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Music: Turn it UP or turn it DOWN!

Oct 04, 2016

By George Barton, Sr. Beverage Consultant.

 

Music plays a fundamental role in the ambiance of your restaurant and bar environment.  It sets mood, tone and assists in the connections that your honored guest look for when they visit your brand. Music is vitally important and along with light levels and temperature, it sets that perfect vibe and impression. Let’s dig in a bit on how music can affect your restaurant atmosphere.

 

You could produce your own music, use CDs or hire an outside production company to provide music based upon your predetermined direction and approval. Music to our ears is a most critical piece of the overall customer experience. We certainly know that food and service quality can make or break your visit. Music, with the correct style and volume can assist in setting tone, relaxing or even pumping up your guests, depending upon your intent and message your sending.

 

Live music creates a lively atmosphere

 

Let’s explore these (5) music periods from opening to closing times at your restaurant and while not everyone looks at this amount of complexity, let me clarify. In addition, teach your management teams how to set the music styles and volume that have been agreed upon that supports your restaurant and bar culture.

 

  1. Lunch: Most customers have 50-65 minutes for lunch on average, including travel time. Select music that will satisfy that crowd, from contemporary to county, maybe a bit of pop or reggae.  The key here is to insure your guests enjoy their lunch experience without competing to be heard over loud music. Music should be in the background, yet loud enough to hear. Why have the music over power and send your guests running back to the office pumped to the max, irritated or on edge.
  2. Happy Hour: Generally a (3) hour period where guests are looking to unwind a bit after work and engage with friends in a fun and lively environment. Pump up the tunes a bit to keep the tempo so everyone can enjoy friends and colleagues. Monitor unintended consequences where the music could be so loud in your bar during happy hour that guests in your dining area may suffer which could affect their intent to return.
  3. Dinner: Guests may desire to dine in a more relaxed atmosphere where they can experience dinner with family and friends so crank it back down with happy hour ending. Guests in all parts of the restaurant will want the music to be in the background so they can enjoy their meal and have conversations. There are  trendy restaurants in both the casual and the casual plus segment who “crank it up” for their guest. This is part of their strategy, not for everyone, yet connects with their intended crowd. This louder trend tends to fit a younger, or millennial crowd at dinner as well.
  4. Late Night: Treat it like Happy Hour, maybe even a notch above. Most bars have late night features and themes that connects with louder tunes, playing well to millennials. Maybe the time to play some music a bit on the edge, based upon the crowd and demographic you are looking to entertain. Styles here could be from pop to alternative to new age and even a bit of dance or “club music”
  5. BRUNCH: Generally reserved for Sunday. This day can be a real winner or a bump along the road. Serving brunch only once every 7 days is challenging so why would you want to irritate guests with off the wall music. Classical, blues and jazz seem to the relaxing sounds that will enhance the guest experience. Again, allow guests the opportunity to engage in conversations and not fight over the music levels.

 

Music styles and volumes will never appease every guest yet you need to take the appropriate action to create music that will fit your target guest. Don’t allow every team member to turn volume up and down and select their favorite tune.  Managers should be the agreed contact to adjust styles and sound levels, otherwise you will end up trying to make everyone happy and lose the battle.  From my point of view, a well produced and agreed upon music platform from a professional music developer will provide your team the opportunity to focus on serving awesome food quality in a warm and friendly atmosphere with a tremendous focus on service.

 

So turn it up or turn it down depends upon a few key factors that defines your business and brand architecture.