that it lowers the sign of aging.

Health Benefits of eating Ulam-Ulaman

Time Tunnel Cameron Highlands

The Time Tunnel in Cameron Highland is also known as the Local Museum. But instead of displaying the usual historical items that most museums have you will


find 1,000 artifacts on display that bring you a sense of nostalgia. You will have a wonderful time there, reminiscing and laughing at the things you used to play and use when you were small. The name suits it, its really a Time Tunnel to the past. There are tin toys and even old money boxes which were given out by banks in the od days. It was nice to show my wife some of the things we used before like the refillable aerosol spraycans. She haven't one like that before. If you think it is like a normal museum then you will be disappointed, but I certainly liked it. It is only a RM5 entrance fee.

Time Tunnel Gallery is between Brinchang and Tanah Rata, at a place called Kok Lim Strawberry Farm.
Time Tunnel

Kueh Lapis



Kuih Lapis is a visually delightful and tasteful dessert. Kuih Lapis when translated to English means "Layered Cake" because of many different colours layers. The traditional colours are  yellow, pink and white but nowadays you will see other colours to make it beautiful. When I was a kid I used to love to eat this kuih by peeling off the individual layers. To make it you need to put in a layer of the batter in a tray and baked. After its cooked, add another layer and bake. Continue adding layers until you reach your desired height.  Making the creation of a kueh lapis an extremely laborious and time-consuming process.

A Layman’s Guide to Malaysian Cakes

The importance of good customer relationship

The other day on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah was a introducing a new reality show called "The Undercover CEO". This new reality show is about CEOs of multinational companies going on undercover missions that will place them within the lowest ranks of their own company. By working as a rank and file staff, they will get a closer look at both the good and the bad as the result of their decision as the big boss. They will also learn what the downline feel about the company while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run.


One of her guest was Joe DePinto the CEO of 7 Eleven who went to work at few of his stores. Apart from finding out some not too good store policies like throwing away doughnuts after a certain hour, he found two gem in his employees. A particular employee is Dolores Bisangni in the Southampton store, N.Y. DePinto commented that he had always wondered why the Southampton store sold a higher amount of coffee than his other stores. After working at the store he found out that it was not because of the coffee used as all 7 Eleven stores use the same product. It was the service and friendliness provided by Bisangni that got people coming back for more. Bisangni has worked for 7-Eleven for 18 years, has only one kidney and undergoes dialysis treatments twice weekly. She was a real gem on knowing everyone that came in by name. This is another good example of good customer service bringing in repeat business.
Customer Service Ideas- Building happy customers

Kuih Cara Berlauk

Kuih cara berlauk is made up of flour, egg, coconut milk and turmeric. The mixture is mixed thoroughly before being cooked in a special mould until it hardens. They normally use the same mould as the one for baking bahulu. Before it hardens, a filling made up either spiced beef or chicken is added. This kuih is very popular during the month of Ramadhan. The sweeter version is called Kuih Cara Manis. The method and ingredients are the same but instead of the meat filling they add sugar. The modern version is the kayaballs found in most majorshopping malls in Malaysia.

A Layman's Guide to Malaysian Kuih