Foodservice Updates

Foodservice Updates is designed to help foodservice operators keep on top of all the industry news and provides tips for keeping business running smooth. We endeavor to provide the latest tips and solutions to keep you in the know.

Earn points for experience

Consumers can be tough to please – and when you add higher menu costs, smaller portions and substitute ingredients to the mix as restaurants have had to do in recent months, it becomes extra challenging to try and win guests and retain them for the long term. But experience still counts for a lot – it’s what is making people choose restaurant meals over meals at home right now – and your restaurant can provide it in little (sometimes free) ways that pay off with guests. Consider how well you’re managing these parts of the restaurant experience: Be prompt with your greetings when people walk in the door. Offer water to guests waiting for a table and promptly collect drink orders from guests who are seated in your dining room. Encourage your staff to recommend dishes to guests – it demonstrates that they care about (and enjoy) the food they are serving and it presents your employee culture in a positive light. Take care with cleaning your dining area and restrooms. Leave people with a positive final impression by making your guests’ exit from your restaurant as smooth as possible – by allowing them to pay via QR code, or letting them split checks without fuss, for example. Finally, find ways to reconnect with them after they leave. That could be sending a loyalty program member an email on their birthday. Or, if a new guest provided their email address when making their reservation, follow up with a guest survey, an invitation to receive future offers, and maybe a free appetizer if they return to you within a few months.

Creating a business model built to last

The pandemic created some strange conditions for running a restaurant business: Dining rooms became burdens that operators wanted to unload. Then, amid the high consumer demand for delivered food, ghost kitchens looked like the perfect solution, promising low overhead costs and efficient preparation. Now, it’s become clear that ghost kitchens aren’t the stand-alone powerhouses we once thought they could be – and they very much rely on the strength of their parent restaurant brand to succeed. As reported in Restaurant Business recently, the ghost kitchen provider CloudKitchens is struggling to recruit restaurants into its facilities because the market has shifted in the past couple of years and operators aren’t solely relying on delivery to generate business. In fact, they are realizing the benefits of having people in their dining rooms or at least onsite collecting their food. Is there a lesson anywhere here? Economic and environmental conditions have sent restaurants on a wild rollercoaster ride in the past few years. Just like the ingredients in your pantry, your business should have the ability to pivot in different directions based on shifting demand. That could mean harnessing technology to operate more leanly, scaling up areas of the business that can handle additional traffic and slowing down parts that can’t. It could also mean rethinking your real estate and your team so their functions can also pivot with shifting demand. How flexible is your model? Is there room to reinvent it based on different scenarios?