Wise words from a restaurateur in Tasmania

Motivation in a restaurant was one thing I learned more about from Jan in Tasmania in 2012. He ran restaurant Dannevang in Devonport and shared ideas about both leadership and marketing.

Motivation in a restaurant through small tasks

Jan explained that some employees weren’t particularly outgoing. So he created little competitions where they could win a prize for talking to guests and finding something out about them.

One task might be asking the mayor what jam he ate for breakfast. Guests experienced interest, while employees got a fun reason to make contact.

Let employees meet the important guests

He also let staff serve guests whom other owners might have looked after personally. That gave employees responsibility and the feeling they could handle the job.

Jan also made an effort to discover what people in the area wanted to eat. He talked to guests in local cafés and used what he learned to think about his own menu.

A steak challenge people talked about

Another idea was a big steak challenge: If you could eat the entire meal, it was free. According to the story, only a few managed.

What interested me was that participants came with friends. While some tried the challenge, the rest of the party bought drinks. Jan described the model as good business even when a meal ended up free.

The guests who completed the challenge also had a story to pass on. I hadn’t reviewed the restaurant’s accounts myself, but found the interplay of experience, staff and publicity thought-provoking.

Motivation in a restaurant: Jan makes guest contact a game

I’m in Tasmania on my long journey recording interviews with Danish entrepreneurs who’ve moved abroad. I’ve just spoken to Jan, who runs restaurant Dannevang in Devonport. He grew up in Vesterbro and moved to Australia around age 20. Only seven or eight years before our conversation did he become self-employed with his restaurant.

In the video, I describe Devonport as a small town of around 20,000 people. We’ve had an hour-long conversation I plan to put on Amino TV later. What I particularly take away is how he motivates staff.

Several employees are from the island and not particularly outgoing. So Jan runs little competitions with prizes. They’re given a task to approach a guest and find something out about them.

When the mayor comes, the task might be: Find out what jam he eats for breakfast. Then there’s a prize. It gives staff a reason to make contact, and they think working there is fun.

Meanwhile, guests feel someone is interested in them and asks pleasant questions. And employees become more outgoing. I think it’s bloody clever: The same little game can benefit both job satisfaction and the guest experience.

The owner doesn’t need to take over the important guests

Jan also lets employees serve important guests themselves. In other restaurants, the owner might immediately go out and look after the mayor or bank manager.

Here, the staff get to do it. That may sound normal to us, but as Jan describes it, it’s a big thing for his employees. They think: Bloody hell, I got to serve the mayor.

It gives them responsibility and a sense of ability. I describe them as being strengthened by being allowed to handle the task themselves rather than the owner taking over. Also read Min vej som leder about my experiences of responsibility and motivation in leadership.

He investigates what people actually want to eat

Jan also makes an effort to find out what guests want on the menu. In the story, he visits local cafés and talks to people. He pretends he’s from Africa doing a survey and asks what they eat there.

That’s the approach I recount from the conversation. My point is that he seeks knowledge of local guests’ wishes and uses it to decide what menu to create.

Two 800-gram steaks can be free

His marketing idea is a steak challenge. Eat two steaks of 800 grams each with chips and sides, and the meal is free. According to Jan, only around five percent of customers manage it.

If you can’t, you pay for the two steaks. In the video, I mention a price of 70 dollars, which I converted then to around DKK 400. That’s the historical price I describe in 2012.

What’s interesting is who comes. It isn’t typically one person alone, and you don’t take a date to sit eating around two kilos of food either. It’s more likely five, six or seven blokes, two of them competing to see who can do it.

While they try, their friends sit watching. Jan says the rest of the party drinks a whole case of beer on average. So the visit can be good business whether or not a participant ends up getting free steaks.

An experience people pass on

Those who complete the challenge go to work afterwards and boast about it. There’s 1.6 kilos of meat plus sides in the story. It’s something people talk about, turning the challenge into publicity for the restaurant too.

I enthusiastically describe Dannevang as a very successful restaurant in Devonport. That’s my account of the visit and Jan’s model. I haven’t reviewed the accounts or ranked the town’s restaurants.

What strikes me is that you can travel all the way to a small town in Tasmania and learn about both marketing and staff management. In the video, I joke that Australia and Tasmania seem behind Europe in internet and fashion. But here I encounter concrete ideas I think are worth learning from.

Keep watching Amino TV, I say in the recording. More stories like this are coming from the trip.

Best wishes, Martin. PS: Remember you can see many more videos with me on Amino TV