 Strong third-quarter retail sales and overall growth in the U.S. point to a promising sign for restaurants as the holidays approach: Consumers may be looking to spend more freely than they spent in earlier months of the year. Are you ready to make the most of guest traffic? First lean on your technology – to enable seamless payments in the forms guests prefer, to generate greater participation in your loyalty program, to anticipate high-traffic peaks (and valleys), to schedule staff accordingly, and to deliver targeted promotions to guests looking to get out and celebrate with others over the festive period. Assess potential bottlenecks in your various sales streams, as well as opportunities to promote different parts of your business that could do especially well over the holidays. For instance, what mechanisms do you have in place to manage catering orders, track reservations, maintain your ingredients for your most popular holiday dishes, and promote retail items? What safety nets are in place to support you when problems happen? It can help to review the guest journey along every sales stream you have, gather feedback from staff about what works well and what needs to improve, and to check your online reviews to identify parts of your business that may need attention.
 For years now, it has felt like restaurant operators have been furiously swimming upstream. First, the pandemic jolted restaurants into a new reality, forcing them to change their business models overnight and adopt new technology to compete. Then, even when the toughest months of the pandemic were behind us, restaurants still had to battle with supply chain problems and high inflation. Tough as these conditions have been, they forced a much-needed fix in the industry. In a recent essay in the New York Times about the current restaurant revolution, San Francisco Chef Anthony Strong said the survival of his business has meant transforming his business model from 2020 into something with more staying power: He shifted from an 80-seat restaurant to a 35-seat dining room with a separate retail shop that sells pasta, sauces and upscale pantry items. So right now, as things finally feel a bit more – dare we say it – normal, how does your restaurant look different? As we approach a new year, it’s a good time to take a step back at the changes you have made this year. Is there a leg to your business that can reliably prop you up when another leg weakens? How can you strengthen each of those pillars? Where have you made important progress this year that can be replicated in other parts of your restaurant – and where is there opportunity to fine-tune your practices so you can last for the long term?
 You’ve probably already felt it in your restaurant – guests have lost patience with supply chain issues, staffing shortages and training problems – even if these issues are still part of daily life in your restaurant. Recent research from Ipsos about consumer expectations of restaurants confirmed that people expect that restaurants have found solutions to these problems by now and should be able to offer seamless experiences. If you struggle to do that, lean on communication to ensure you don’t alienate guests. For example, Ipsos found that many restaurants fail to communicate consistently, particularly when using technologies that enable pickup and delivery. Nearly one-quarter of restaurants fail to confirm an order or provide a pick-up time, 19 percent don’t provide clear pick-up instructions and 70 percent fail to notify customers when their order is ready. Further, it found that restaurants force consumers to use their app for communication instead of their preferred channel – which might be an indication that the restaurant app experience could be improved. In your restaurant, could you fine-tune your guest experience by making small adjustments to your communication and ideally automating your digital communication? That could include ensuring guests are greeted promptly upon entry to the restaurant, confirming their order contents, and keeping them up to date about the process of preparing their order. Making tweaks in these areas could help you get a little grace from guests in other areas where you may still be struggling.
 The battle to win loyal guests continues in the restaurant space – and lately, many restaurant brands are vying with each other to stand out in the market with perks including special experiences and merchandise in addition to food. Amid economic challenges like higher interest rates and more controlled consumer spending, loyalty programs have become critical for restaurant brands. However, some brands have been pushing so hard to attract guest sign-ups that those with franchisees are getting some pushback from operators about the new offerings (and therefore delivering an uneven experience with regard to the loyalty rewards offered). If you’re trying to fine tune your loyalty program right now, it’s most important to be able to run it consistently and efficiently. Above all, keeping your loyalty program members interested and engaged means keeping your program simple. It should be easy for your guests to sign up and understand how they can accumulate rewards – and they shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to redeem them. Your guests should have the same loyalty experience across your stores. When you can deliver these things, you may be surprised to see how much your loyalty members value them. Case in point: An annual loyalty survey from Deloitte found that as consumer participation in loyalty programs has increased, it’s been fairly even across paid and free programs. So you may have an opportunity to offer a paid program that allows you to deliver a more premium experience and incentivize additional guest engagement and spending.
 The coming holiday period is an opportunity to engage guests, encourage some extra spending, and hopefully give people an incentive to return and keep your business humming during quieter periods this winter. But you need to plan for it. According to a survey of restaurant operators by ResDiary, only 18 percent of early planners were never fully booked over the holiday period, compared to 34 percent of all restaurants surveyed; 82 percent of early planners made significantly more money over the holiday period; and only 10 percent of early planners did not say they struggled with no-show guests, compared with 26 percent of all restaurants surveyed. Hopefully you’ve already got a solid plan to generate holiday sales but there is still time to fine-tune your practices to protect your margins this season. Ensure you’ve optimized your menu with high-profit items (and have developed some subliminal cues to lead guests to your best ones). Scrutinize your food waste and make adjustments to your food ordering and preparation so you can minimize it. Consider how people are getting in touch with you to make bookings, order food or buy retail items – how can you use web-based and automated systems to ensure you’re not missing inquiries, orders and sales? Be the gift that keeps on giving into 2024 by offering gift cards and other incentives to return in the New Year. Finally, prepare your team from a scheduling and training perspective – make scheduling clear, arrange backup support where possible, offer incentives for staff working on key holiday shifts, and provide any special training they need to deliver your best service during the holiday season.
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