How Entertainers Can Help a Restaurant to Run Smoothly
Previously in the Restaurant Gigs for Kids Entertainers series, restaurant manager Andrew Cox shared what magicians and roaming performers need to know about the restaurant and hotel setting and what is expected of them. Here in part 3, Andrew is back to discuss in more specific details the value that entertainers add to the dining experience.
While many magicians think that people come to the restaurant to see them, or they view the restaurant as their stage, the truth is that they are there to serve their employer: the restaurant or the hotel.
The service that these establishments seek and expect from a magician or a roving entertainer is to smooth over the rough bits for their customers as they are in the process of ordering and getting their food. The entertainer is there to make the experience of dining in the restaurant more pleasant for those who chose to go there. Perhaps to put it succinctly, the entertainer is there to add to the ambience.
Magicians and performers can also help restaurants in a major concern that’s part of their day-to-day operations: their queuing time.
Sometimes despite the efficiency of the staff and the briskness of the customer in placing an order, a long line still ensues.
During busy hours, customers spend 20-25 minutes in the queue. And this is where magicians and roaming entertainers can add massive value. With their music or their gag or their trick, they take the customers’ mind off the waiting even for just a bit.
Say you show a trick that takes 3 or 4 minutes, and you do some small talk or banter before and after, or you tell a joke in between. For about 5 or 6 minutes, in that sliver of time, the customers forget that they are in line waiting.
It may not seem like much, but that short entertainment may help diffuse the impatience that may be building up particularly for those who don’t like waiting, or set the tone for the customers’ dining experience—or even for their whole night.