Do Your Employees Drive And Talk On The Phone – How Much Could This Cost You?

Most restaurants owners need for employees to run errands or drive on their behalf from time to time.  Food delivery is the big one but in truth employees run short errands to pick up supplies or visit the bank or post office quite often.  As soon as your employee drives away, they take with them your potential liability for any damages that they cause while on that errand.  Did you know that if your employee chooses to pass the time on the phone while they drive, then they are 4 times more likely to cause an accident?  You wouldn’t let them do things inside your restaurant that are 4 times more likely to cause accidents so why should you allow this behavior when they are driving for you?

To understand just what is at risk here, take a look at a few recent high dollar settlements against companies whose employees were on the phone when they caused an accident.  When a lumber salesman crippled a a 78 year old woman in an accident, the lumber company was forced to pay $16.1 million to settle the claim.  A cable company employee rammed a stopped car at 71 mph, resulting in the death of a mother and her child  That claim was settled for a shade over $21 million.  These are just a few of the more than 1.2 million accidents each year caused by cell phone use.  It is now estimated that nearly one in four accidents are the direct result of cellphone use or texting.

The real problem for you, the restaurant owner, is that if your employee causes an accident while using their phone to talk or text, their phone records will show the time of the accident.  This is the smoking gun that the trial attorneys go after first and it leaves you with very few options as the defendant in the lawsuit.    And current trends indicate that juries are eager and willing to scold companies for letting their employees engage in phone use on the road.  Juries seem to be taking the stand that phone use just prior to an accident needs to be punished and punished severely.    It may be ok for them to use their phone while driving, but apparently not ok for everyone else.  They see it as protecting themselves by encouraging corporations to not allow their drivers to use the phones on the road, thus making the roads safer for them.

It doesn’t really matter if your employee is driving a company owned car, using a company provided phone or driving their own car with their own private cell phone.  In every case juries overwhelmingly seem to want to pin the blame on the company and punish them with a huge jury award.  Because of this, most experts now believe that out of court, pre-trial settlements are the best options for companies caught in this trap.  Facing a jury in this situation means facing a hostile group of people who hold your very livelihood in their hands.

So what should you do to protect yourself and your restaurant?  Start by making sure that you have adequate coverage limits on your business auto insurance policy if your restaurant owns any vehicles.  Next be sure that you have high enough limits to protect you on your non-owned auto insurance as well.  Make it clear, both verbally and in writing that employees will not use their cell phones to talk or text while driving on behalf of your restaurant.  You should consult your attorney for the best way to accomplish this.

At Clinard Insurance Group, we insure more than 100 restaurants all across NC, SC, Ga, TN and VA.  We want all restaurant insurance buyers to be informed consumers.    If you would like help with your restaurant insurance in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee or Virginia, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit our restaurant insurance web page at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

Reservation Cancellations – Some Out Of The Box Ideas For Restaurant Owners

With this blog I want to divert a bit from restaurant insurance policy issues and focus for a moment on a problem that is costing more and more restaurants money.  The problem of the reservation no show.    I want to share with you some ideas that a few other restaurant owners are using to fight this growing problem.

Now let me start by saying that I know that no shows are not a problem for every restaurant out there.  Those most vulnerable to this problem are restaurants that have a high per table revenue and limited seating.    It’s pretty easy to see that if you are turning people away from your restaurant because you are holding reservations for those who don’t show up, then you are losing revenue.    One way a number of restaurants deal with this problem is to simply refuse to accept reservations at all.  I can see why this might be an attractive choice to a frustrated restaurant owner, and if you have lines outside your door every night then this is probably a great solution.  But if not, here are a few issues that this policy might create that you may not have considered.    First of all, you will not be able to know how many customers you are losing because of the no reservation policy.  There is a fairly new restaurant in my town that I have not yet visited because they don’t take reservations.  They are located in the entertainment district in my town and if I go there to eat, it will be before I attend an event nearby. Their no reservation policy has kept me from choosing them several times.  And they don’t know that they have missed my business because of this.  Also, consider that their regular clients may be forced to tolerate a long wait time for dinner on nights where there is entertainment in the nearby venue.  Is this the way to treat your regular customers who keep you in business?

So what are other restaurants doing to combat this problem?  There are a few that try using social media to punish their no shows.  I have seen a photo on twitter of two waiters holding up their middle fingers with the caption that says this is to the people of two different no show tables last night.  Now, if this can pass for humor, I suppose it is one answer, but it really doesn’t provide a long term solution to this problem.

More and more restaurants are tinkering with policies that charge diners for a no show on a reservation.  While this may seem a bit drastic on first glance, remember this rule – Your clients will interact with you in the ways that you train them to do so.   If you choose to try this approach, market this new policy to your advantage.  Let them know that your restaurant is so popular that you have had to create ways to limit the people visiting you each night and this is one of your strategies.  If you have the same results that others have had with this policy, you will probably find that in reality you won’t have to actually charge many no shows.  The truth is, when faced with the prospect of paying for a no show, most diners who were not very serious about showing up in the first place will not place the reservation.  Another phenomenon associated with this policy is that you may have to steadily increase the no show charge until you reach the place where you actually have very few no shows.   Don’t use this policy to make money, rather use it to weed out the less serious reservations from the serious ones.    

A Chicago restaurant has taken this idea to the next level.  They require diners to purchase a nonrefundable ticket in advance.  No one gets in without a ticket.  The tickets are priced with a dynamic pricing model that makes it more expensive to eat during the busiest times and cheaper when the demand is lower.  This has allowed the restaurant to better manage their flow of customers and thus has created a much better dining experience for all customers.

If you are losing money in your restaurant to no shows, consider using some outside of the box ideas to better train your customers to behave in ways that don’t damage your revenue stream.  Don’t be afraid to try something new, but be sure that you have mechanisms in place to measure the results so that over time you can tweak your ideas to make them as profitable as possible.

Clinard Insurance Group is the restaurant insurance store.  We insure more than 100 restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  We would like to use our expertise and our volume of customers to help you get the restaurant insurance protection that you need at a price that will blow you away.  Please give us a call, toll free at 877-687-7557 for help with your restaurant insurance.  Or you can visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Are You At Risk For A Weight Of Snow Roof Collapse?

If you are a restaurant owner and you either own the building in which your restaurant is located, or you are required by the landlord to insure your building, then you should take some time to establish a plan to protect your building  from a collapse due to the weight of snow on your roof.  We are seeing more and more roof collapse claims each year due to wet, heavy snow.    If your restaurant’s roof were to collapse, how would this affect your profit and sales for this year?  Could your restaurant survive a loss of this type?

If you live in a climate with very little snow, congratulations, this is one thing you won’t have to worry about.  But if heavy snowfall can occur in your area, and particularly if that snowfall can be the wet, heavy snow that we see with warmer snowfall, then you should take the time to evaluate your vulnerability to this exposure and to make a plan in advance to protect your restaurant business.  Bear in mind that one cubic foot of dry snow weighs about three to five pounds while the same cubic foot of wet snow can weigh up to 25 pounds.  If your building has a 3000 square foot roof and your area has a snowstorm that dumps a foot of wet snow onto your roof, your roof will now have to support an additional 75,000 additional pounds of weight.  Can your roof handle that?

In truth, any roof is vulnerable to collapse under the weight of ice and snow, but there are some roof types that are more vulnerable than others.  For instance, saw tooth rooflines are at greater risk because the snow will build up between the tooth sections and dramatically increase the weight of the snow there.  Roofs with deep valleys are also high risk because the snow from the areas above the valleys will slide down and build up in the valleys.  Bow string roofs and flat roofs are also very vulnerable.  You should perform your own inspection of your building’s interior to look for signs of a sagging roof that may mean your building is particularly vulnerable.  Look for any sagging steel, Some other clues you can look for would be windows and doors that are difficult to open or close and curving or bowing utility pipes or electrical conduit near the ceiling.

 If you decide that your building is vulnerable to a snow weight collapse, then you should establish a relationship with a rooftop snow removal company before the winter season gets under way.  After the snow has begun to fall, it may be too late to find help.  I recommend that you not try to perform the snow removal yourself but rather that you use a company that specializes in rooftop snow removal.   These companies have a carefully designed system to remove snow in a way that does not damage your roof. 

So what about your restaurant insurance?  Will your policy protect you from a loss from a collapsed roof?  Well, most restaurant package policies and business owners insurance policies will provide this coverage if you have insured the building on the policy.  You will probably also experience a loss to some of the business personal property and you will experience a loss of income.  All of these exposures can be covered by your restaurant insurance policy as long as you set up correctly in the first place to handle this kind of loss.  Check with your agent if you think your building is vulnerable to a weight of snow collapse.  But of course, the best plan of all is to prevent the loss in the first place.  Even with proper insurance, a collapsed roof is going to drag your business down substantially and really cause you hassles and problems that you probably can’t think of right now.

If you would like help with your restaurant insurance program, or if you have questions about restaurant insurance, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.  At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, restaurant insurance is what we do.  We insure hundreds of restaurants located all across North Carolina and South Carolina and we would love to help you with your restaurant insurance.  Remember, hiring an agent with a niche specialty in restaurant will save you twice, once on price and once on advice.

Employee Benefits Liability or Fiduciary Liability Insurance – Should These Be A Part Of Your Restaurant Insurance Program?

Most restaurant owners offer at least some employees an employee benefits program of some type.  It may be a retirement account, health insurance, life insurance or even disability insurance.  How you manage and administrate these benefit programs generates some risks for you and your company.  Clerical errors or bad advice can leave your company facing a lawsuit and the expensive costs of defending yourself.   Insurance protection is needed, but what it the correct type of protection for you?

Let’s take a brief look at two different types of protection for employee benefits administration.  They are employee benefits liability insurance and fiduciary liability insurance.  It helps to look at each one separately first.

Employee benefits liability insurance is a form of liability insurance that can be added on to your restaurant business owners insurance policy.   Usually the coverage limit will often be the same as the liability limit on your business owners policy but since this is not always true, it is important for you to make sure that you know the limit of protection that you are buying.  This protection is very affordable when add it to an existing businessowners policy.  The protection here is aimed at covering you and your restaurant from losses caused by administrative mistakes in the handling of the employee benefits.  For example, say you hired a new manager and agreed to provide him with health insurance but failed to actually send in the applications to add him to the policy.  A year later he is diagnosed with cancer and the health claim is not covered since your clerical error meant that he was never actually added to the group health insurance policy.  In this case your employee benefits liability insurance should protect your restaurant from having to pay for his medical bills.

Fiduciary liability insurance is a very different type of policy.   This insurance protection is for claims arising out of wrongful acts.  Wrongful acts can be negligent acts, errors, or omissions that result in an actual or an alleged breach of your fiduciary duties as imposed by ERISA in the administration of employee benefits.   The most common of these is giving bad investment advice about which investment choices an employee should use when investing 401k funds but other claims are more subtle.  For instance you could even be held liable for your choice of the 401k investment plan or even for your selection of which plan administrator you use to maintain your restaurant’s 401k plan. 

So which type of policy do you need?  We tend to believe that fiduciary liability insurance is best suited for restaurants that offer a retirement plan benefit of some kind for their employees.  But in truth you can have a devastating clerical error associated with running a retirement plan.  In that case, having both types of protection would be important.  If you don’t provide any employee benefits where the fiduciary nature of your involvement could get you in trouble, then perhaps employee benefits liability insurance is all that you need.  Some restaurants may need both forms of protection while others may only need one or the other.  What is most important here is to clearly understand the difference in these two forms of protection so that you can best decide what you need for your particular restaurant.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem NC, is a niche player in the NC restaurant insurance industry.  We insure over 100 restaurants of all types, all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  We have 5 distinct restaurant insurance programs, a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program and a special insurance program for catering companies.  If we can help you with any of your restaurant insurance questions or needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

Restaurant Insurance – What Will The Near Future Hold?

I am an insurance agent with hundreds of restaurant owners as customers.  This means that  I sit at the crossroads of the insurance buyer and the insurance seller, or the underwriter.  With my finger on that pulse, I can often notice subtle changes in the restaurant insurance business before others do.  This article is a just a quick check in on the state of affairs in North Carolina restaurant insurance.   I hope that this warning will help a few savvy restaurant owners stay ahead of the game as the rules begin to change underneath them.

First of all, I am getting a general sense among restaurant insurance companies that they are losing their appetite for buying up market share by pricing accounts below their expected profit point.  The losses have grown too quickly against some of the insurance companies and so they are less inclined to engage in cut rate pricing in order to obtain the smaller sized, single location accounts.   Now  when it comes to  the multi-location, fast food restaurant insurance we are still seeing crazy cut rate pricing, but the Mom and Pop eateries are probably going to experience rate increases over the next few years.

To better understand this trend, I looked at the losses we have seen this year in the restaurant insurance business.  Doing this reveals the huge impact that weather is having on company loss ratios.  Hail storms, tornadoes and other weather related claims have damaged roofs and rooftop equipment and even forced the temporary closing of some locations.  The bottom line for many companies who specialize in writing small restaurant accounts is that these accounts are starting stand out as money losers compared to other types of business like construction and manufacturing.  Because of this, we are seeing the beginnings of some rule tightening behavior as well as other price related, short term,  knee jerk reactions that are so very typical of insurance companies who have suffered more losses than they intended.

While weather is the big loss driver this year, there is another , more disturbing trend in restaurant insurance losses.  This is the increase in the frequency of medical payments claims and liability claims with large loss reserves.  When I study the details of these claims I am shocked by how many people think that an injury on a restaurant premises is a payday opportunity.  We even had a claim where an obese woman was going from her car to her wheelchair in a perfectly level and well maintained and lit parking lot and she missed the chair and landed on the pavement.  She hired an attorney and is going after the restaurant owner for $25,000.  Reading these claim reports just leaves me shaking my head.  I mean there are dozens of similar claims going on with our restaurant clients right now.   Does a weak economy lend itself to more of this type of behavior? 

So what should you do to protect yourself from these potential claims and potential future rate increases?  Start by making sure that you use independent agent who lives and breathes restaurant insurance.  This type of agent should have more than one good restaurant insurance market for your business and should be able to use that to help keep your rates low.  This agent  will also better understand the trends in restaurant insurance in your area and should better understand how your policy should be set up to give you the most protection at the lowest possible cost.

After that, take some time a care to be sure that your own house is in order.  Keep an eye out for places in your restaurant that might tempt one of those gold diggers to dump a costly and time consuming liability claim in your lap.  Are there spots in your restaurant where a customer could trip, or slip or hurt themselves somehow?  If so, take steps to regularly look for and fix these areas.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in  Winston Salem, NC, restaurant insurance is our business. 
We insure over a hundred restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  We want restaurant insurance buyers out there to be informed consumers.  We freely share this kind of information because we truly care about restaurant owners.  If we can help you with any of your restaurant insurance questions, or if you would like a quote on your restaurant insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or find us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

Restaurant Insurance – How Many Of These 5 Mistakes Did You Make When You Set Up Your Insurance?

This week I want to discuss 5 common mistakes that restaurant owners slip up on when dealing with their restaurant insurance program.  I hope you haven’t fallen prey to all of them but do take a minute and think about  your own approach handling your restaurant insurance and which of these mistakes you may have made.  It will be too late to fix your mistakes after you have a loss, so I would advise that today be the day that you read this blog and take immediate action.

Mistake #1 – The Price Only Mindset.   This is the most common mistake that a restaurant owner will make.  And it can be a real trap.   Restaurant owners  are busy and running their business day to day can be a series of stomping out small fires from personnel  to supply chain to equipment issues.  Finding time to evaluate and understand the intricacies of your insurance contract just gets put by the wayside.  This can lead to the restaurant owner becoming blind to all of the moving parts and pieces in the policy rating process and just focusing on the easiest lowest common denominator: the bottom line price of the policy.  But this strategy ignores so many important variables.  There can be huge coverage and protection differences from one policy to the next.  There can also be great differences between one agent and the next in terms of how well you will be protected (and incidentally how much you pay).  Also, consider the differences from one insurance company to the next,  and last of all, remember that the insurance policy rating process has many step by step calculations that might actually cause you to pay a higher rate but have a policy that makes it appear that you are paying a lower final premium.  Often this particular problem only shows up a year later at audit, but by then it is too late, you are now going to have to pay the higher amount for your policy.  To avoid this mistake, just  remember that the cost of your insurance program is the total of three things.   The premiums you pay for the policy itself, plus the premiums you will pay at policy audit, plus the uncovered losses that you have to pay during the life of the policy.  

Mistake #2 – Using The Wrong Agent.  This mistake is a biggie and could even cost you your business if it results in a large enough, uncovered loss.  Insurance is an unusual business in that unlike most  professional services,  hiring a specialist to help you with your insurance will most often cost you less money than using a non-specialist.  If you dig a little deeper, the real truth is even scarier.  Unlike your family physician, who would never operate on a brain tumor, an insurance agent can take a stab at insuring just about anything that walks in the door.   And many will.   If you bought your restaurant insurance from a friend, or your brother in law, or the agent that just happens to insure your house or your cars, you may be walking into the trap of inexperience and not even know it.  And few insurance agents will tell you that they don’t really understand how to properly insure your restaurant.  Most will just muddle through and try to learn on your nickel.  This puts you at risk for a huge, uncovered loss.   Also, insurance agents with niche specialties in restaurant insurance, not only better understand the coverage ins and outs, but they also are  more likely to have access to better priced restaurant insurance programs simply because they have a high volume of restaurant business and they are more trusted by their underwriters.  This is one of the strange truths of insurance; in most cases using a more highly experienced professional will actually cost you less money.  It’s a win win for you.

Mistake #3 Skipping Insurance Reviews.  Insurance should never be a set it and leave it kind of approach to risk management for your business.  Most restaurants are constantly changing and so is the world around them.   Take the time, at least every couple of years if not every  year, to review your policies in depth with your agent.  Consider how your restaurant has changed since your last review.  Did you buy new equipment, change your hours of operation, or perhaps you began offering new services or products like home delivery?   Even the smallest change in your business, could have a big impact on your insurance protection.

Mistake #4  Cost Cutting.  The recession that we’ve been fighting through since 2008 has left many restaurant owners looking for ways to cut costs.  Be careful when you choose your insurance policy as a place to cut.  Some cuts may be justified and make sense, but don’t delete coverage if you can’t afford to actually pay for the uninsured losses that  you  might be creating.   There is a huge difference between self insuring and being uninsured.

Mistake #5  Square Hole, Meet Round Peg.   All restaurants are not the same and so you probably don’t want a restaurant insurance program that is designed as a one size fits all program.  This mistake is most likely to happen when  you don’t use an agent who insures many other restaurants as mentioned in mistake #2.   If you are a high end, fine dining restaurant, then your insurance needs will be quite different from a lunch and breakfast grill.  You can read more about this particular mistake by reading my blog on one size fits all restaurant insurance programs.

At Clinard Insurance Group , in Winston Salem NC, we are a full service, independent insurance agency.  Restaurants are one of our niche groups and we insure over 100 restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  If you own a restaurant or catering company located in NC or SC, please feel free to contact us to discuss your restaurant insurance needs.  You can reach us by phone, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or you can visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Company Cars and Your Employees

Many restaurant owners out there have vehicles that are owned in the corporate name.  This can run the gamut from personal cars for the restaurant owner to vans used for pickups and deliveries.  These vehicles, titled in the business name should always be insured on a commercial auto policy in the same business name.  There is a wrinkle in the coverage protection in this instance that can leave an injured employee without any coverage and could perhaps, leave your restaurant vulnerable.

I’m not talking about DOC protection which of course is another dangerous wrinkle when your restaurant has company owned cars.  To learn how to protect your personal assets from that particular coverage gap,  watch my DOC for restaurant owners video.

The problem that I want to address in this particular blog really relates to the risks of injuries that could occur to one of your employees.  Sure, you have workers compensation insurance in case one of them gets injured.  If not, read my blog on why you need to buy that coverage even if the law doesn’t require it.  But the problem that can occur with a company owned vehicle and your employee is best described with an example.  

Let’s say you send out an employee to make a delivery and since it is the last one of the night, you tell them to just drive the van home and bring it back when they come to work tomorrow.  Now, assume that on the way home, after the last delivery was made, they have an accident that is their fault.   Also assume that your employee is injured in this accident.   Many restaurants do not offer health insurance to their employees so now where is this employee going to get the money to pay for his or her medical bills due to this accident?  Well, the simple answer would seem to be that you just file a workers compensation claim for those injuries.  After all, the employee was on the job.  Wasn’t he?  Well, in North Carolina we are seeing that type of claim denied by insurance companies.  The argument is that when the employee is using the vehicle for personal use (in this case driving home from work), then that employee is not covered by workers compensation.

Now what are the downsides for you, the employer?  First of all, your employee may face overwhelming medical bills and may not be able to afford the help needed to get back to work as quickly as otherwise might be the case.  Also, there is some risk to you, the employer that a sharp attorney may find a way to drag you into a long, drawn out legal case due to the fact that your vehicle was involved.   The final result for you is unclear and difficult to prognosticate but suffice to say, this is a situation that you want to be aware of and avoid if possible.  I don’t have an insurance solution for you except to say that if your employee has life insurance, health insurance and disability insurance then most of the gaps will be covered.  If not, the best advice is to make sure that you don’t provide company owned vehicles for your employees’ personal use.

Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC is an agency with a niche specialty in helping restaurant owners in both North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs.  We have developed specialized programs for several different types of restaurants so that you don’t have to buy a one size fits all policy for your restaurant.  We have a specialized insurance program for catering companies, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program, a unique fine dining insurance program and a casual dining restaurant insurance package.  If we can help you with your restaurant insurance questions, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.  

This article was created from source material which can be found online at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – What Does Facebook Have To Do With Your Insurance Rates?

Most savvy restaurant owners know that it is no longer enough just to have a web page.  You need to have a mobile version of that page and for sure you had better have a place on Facebook.   In fact, most people under age 25 are more likely to do a Facebook search for your restaurant than they are to search on Google.  And the Facebook platform really allows restaurants to keep an open, flowing and connected form of communication with their clientele.  But very few restaurant owners have taken even a moment to consider how their Facebook site might affect their insurance rates.

Let me start by saying that if you are leaving your restaurant insurance with the same company year after year and never shopping your restaurant insurance policies in the marketplace, then it may take much longer for the ensuing discussion to apply to your restaurant insurance policy.  While it is true that some insurance companies will do reviews of restaurants prior to renewing their existing policies, this renewal review process is much lighter duty in general and affects a small percentage of restaurants in any given year.   But what about the day you decide to switch agents or switch companies either for better service or a better product or just to save money?  Well, when that day comes you don’t want your Facebook page to bite you in the butt.

Restaurant insurance pricing, just like most every other commercial insurance policy is pretty fluid.  Sure, the companies will file their base rates on their product with the state authority.  In North Carolina, rates are filed with the NC Insurance Commissioner’s Office.   But they also file a list of schedule credits, which are just credits that they can choose or not choose to apply to their policies.  In truth, very few restaurants are paying the full filed rates on their policies; most enjoy some level of scheduled credits that reduce their rate by some percentage from the base rate.  And most important of all for the restaurant owner, is that the application of these credits is based on the underwriter’s comfort with how you are running your dining establishment.

In the old days, before the internet, all an underwriter had to go on was the application submitted by the agent, and perhaps a photo or two.  But then came the internet and the underwriters started verifying the application information with the information found on the restaurant website.  All of that worked pretty well and could actually work in the restaurant owner’s favor.  Then came Facebook.  And let’s face it, Facebook is a social media platform and the key word here is social.  So many restaurants use their Facebook page as a way to show how much fun it is to visit their place of business.   But it is important for the restaurant owner to understand that insurance underwriters are visiting there as well. 

If you, as the restaurant owner, are not actively involved in operating your Facebook page, then you may be leaving yourself vulnerable to higher insurance rates on your restaurant insurance policy.  Now, it may be worth it to show people dancing on the tables or having a big time at your establishment, if it brings in more business.  But there may be a future hidden cost in your insurance policy that you are not counting on.   My advice is to maintain your Facebook page in a way that won’t scare off a stodgy underwriter’s personality.  If that makes the page to banal for your tastes and ambitions, then just be sure to recognize that you may see higher restaurant insurance rates in the future.

Clinard Insurance Group, Inc, is an independent insurance agency located in Winston Salem, NC.   We specialize in insuring all types of restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  Since not every restaurant has the same insurance needs, we have created 5 distinct restaurant insurance packages.  We have a fast food restaurant insurance program,  a bar and grill insurance program,  a casual dining restaurant insurance program, an insurance program for fine dining restaurants and even a specialized insurance program for caterering companies.  If we can help you with your restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

When writing this article, we pulled extensively from a source article which can be found on our restaurant insurance blog site at www.RestaurantInsuranceGuy.com.

Restaurant Insurance – Before You Buy, Qualify Your Agent

Restaurant insurance is a complex and wildly variant contract.  Each restaurant has its own quirks and operational differences from the kinds of food that may be offered to how it is prepared to how it is served.  And all of these variables make insuring a restaurant a complex and highly interactive process when it is done correctly.  These factors point out the need for a specialist.

Restaurants are not cookie cutter businesses.  They vary widely in scope and design and they have some really unique risk factors that, if overlooked, could prove catastrophic to the business itself.  So, as a restaurant owner, whether you like it or not, you are going to need to have some working knowledge of the insurance industry.  Now for someone starting a new restaurant, the path of least resistance would be to call up the insurance agent who handles your car insurance or your homeowners insurance  and ask for a quote on your restaurant.  And here’s the scary part:  This agent could give you a quote and most likely write you a policy.  Why is that scary?  Well, let me highlight that with an example.   Imagine if you had a rare disease and your family practice doctor would or could take a crack at trying to heal you instead of sending you to a specialist who understands that rare disease.  Now that’s a scary thought isn’t it?  Well, not protecting your restaurant business by hiring a specialist should be just as scary a proposition.

Doctors will give referrals to specialists, but unfortunately for you, most insurance agents wouldn’t dream of referring on business of which they are not well qualified to insure.  They don’t want to give up the commission.  So how do you, as a restaurant owner, protect yourself from this risk?  Well, start by asking your agent how many restaurants he or she currently insures.  If they give you a number under 10 you should be worried, as they can’t have accumulated the combined experience and wisdom needed to understand your business if they just insure a handful of similar businesses.  A better number would be more than 100 though.   You see, unlike the patient with the rare disease, these agents’ lack of knowledge might never be exposed unless and until there is a large loss.  So even they may not know what potential problems are lurking there for their current clients.

Do your research online.  Take a look at their website.  Do they seem to specialize in restaurants or do they look more like a generalist?  Have they been blogging about restaurant insurance issues?  Do they o present themselves to the public as a specialist that can really help you uncover the root issues that you may have with your insurance program?

Restaurants are a unique and interesting niche out there for insurance agents.  As a result, there are many who do specialize in helping restaurants manage their risks in the most effective ways.  You can find them without having to do hours and hours of research and in this case Google can be your friend.  Take a moment to check up on your current agent and make sure that you are dealing with a specialist.  It won’t cost you more to hire the best to help you and in fact the irony is that, unlike most professions, with insurance you can hire the specialist for your business and pay less at the same time.  It’s a real win win for restaurant owners and you can take advantage of this situation with less than an hour’s worth of research.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC  we are one of those agencies with a specialty in restaurant insurance.  We insure more than 50 different restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina.  We know that each restaurant is different from the others and so we have developed 5 different restaurant insurance programs to help make a better custom fit for our clients.  We have a bar and grill and tavern insurance program, a casual dining restaurant insurance program, a fine dining restaurant insurance program, a dynamite insurance package for fast food restaurants and even a specialized insurance program for caterers.  If we can help you with restaurant insurance questions, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us  on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

The source information for this blog can be found in full at the blog located at http://www.restaurantinsuranceguy.com/.

Restaurant Insurance – Your Promotions And Your Insurance Policy

In the restaurant business, the name of the game is getting customers to enter your doors and open their wallets.  Restaurant owners are very savvy in this regard and there are many creative approaches to promoting used by different owners to increase their business and their profile in the community.  One of the great things about running a restaurant, is the freedom that you have, as a business owner, to dream up and implement promotions for your establishment.  But when you are coming up with ideas, don’t forget to consider the insurance angle. 

There is really no limit, beyond what you can dream up, to what you can offer your clients to get them in the door spending money with you.  I suppose if you can get it by the health department, you could have dwarf bowling, or keg midgets or even goat dancing contests if you thought it would help you increase sales.  But don’t make the mistake of planning these promotions without considering the impact they may have on your restaurant insurance program.   You don’t want to find out at renewal, or worse yet, after a large loss or accident, that what you were doing conflicts with your insurance plan or causes the insurance company to regard you as a higher risk.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the more common promotions and how they might affect your restaurant insurance policy.  One of the most common is drink promotions.  There are happy hours, ladies nights, half price drink nights and drink specials.  Each of these can be a successful way to increase your sales but it is important to keep an eye on the ratio of liquor sales to food sales.  There is a tipping point, beyond which your restaurant begins to look more like a bar to the insurance company and this can drive up the price of your liquor liability insurance or worse yet, can cause you to fall out of a preferred restaurant program, into one for higher risk establishments at a significant increase in premiums.  That may be ok if you gain enough revenue to overcome the additional insurance costs, but you shouldn’t go into a promotion flying blind on the insurance impact.

Another revenue enhancer that we see establishments trying is adding delivery services for their customers.  There are auto insurance and some workers compensation implications here that should be considered before you make these changes to your restaurant.  These include impacts on your protection and coverage as well as on your rates.

We also see restaurants staying open a bit later and essentially turning their establishment into a bar after they stop serving food.  Often they add a dance floor and DJ or have other live entertainment.  These changes will all have large impacts on your restaurant insurance program and it is best if you bring in your agent for consultation and advice on the front end of these decisions.  If you move forward without notifying your agent, you will lose the opportunity to factor in these changes in your overall return on investment for this plan, and you may find yourself in a position where you could even have trouble obtaining insurance protection at any price. 

Restaurant insurance is a unique and tricky kind of policy and there is no doubt that you need a restaurant insurance specialist helping you with your insurance program.  If you have the right agent and can form a partnership with your agent in helping you plan for the insurance impact of any major changes or promotions that you plan to implement, you will have a better big picture view on the true costs of your promotion or changes.

At Clinard Insurance Group, located in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in restaurants and we understand them.  I have owned 4 restaurants in my lifetime so I know what restaurant owners struggle with day to day.  I also know that not every restaurant has the same insurance needs so I developed 5 specialized insurance programs for the 5 broad categories of restaurants.  I have a specialized program for catering companies, a bar and grill and tavern insurance program, a fast food restaurant insurance program, a fine dining restaurant insurance program and a casual dining restaurant insurance program.   If you need help with your restaurant insurance, please feel free to call me, at 877-687-7557 or visit my web page online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

This article was written from source data which can be found in its entirety at www.RestaurantAnswerGuy.com.