With Canadian consumers potentially cutting back on spending in 2016, restaurants will have to work even harder to get customers’ attention. Keeping these 4 restaurant trends in mind can help make your restaurant stand out from the competition.
Customers live online
When it comes to bad experiences, customers are quick to voice their complaints on social media. Providing a great dining experience and exceptional customer service in your restaurant can help avoid this, but you need to monitor social media as well. Social channels like Twitter and Facebook are places to extend customer service in a way that is transparent and public. Review sites like Zomato, Yelp and Trip Advisor can have a huge impact on your business, both bad and good, depending on your review score. Have an online presence to engage with your reviewers, listen to their complaints, and take the opportunity to also tell your side of the story.
Deliver through web and mobile
Delivery isn’t just for pizza chains and Chinese food anymore, and customers may not always want to phone in an order. Many restaurants from fast casual to full service are now offering their food for delivery, because it allows them to reach a new set of customers. There are a variety of popular services like Foodora, Just Eat and Uber Eats that you can partner with to offer delivery. This is an especially attractive option because it appeals to younger customers who prefer ordering through a website or a mobile app.
Source local ingredients
Canadian consumers care about where their food comes from, the quality of ingredients and supporting their local economy. Sourcing local ingredients hits all three of these customer concerns and can help your restaurant stand out from similar competitors. Sourcing local can be an important part of how your restaurant markets itself and how your menu is designed. You can be transparent and open about how and where your ingredients are sourced, by posting such information on your menu and website.
Less is more
Providing a menu that offers a plethora of options to appeal to different tastes is a thing of the past. New restaurants coming onto the scene do very well at catering to a certain niche. Not just food from a certain culture, but a specific style of dish like ramen restaurants, sushi bars or artisanal pizza. In 2016 make sure to take time to analyze your menu and see what can be removed; you may want to focus on a few signature dishes and do them extremely well. Focusing on less allows you to cut down on costs and spend more on premium ingredients where it counts.
These are just a few of the things restaurant owners need to do to meet the changing tastes of consumers in 2016. Stay tuned to this blog for more insights on how to make your business a success.
