Make a statement

In a previous blog post, the question posed was "What is your restaurant's concept? Can you articulate it?" If not, take a moment and try.


Why is this important? Because when you know what you're selling, you can more easily sell it.


Newspapers, the Yellow Pages and search engines categorize restaurants by type. To slide into one of them enables potential customers to find you more easily. Is your food ethnic, eclectic, or vegetarian? Do you serve southern-style comfort food, deep-dish pizza, spicy wings or barbecue? Once you've established your basic menu, then you can include alternative options. A tea room may also sell coffee. A burger joint may also serve chicken. A wine bar might also sell beer. 


What you don't want to do is confuse your customers. They need a clear picture of what you have to offer, with one concept at the top. Restaurants fail when they try to be everything to everyone, and they also fail when they don't offer enough choices. The trick is to know how best to balance the two. 


Some concepts have inherent challenges. If you're  primarily selling ice cream in North Dakota, you might have to offset your offerings to include hot coffee. If you're trying to appeal to professionals with disposable incomes, you might not locate close to a college campus. If your demographic is strapped for cash, you're not likely to succeed with a steakhouse.


Once you have a clear concept, then you can build your menu and your décor around it. In fact, make everything related to your business a part of that concept in the same way that a company makes decisions while continually referring to its mission statement. Adjust your statement as need be, but make a point to stick to your plan. That way, you will never veer off course. 


~ GTB

First Impressions

Whether you are planning your first restaurant or are a seasoned restaurateur, consider this: Every time someone walks through your business' front door, you have the opportunity to make an impression. What does that mean for you? It means you get multiple shots every day at demonstrating your best -- or worst, as the case may be.


Take a look around. Consider your restaurant with fresh eyes. It only takes a few seconds for customers to size up a place and decide whether to stay. Put yourself in their shoes. Use all of your senses and pay attention to the details of what you see, hear, touch, smell and will eventually taste.


Your first priority must be cleanliness. Nothing will drive a customer out the door faster than filth. If the front of the house isn't clean, one can easily assume the kitchen is far worse. It goes without saying that food safety regulations must be followed to the letter and good hygiene should be practiced by all employees. But what about a general impression? Do the floors look like someone could eat off them? Are the tables cleared quickly? Is dust collecting in the corners, on the ceiling fans and on window sills? One popular restaurant had double-pane windows, and between the glass, dead flies collected. At another, dried ketchup remained behind for years on artwork that hung on booth walls. While employees quickly become oblivious to these sorts of things, customers don't. 


The next order of business is whether a customer feels welcome. Busy restaurants, in particular, need to take care to acknowledge new arrivals and attend to their needs as soon as possible. No one likes to wait for service, but worse is to be ignored. Employees must be trained in attentive service. Most repeateries do this well because their parent corporations make it a priority, even assigning mystery shoppers to time how long it takes to make that first connection. Small establishments need to take it just as seriously.


What about your restaurant's concept? Can you articulate it? While this topic is larger than can be addressed in a few sentences, it's worth mentioning here. A restaurant with a strong concept will likely make a stronger first impression than one that doesn't and will be better able to target its desired demographic. 


Those restaurants with established clientele need be particularly aware. The owners may feel like they can rest on the laurels of earlier impressions. Not so. A  restaurant that doesn't occasionally update its decor and menu may quickly become passé or boring, and loyal customers may decide to dine elsewhere.


Every so often, put yourself in your customer's shoes. Even be the customer on occasion. You may discover that this change in perspective will, in fact, give you a change in perspective -- exactly what information you need to run a better business. 


~ Ellen Ritscher Sackett, for Good Taste Buds

What makes a restaurant a success?

Two restaurants within ten minutes from each other compete for the same business. They are both located off the beaten track, but along major town thoroughfares. They both about the same size, seat approximately the same number of customers, serve nearly the same fare and the meal prices are close. Even their customer demographics are almost identical. One of them does a booming business with a continuous line for an empty table and has expanded to multiple locations. The other? Barely surviving.

There's a relatively simple reason why one restaurant is doing better than the other. Restaurant "A" invests more in what its customers want: Value for their money. Mind you, hard-working folk frequent this restaurant. They don't have a lot of extra dollars lining their wallets, but they do appreciate good food. But no matter what the income bracket, good value tops the list of consumer priorities.

What about Restaurant "B"? The quality of the food is cheap, the meat is generally overcooked, and the bread would be better thrown away than eaten. The menu prices are rock bottom -- one can't imagine how the owner can charge so little and still survive -- but there's no value in the product. Those same hard-working folks would rather spend more at Restaurant "A" than pay good money at Restaurant "B." They view it as the same as throwing it away.

Good food for a good value are only two of many reasons a restaurant may succeed. Atmosphere, decor, service and location are also factors. Knowing your demographic is important. But often a restaurant's failure boils down to a simple oversight of a key element. Fixing that one problem -- or two or three -- can be enough to make all the difference. Of course, some fixes are easier than others. For example, if your restaurant is in a low-traffic area, you might have to compensate. Perhaps the rent is low, which is why the location was chosen to begin with, but then by necessity, you will have  to invest in a heavy advertising campaign in order to spread the word. 

Good restaurants are in high demand. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, Americans spend nearly half of their food budget away from home. In the last few decades, eating out has increasingly become a form of entertainment as well as a time-saver for busy families and individuals. Yet restaurants notoriously have a high failure rate. Hmmmm. 

If your business is doing less than your expectation, then it behooves you to make your own comparisons. Take a look at a successful restaurant you know well. Analyze the elements that make it work and see how your own operation stacks up against it. Are there aspects to your operation you can modify? Can you compensate for the parts you can't? Are you flexible in your thinking so you can shift your priorities and even re-allocate resources, if necessary? 

Let go of your vision long enough to see your reality. This may be the most important first step you can take toward making the two one in the same.


~ Ellen Ritscher Sackett, for Good Taste Buds