Restaurant Business Online (they're quite a smart bunch) has posted a brief list of 3 simple but brilliant ideas they personally noticed in restaurants. With the hospitality industry heating up dramatically, and competition coming in from every direction, smart ideas become competitive advantages in the race to be a consumer favorite. Check out their observations, maybe you can implement some of these ideas in your restaurant.
An Intriguing Contest: Diesing's, a bakery and restaurant in New York, utilized the busy 2015 Holiday season with a very smart contest. With their bill, diners received a red envelope. The instructions were clear, inside the envelope is a description of a prize, and everyone was guaranteed to win something. The catch was that the envelope had to be opened by one of the restaurant's servers in January 2016. The smart idea rewards customers for their business, while guaranteeing some return traffic. Prizes ranged from a free muffin to a new television.
Making Drive Through's Easier: In-N-Out, which has long had special boxes for drive through customers that make it easier to enjoy your meal in the car, have introducing a new idea to help you chow down successfully while on the go; placemats for your lap. The simple paper sheets are likely minimally expensive to produce, and can save diners from a messy ketchup accident.
Long Lines Get a Bit Easier: RBO staff noticed that Cortina's Italian Market in California has a brilliant idea to help customers avoid their notoriously long lines. Their website has a tool that breaks down in-store traffic by hour, so that you can see when the busiest times will be and schedule your visit accordingly. Interestingly enough, Google has recently rolled out this feature to their search results. Doing the work in-house likely means more accurate information for the customer, albeit with more work (though I must say in my experience, Google's in-store traffic information has been very accurate).
Is your restaurant implementing any new and creative ideas? Do you think any of the above schemes could work well in your establishment? Let us know what you think via Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Source:
Restaurant Business Online
Tablebases.com
