Making Attractive Habits for a Profitable Taproom

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Mister Rogers asked, “How do we make goodness attractive?” Mister Rogers, known for teaching us how to be a good neighbor, understand our feelings, and become our best selves, poses a great question. It is the quest to make things more attractive that helps us build strong habits. While Mister Rogers used the word "goodness" in his question, it could easily be replaced by any quality you are striving to improve.

What are you looking to improve? What habits will make your taproom more successful?

Pull out your notepad and a pen. What do you wish your taproom staff would be better at? Do you want them to treat new guests with the same enthusiasm as their best regulars? Encourage more people to sign up for your mug club? Or, the always-worth-pushing goal: selling more to-go beer?

It’s easy to tell your team to do this or that. However, commands aren’t typically attractive. How can we make these actions more appealing? Let’s break it down into a few key strategies.

Make it easy

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, is adamant about this: the easier you make an action, the more likely it is to be performed. Take your to-go fridge, for example. Placing it near the register instead of 100 feet away benefits both staff and guests. Guests are more likely to notice it and be reminded to make a purchase. Meanwhile, your team will be more inclined to encourage to-go beer sales, grabbing a can from a nearby fridge is far easier than hiking across the taproom.

Make it worthwhile

I speak a ton about rewards, recognition, and opportunity as three powerful ways to motivate your team and create a desirable outcome. Is your team driven by rewards? Maybe a gift card to a favorite restaurant. Do they prefer recognition? A shoutout in front of the team at your next meeting could go a long way. Or are they motivated by growth? Providing opportunities to advance within your company can be a powerful incentive.

Everyone is different, and your team won’t all fall into the same category. Just like each guest craves a unique experience in your taproom, so do your employees. Ask them what motivates them, create consistent initiatives to help them reach goals, and make their efforts worthwhile.

Make it profitable

Money is also a powerful motivator. When I was 16, my first job was selling cotton candy and snow cones at a minor league baseball stadium. I earned 30 cents per item sold. On a rainy day, I might only sell 10 items. Unfortunately, only $3.00 in my pocket. Beautiful, Summer Saturday – I’d hustle and sell over 200 items, plus tips. That’s a quick $60. Not bad for a high schooler.

Money likely motivates much of your staff as well. More taproom guests should mean higher overall spending, but your team plays a key role in making each visit more profitable. Higher tabs equal greater tips. Practicing world-class hospitality and creating authentic upsell opportunities not only build meaningful guest relationships but also increase spending.

At Secret Hopper, our data-backed insights prove the impact of engagement. Guests who receive a high level of interaction in taprooms spend 40% more than those who only experience a staff member going through the motions.

What to do now

Find the habit you want to motivate your staff on and share with them the data behind it. Show them how doing X can lead to a Y percent increase in tab or tip size. Ask each team member individually what motivates them and ensure the task is as efficient as possible to complete. Making habits attractive will help increase tab size, boost tips, improve staff retention, and create a stronger overall experience for everyone in your taproom.

The data was collected from a set of 1258 unique taproom visits from November 16, 2022 to February 27, 2024. Each tab represents 2 guests and includes tax and tip.