If you speak to anyone who works in the restaurant industry, they will tell you it’s one of the toughest industries to work in, and they’d be right.
The idea of running a restaurant may seem fairly straightforward, fun even, but the reality of it can be quite harsh. Mainly due to large overheads and a lot of competition, being successful in the restaurant business isn’t always easy, in fact, with sixty percent of all restaurants closing down within the first year, you need to do everything you can to stay ahead of the game and come out on top. In order to help you on your path to success with your restaurant, check out our top trends and secrets in the restaurant business below.
- Food Trends of 2020
Food trends are huge, just go online and you’ll see videos and blog posts everywhere of people talking about the newest trends, sharing recipes, and giving opinions. Likewise, go to your local supermarket and you’ll see aisles filled with trendy new food and eye-catching products.
Your restaurant menu needs to keep up with these trends in order to appeal to a wide audience – make sure your menu includes options that are vegan friendly, gluten-free, or sugar-free. Healthy food is more popular than ever, as is meat-free, zero waste, and other similar products, include them all.
- Events and Parties
Themed evenings, sophisticated events, and fun parties will all go down well at your restaurant; they’re a lot of fun, they’re a great way to have a large number of people in your restaurant at once, and the commotion will attract positive attention to those passing by. Make these events marketing opportunities as well as business opportunities.
- Payment Methods
You only need five minutes in the app store to see just how many different payment methods there are available nowadays, with the convenience of payment apps such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and Venmo as well as others, you need to make sure your restaurant can cater to these payment types. Additionally, if you don’t already offer home delivery or online ordering, set it up now – you can increase your revenue overnight by having these options for your customers.
- Online Activity
You need to create an image for your restaurant, kind of like a brand, you need a website that people love and branding that people immediately associate with your restaurant. Your website should be easy for users to navigate, it should also include helpful information like contact details, opening times, menu options, reservation requests, and even a little background about you and the restaurant. If you’re struggling for ideas, it would be a good idea to check out your competitors and see how they go about their branding and marketing.
You can easily do this by using a tool called Spokeo – Spokeo is a reverse phone number search tool that allows you to input a phone number into the phone number search, or email into the email search, and have a myriad of data at your fingertips in just a few moments. Use your competitors’ phone number or email to see social media accounts associated with them and other useful data that you could use to get ahead of them.
- Surveys for Restaurant Feedback
Restaurant feedback is vital to the progress of your business, your own opinion might be fine, but you need the opinion of your customers if you are going to make crucial changes or improvements. Allow your customers to fill out a quick survey, perhaps online, anonymously at their table, via an email and so on. Getting real opinions from genuine customers as to how their experience was will help you keep up with what people want from you.
- Use Social Media
It goes without saying that you should be using social media to promote your restaurant and keep customers up to date with any changes. For example, Facebook is a great place to give information about yourself, post updates to the menu, list opening times, and write engaging statuses to keep people interested. On the other hand, Instagram is the perfect place to upload visual content and make people want to visit you because they have seen your mouthwatering food on Instagram pictures. Utilize social media as best you can to draw attention and in turn, draw a crowd.
Owning a restaurant won’t always be a fairy tale, and hard work is the very least you’ll have to put in to make it a success, but by staying on top of trends, using social media, and checking out your competitors with a tool like Spokeo, your chance at success will be a lot higher.
Maguire Haigh is a marketing manager for Spokeo. He is interested in the latest technology trends, marketing strategies and business development. He also prefers travelling, exploring the world and meeting new people. Maguire has great experience in creating and editing articles on different topics.
