Do you have some of these common restaurant problems?
The food industry is a high-risk business proposition. You’ve got a lofty level of competition and a lot of details to perfect. According to an often quoted study, 60% of businesses fail in the first year. How do you ensure your restaurant’s success?
You can help increase your chance of success by understanding seven of the surprisingly common problems restaurants face and developing strategies to combat these issues.
One of the most common problems restaurant owners face is the menu. A good menu is a balancing act. Do you have too many or too few menu items? Are your dishes priced appropriately? Does your menu have a coherent theme?
Keep your menu size in check. Instead of offering a five-page menu, consider offering a smaller number of dishes and doing them really well. People need to know what your restaurant is about – keep your menu aligned with your restaurant’s unique proposition.
Lacking focus, large menus take longer to order from. They also require more ingredients. The more items on your menu, the more ingredients you have to buy.
A too-large menu means longer ticket times. When you have too many different dishes cooking at the same time and not enough of the same items in the same pans, you’ll spend more time producing orders. Each table takes longer to serve, and you’ll turn them over at a slower rate.
Concentrate on the layout of your menu. Is it easily readable? Here are some tips for your restaurant menu:
Don’t forget to put your menu on your website and make sure it is easily accessible from a mobile phone.(tweet this)
Travelers using their mobile phones are more likely to visit your restaurant if they can see at a quick glance what you are offering.
First impressions are important. Poor customer service is often a deal breaker for customers. Your food may be outstanding, your table settings exquisite and your ambiance delightful, but if your service is bad, customers will remember.
The key to success is happy customers who want to return again and again. To ensure your success, your entire team – from management to hostess to wait staff and busboys – must be dedicated to your customers’ well-being. Every contact your staff makes with customers must be pleasant, welcoming and accommodating.
The way you handle your customers along every step of their dining experience has an impact on whether you’ll retain that customer. If they weren’t greeted when they walked in and when they left, they might mention it in an online review. As the digital arena continues to grow, online reviews are consistently important to your success.
Are you a bakery or a bar? A diner or romantic experience? Your customers need to know why they should eat at your restaurant and not at your competitor’s.
While a superb menu and excellent customer service are vital to your success, they are not a unique selling point. They are merely meeting the expectations of your customers. It is time to exceed them.
You need an original idea – something even better than great food and service. Come up with a unique reason for people to eat at your restaurant. Consider Sonic. They offer a nostalgic 50’s feeling. Burger King tells you, “You’ll have it your way.” Chipotle is known for integrity with its food.
A unique selling point offers your customers a feeling that enables them to remember you long after they are gone. Let your food, your service, and your unique selling point and identity make an emotional connection with your customers.
Don’t overlook one of the most important pieces of the puzzle – management. You need to know how to analyze your business to make sure it runs profitably. Many small restaurants don’t pay attention to the following items as they manage the day-to-day operation of their restaurant:
Most successful restaurant owners know the importance of hiring and training the right employees. Yet, a common problem exists as many restaurants hire the wrong people and have a high turnover rate. An incompetent staff can also irreparably damage your current and future customer base.
When you put great emphasis on your staff, you’ll reduce costs over time and enhance your diners’ customer service experience. Pay extra attention to finding the perfect employees and don’t settle for a warm body. Once hired, train your staff and offer training manuals, checklists, goals and incentives.
Inspire your staff as well as your management team. Train them to address any situation, good or bad, that arises. Make sure they are enthusiastic and motivated to pursue your goals and adhere to your restaurant’s unique concept.
Establish and maintain a solid management structure so everyone knows and understands their own, as well as their team member’s responsibilities. Your management team should be exemplary, committed, motivational and adept at running the restaurant in your absence.
Many owners fail to pay enough attention to marketing making this a common problem in the restaurant world. Following are a few areas to attend to now in order to avoid the pitfalls that not-enough marketing incurs:
Be creative with your marketing. Whatever your budget, there are inexpensive ways to market your restaurant.(tweet this)
Finally, we come to an area where many restaurant entrepreneurs run into big problems. This looming problem is capital, and more specifically, a lack of it. Restaurant owners need enough capital to run their business so it can fully establish itself. Owners should plan to have at least enough money to run for one year. Additionally, restaurant owners need to have enough financial resources to cope with unexpected costs and increases.
Have you experienced another problem common to restaurants that isn’t listed here? We’d love to hear from you. Please share your problem below as well as the way(s) you solved the issue.
Images: bloomsbury & Geoff Peters
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the location of the restaurant
What, a chain known for giving food poisoning to its customers nationwide doesn’t create a sense of integrity for you??
you can add one more point here….
Dismissal of use of leather menu cover causes harm to your restaurant’s esteem….
You lost me at ” Chipotle is known for integrity with its food.”
Having thousand of resturants using our system for marketing (movylo.com), we can defientely recommend creating and growing the customer list every day. Ask all people at the counter to leave you their email!