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The holiday season is a huge calendar event in the restaurant industry, with bookings booming as guests look to let their hair down and enjoy a festive feast. Over the Christmas season, 63 percent of adults plan to eat out so your restaurant needs to be prepared for the increase in demand.
Customers are spoiled for choice with restaurants. Incorporating video testimonials into your restaurant marketing strategy can showcase authentic experiences that build trust and engage prospective customers, turning them into loyal regulars. Instead of a dry review, work with the customer to turn the experience into a story.
Too often, what customers found was a clunky experience marked by poor scanning results, slow click-throughs and the need to download third-party apps just to engage with the expected content. Customer feedback. Restauranteurs can also utilize QR codes as a channel to link customers directly to their business calendar.
With 59 percent of customers hanging up after calling in and waiting for a minute or less, according to Linga, restaurants are missing out on a lot of business. The average restaurant operating a sit-down dining experience can miss 15-30 percent of incoming calls on average, with that number possibly being even higher during busy hours.
The seasonal surge in foot traffic can drive significant business, but without proper preparation and training, teams can quickly become overwhelmed. For restaurants to thrive during busy season, it’s crucial to focus on the below three critical areas.
Just like a well-crafted mission statement will help guide your business decisions, identifying and understanding your target customers and competitors through restaurant market research will give your business a competitive edge. Do you want to find out which food items your customers love the most?
How rising import taxes may reshape menus, pricing, and sourcing in the restaurant industry. The restaurant experience isnt just about great service and ambianceits deeply tied to ingredient sourcing and food costs. Supplier and Menu Shifts Some restaurants may respond by sourcing more ingredients domestically. With new U.S.
In the dynamic and ever-evolving restaurant industry, culinary experiences are shaping customer preferences. After all, this business is all about people with customers at the forefront of decisions being made. So how do you thrive in a customer-driven competitive market? The industry is projected to reach $1.2
Crafting festive drinks is a great way to engage customers and set the mood for Halloween celebrations. Here are some Halloween cocktail ideas that will thrill your guests and add seasonal flair to your menu. Ingredients 2 oz. Skrewball peanut butter whiskey 1 oz. fresh lemon juice 3/4 oz. simple syrup 1 large egg white 1/2 oz.
Here are five ways to enhance your restaurant’s takeout and delivery operations to improve customerexperience and open the door to more profit. Mobile apps improve order customization and customer autonomy over the ordering process while also increasing overall brand awareness and local restaurant perception.
Great restaurants provide great experiences, and great restauranteurs unfortunately spend many of the hours in each week doing activities that could (and should) be automated, rather than being able to use those hours focusing on what makes their concept or business exceptional. Smarter data use.
Just as a chef elevates a signature dish with bold, unique flavors that please the senses, the right glassware can enhance the presentation of drinks and food, creating a visually engaging experience for customers. High-end wine glasses that enhance the drinking experience are filling a market gap left post-COVID.
You can have a crowd-pleasing menu, loyal regulars, and a packed dining roomand still watch your margins disappear. Too many restaurant menus are built on intuition and aesthetics, not real numbers. What Is Menu Engineering and Why Should You Care? Because not every dish thats popular is profitable.
Now, make sure that the vegetables on the sandwich are at their peak and reflective of the season: dont serve raw tomatoes outside of July and August. Out of season do something interesting with tomatoes (oven roasted, marinated, sun-dried tomato paste, etc.) Make the tomato an experience. Make the sandwich your lifes work.
They must also focus on creating memorable experiences for customers at every touchpoint. 60% of guests who have a positive experience are likely to dine at a restaurant more frequently. Knowing these customerexperience factors can help you create a positive and welcoming environment that will keep guests coming back for more.
From salted egg yolks and chili crunch fusions to mushroom-infused teas and freeze-dried fruit powder garnishes, Kimpton’s in-house experts share the standout ingredients, menu items and techniques that will come to the table in 2025.
You take your seat at a table embedded with a touchscreen menu. Walk over to the bar where Tipsy, the robotic bartender with eight arms, prepares your cocktail with speed and accuracy that would put the most seasoned mixologist to shame. Need a drink? But this isn’t some distant sci-fi fantasy. People will find new roles.”
A majority of diners report diminishing guest experience because of labor shortages at restaurants, according to a consumer survey from HungerRush. It’s always great to know exactly what customers are thinking and to have direct insights into friction points. What should restaurant owners take away from the survey findings?
Instead of constantly playing defence with menu updates, imagine a centralized system that allows you to make menu changes instantly across every delivery app and direct ordering platform. What is Menu Management Software? Think of menu management software as the control center for all your restaurants menus.
It is atop the list for restaurants looking to modernize, differentiate, and elevate experiences. Foot traffic or heat mapping, menu item engagement, or consumer demographics by time of day. Foot traffic or heat mapping, menu item engagement, or consumer demographics by time of day. As of 2024, over half of U.S.
Consider this – the menu is the most important component of a successful restaurant and once designed it can, and should, impact every other aspect of the business. YES – the menu is that important! The menu comes first and should reflect the philosophy of the owners and chef and how the operators expect to be perceived by the public.
Tableside caviar service A prosciutto cart An authentic kaiseki tasting experience and members-only Japanese whiskey lounge Tableside s’mores These are just a few examples of ways restaurants across the country are hoping to attract guest by elevating the dining experience and creating a vibe highlighted by superior food and presentation.
Restaurant brands are seeking out emerging technology to be more efficient and using data analytics to improve the drive-thru experience and this is only the beginning, according to Tim Tang, Director of Enterprise Solutions at Hughes. "The conversation between employees and customers is a rich resource of actionable insights. . "If
Behind the scenes, strategic decisions greatly impact a restaurant's bottom line, and at the forefront of these is the art of menu engineering. Far from just a list of dishes, a well-engineered menu is a powerful tool that can significantly increase a restaurant's efficiency and profitability.
These classic flavors are beloved by many, but there’s also an appetite for innovative twists and new sensations that capture the essence of the season in exciting ways. Today’s consumers are on the hunt for bold and unique flavor combinations that enhance their seasonalexperiences.
"Merchandise is more than just a revenue stream — it’s a way to deepen the connection with your customers and expand your brand’s reach." The idea for a dedicated merch program originated from my belief that a brand isn’t just a physical space or a menu—it’s a lifestyle.
These are indeed the table stakes when it comes to delivering premium experiences. But what if your menu was telling your guests something about luxury? ” Perhaps the menu speaks for itself in ways in which we never quite imagined. Fewer choices communicates exclusivity, which drives up customer value.
Photo: Shutterstock Delivery and a take-home meal deal drove a lot more customers to Olive Garden this spring. The offer allowed customers to buy an in-store meal starting at $14.99 It plans to keep prices down while also adding more lower-priced items to the menu. “If By Joe Guszkowski on Jun.
From improving your Google listing to leveraging customer reviews, these tips will show you how to boost your visibility and drive more traffic to your restaurant. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be losing out on potential customers. This way, you won’t need to code your site from scratch.
Restaurant operators need to embrace menu and technological innovations in order to meet guest expectations this holiday season, according to the Fall/Winter Trend report: a report produced by Provoke Insights in collaboration with Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine. "Our The study was in-field in Sept-Oct 2024.
This ideally reinforces the connection in the customer’s brain between their everyday choices and the resulting impacts on the environment: “You’ve saved so many gallons of water, you’ve saved so many square meters of land and emissions and energy,” as Goldman says. Congratulations. The environmental mission can come later. So he took action.
Restaurant operators searching for something versatile that will cross the dayparts need to look no further than their breakfast menu as waffles have been breaking out of the morning. Profitability: Waffles are a low-cost, center-of-the-plate item and one of the most profitable breakfast item menu offerings.
The real wins come from small, smart shifts; things like improving your online ordering system, highlighting your most profitable dishes, and giving existing customers more reasons to come back. Create Limited-Time Offers That Drive Action Limited-time offers (LTOs) give potential customers a reason to order now, not later.
Understanding your target market is the foundation of making smart decisions for your menu, pricing, and overall guest experience. Without a well-defined target market, restaurants risk wasting resources on strategies that dont connect and menu offerings that dont selltrying to appeal to everyone, but standing out to no one.
For restaurant operators, these challenges underscore the importance of thoughtful decisions that boost efficiency and drive customer retention. Data-backed loyalty programs, in particular, present a key opportunity for marketers to foster deeper customer connections in 2025. Start small by choosing technology that connects easily.
A customer in Miami should bite into the same perfectly seasoned burger that delights diners in Seattle. Reliable experiences build brand loyalty, and systemic processes lead to reliable profit margins. It’s no secret that restaurants with more than one location depend on standardization to thrive.
These versatile flours allow chefs to experiment with textures and flavors, offering creative options that resonate with health-conscious customers. Limited-Time-Only MenusSeasonal, health-inspired items offered on limited-time-only (LTO) menus are driving customer engagement.
Does the energy feel flat, and the customers look bored. Get some fresh customers through the door and start the neighborhood talking about whats happening in your restaurant again. You need ideas that will wow new customers and get the regulars excited to come back in.
Restaurants collect a ton of customer data. Think about it: What if you could automatically send a special offer to a customer who hasnt ordered in a while? When used strategically, customer data can help you personalize marketing, streamline operations, and create a better dining experience for your guests.
Your customer email list is your most valuable marketing asset, giving you an incredible ROI of $42 for every $1 you spend. You own it, it costs very little to maintain, and its a direct link to your customers any time youd like to reach themno complicated algorithms or third-party platforms getting in the way.
MVP Menu Performances More than 200 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl last year—many with a plate of wings in front of them. “Americans love the convenience of delivery, but restaurants who hand the experience over to third party apps without a strategy risk their reputations,” said John Mazur, CEO of Chatmeter.
As we progress through a pandemic that’s kept many inside for months, guests are looking to venture out and experience unique dining moments. By utilizing seasonal ingredients and creating specialty menu items, our product innovation efforts have kept us relevant in a competitive industry, earning guest loyalty and driving sales.
Understanding the Fractional CFO Role A fractional CFO is a seasoned financial expert who partners with businesses on a part-time or contract basis. Strategic Cash Flow Management Restaurants often grapple with cash flow challenges due to seasonality, fluctuating customer demand, and variable/fixed costs.
It’s been said that customers eat with their eyes. With digital signage, restaurants can transform static, lifeless imagery into compelling experiences tailored to each customer. Enhance the Wait Experience. CustomMenus Like Never Before. Opportunity to Upsell. It can even reduce perceived wait times.
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