Slack - taking your venue communication & culture to the next level
We think Slack is a fantastic tool for small businesses (We use it all day long) and especially hospitality.
Keep in the loop
In hospo businesses, we think of it as a really useful digital whiteboard - yes the one that is probably on the back of the kitchen door or somewhere close. You have different teams working on different days, shifts, start times - the days of a staff briefing before service are mostly gone. Even small businesses have many moving parts and constant micro-communications, little bits of info and updates that need to be passed along, checked, noted, updated.
Having the ability to quickly check-in or follow updates when not on site is invaluable for a venue owner or manager, but taming those notifications is essential, not only to filter out the noise but for the wellbeing of you and your team - to make sure you can disconnect and refresh when not working.
Staff members in particular should not be expected to be available on it 24/7 - it would be a quick catchup on what has been going on in the business while they have been away.
Open direct lines of communication
As teams grow, it might not feel appropriate for everyone to have everyone else personal phone number. It can be made clear that you have a direct line to the owners and managers at any time if you'd like to talk.
As with any type of social network, it's important to have policies to keep staff safe from bullying or harassment, making sure that any banter doesn't overstep the mark.
Some ideas for ways to use a team chat tool, such as Slack.
Firstly you organise your topics for chat into ‘channels’ these can be to give immediate context to what you might post about in that channel. Ie in a channel for ‘Marketing’ you might just quickly post “does anyone have any content ideas for social media posts for next week”. This keeps replies on-topic and not lost in a busy general group conversation about 10 other topics.
Secondly you may choose to integrate with other online services (for anyone slightly technically inclined, have a look at Zapier)
You could get a notification the second that a function enquiry comes in from your website, automate a weather forecast every morning or share a shift report at the end of the day.
Overview of types of channel and some more suggestions for topics
Private - only people invited can even see that they exist, let alone read and write on them.
Senior managers - Keep your senior team connected and engaged. Discuss the week ahead, staffing / recruitment issues, maintenance or repair updates. You could funnel a daily shift report here for yesterdays figures and service overview.
Supervisors - As above but perhaps less financial detail or staffing issues, a regular connection to the guys running the show day to day.
External Channels - (May require premium plan) connect in to your bookkeeper & accountant for reports, updates, answer queries or collaborate on your payroll
Public - anyone can join or be invited
Feedback - It's great to praise publicly! Also share great reviews or constructive feedback to improve.
Bartenders - Can be an internal chat to nerd-out about mezcal, discuss what new beers to get in or plan your weekend prep lists.
Baristas - As above but about relative humidity and dialling in your grind.
Front Of House - What specials to we have today? Please remember to try and up-sell an extra coffee, any special guests, large parties or other notes.
Kitchen - Keep on top of stock levels, prep lists, kitchen cleaning or plans and inspiration for new menu items.
Default - every new employee gets invited automatically
General - General Announcements, welcome new staff, tell everyone they are awesome. Take a vote on staff party ideas!
Random - for fun / silliness especially gifs
Social - Team get together, planning official or unofficial staff activities / nights out
If you want to explore slack you can create an account here for free. There are some limitations to the free account but would be fine for many businesses. We have no affiliation with Slack, we’re just fans! There are alternative but similar services that might be worth exploring here:
Workplace by Meta (Formerly Facebook Workplace Groups)