Restaurant ideas to improve your business
The restaurant business is tough at the best of times, but the last few years have been incredulous. Coronavirus forced scores of restaurants out of business, all over the UK. We hear the same story repeated in America and again in other parts of the globe. When we all went into lockdown, we prevented these businesses from making money. This affected the livelihoods of thousands of restaurateurs around the world. However, we bring you some restaurant ideas to improve your business.
We are on a mission to help the catering industry get back on track with some sound advice. Today, we wish to examine some of the best ways to improve your restaurant and encourage those wary diners back in through the doors. The old days of waiting for business to come to you are over. It is time we got proactive.
The 5 Best Ideas to increase Sales and refine Customer Experience in Your Restaurant
If you want to up your game to match these new levels of competition in the catering industry, follow our sound advice and implement these restaurant ideas to improve your business.
The Importance of Amazing Photographs
Food photography can make or break a business. In this digital age, one of the best forms of advertising is imagery, with video a close second. Make your food and drinks look amazing, your staff look professional, and your restaurant look sleek and elegant.
Food photography is how fast food giants like McDonalds sell their goods. Hire a professional photographer and spend a few days making your food look sensational. Pro food photos can draw in Instagram and Facebook follows, and a few well placed videos could sell your business online. Food photography comes with multiple benefits. You will find that restaurant clientele eat with their eyes, first.
Free Wi-Fi in your Restaurant/Pub
Offering free Wi-Fi inside your pub or restaurant is a good restaurant idea that will improve your business, as it allows you to let customers stay connected. This means they can browse social sites or get work done while they are with you. If you intend on attracting business clients to a city centre bistro, this is an important feature If you are slow on Sunday afternoons and want to give customers incentive to sit in and drink coffee, offering the ability to browse the internet might do the trick.
In one 2021 study, Small Biz Trends found that free wi-fi encouraged customer loyalty, increased the amount of time customers spent in your establishment, and gave restaurants a competitive edge. Customers in the study even used their phones to research in-store purchases before they made them, checking reviews, and reading descriptions.
If you are using an app like Kayana, this gives you a concentrated online space which diners can use to order ahead, check, and leave reviews, and rate plates.
Farm-To-Table Dining
In a modern world full of accountability, consumers like to know how many air miles have gone into their food. Seasonal eating and locally sourced produce have always been a selling point, but now customers expect them in fine dining. Farm-to-table dining is the trend that isn’t going anywhere, and we all need to stay on top of it to stay ahead.
Farm-to-table just means that each stage of the food production process is traceable. Buying from local farmers and cooking fresh ingredients from scratch, gives you another USP to delight your customers and attract new business with.
Prioritise your Employees
Prioritising staff is the best way to reduce staff turnover in the hospitality sector. As we are all painfully aware by now, there is a huge staff shortage in catering and hospitality. Ever since Brexit saw multiple staff contracts cut short, we now have an issue with a lack of staff in the UK. In London alone, small businesses are offering new employees as much as a £1,000 sign on bonus to start work with them.
If you want to keep staff turnover low in an industry notorious for high staff turnover, you need to start thinking outside the box as a traditional restaurateur. This means turning to non-traditional methods to increase staff retention – and apps like Kayana are the perfect way to help yourself, and your staff.
By introducing customers to an order-via-app scheme like Kayana, customers can order food and drinks and even split the bill, all with a few clicks. This lets you prioritise your staff while simultaneously giving customers a better quality of experience. Customers can check in with your restaurant, order food and drinks, then have their checks printed straight to the kitchen. This frees up time for servers, especially when clients can pay the bill online. Best of all, it lets you protect your staff from covid exposure.
Bring Inclusivity into your Space
The last of the Restaurant ideas to improve your business is bringing inclusivity into your restaurant will set you apart as a welcoming, friendly place where everyone receives acceptance. You can do this in multiple ways, starting with your members of staff. You can employ those from diverse cultures and backgrounds, paying particular attention to diversity policies in the workplace. Since restaurants devote themselves to one culture or race (Italian, Indian, Mexican etc.) bringing this staff diversity can really make your customers feel included and represented.
Another area where you can show diversity is in the menu. While you may suffer restrictions with foods that fall within the theme of the restaurant, you are not restricted in terms of making the menu more diverse. You can add vegetarian and vegan options, options that are gluten free or that cater to the lactose intolerant.
There is a growing issue in the restaurant industry among chefs who do not take the individual dietary requirements of customers seriously enough. Ensure that all staff have allergen training and understand the importance of catering to the individual client’s dietary needs.
Inclusivity also means to make sure everybody can access to your restaurant and the venue’s facilities, you can think about placing ramps if your venue has stairs, make doors wider,…
Katriona MacMillan
