Wow! It’s already that time of year again: with your kids either excited for or dreading going back to school.
While kids and teachers face the results of their “summer brain drain,” now’s a good time to remember that learning happens outside of school, too.
For restaurateurs, that means it’s time to pay attention to the lessons taught by current guest and employee behavior.
Create Value on Your Guests’ Terms
Guests’ whole idea of restaurant spending has changed over the past few years.
People are now more selective about how they spend their money, and they demand value – whatever that word means to them.
As The Economist pointed out this week, you’d think McDonald’s would be doing great right now and Chipotle would be suffering, but it is the other way around.
The good news? Middle- and upper-income guests will spend with you when you give them a strong reason.
10 Areas to Focus on Right Now
What I am doing with my clients to make their businesses better:
- Developing new concepts that offer great value and experiences
- Rebranding older brands that have fallen a step behind
- Communicating new messaging to tell guests what they want to hear
- Making companies more functional so they respond more quickly to challenges
- Creating harmony in organizations so people are happy and work cooperatively
- Identifying aspirational culture and showing how to bottle it to be better at connecting to people
- Updating menus to more quickly adapt proven trends to existing brands
- Boosting education and training to compensate for the lack of experience in today’s labor pool
- Giving 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old owners a way to own their restaurants while the next level of management rises up and takes over management
- Providing 30- and 40-year-old owners a vision on how to build their net worth and have flexible lives
Most of my clients think what I do for them is the same as what I do for everyone else. Not true.
My 30 years of experience and the comparisons I make between all the great successful companies I work with allow me to spot opportunity, customize solutions, and create extremely unique results.
You owe it to yourself to adapt to new guest (and employee) behavior. That separates you from the pack that continues to do what they have always done.
