Solutions for Customers Bored with Existing Menu, No Energy, Stock, Ingredients for New Menu Items
| Preserving a regular customer base and ensuring continuous business in an age when lots of new restaurants keep opening up is probably a difficult task for restaurants that have already been open for a while. Because customers are familiar with old menus and no new menus exist to whet their appetites, regular customers might feel bored, switch to new restaurants and disappear. And it won’t be easy to bring them back as regular customers.
But thinking up new menu items increases ingredient costs and takes energy, while your kitchen might lack the ability. But there’s an easy solution!
Examine the ingredients you regularly use. First, examine the ingredients used in each of your restaurant’s menu items. Make a detailed record of how many kinds of ingredients are used by each menu item. Describe them meticulously to learn which of all your menu items uses a lot of the same ingredients. Then you can invent new menu items using these same ingredients. It’s an effective way to lower your ingredient costs, while still adding new and interesting dishes to your restaurant in a quick and easy manner because it won’t be necessary to find new ingredients. |
| Stop selling unprofitable menu items and create new ones. |
Try to observe which menu items sell very little or not at all. You have to stop selling these items, even if you want to sell them. That’s because the restaurant business requires you to focus on fulfilling what your customers want. Making the decision to get rid of menu items you can’t sell will save on your expenses and be a better option. In addition, doing so can also cut labor costs, because you won’t have to take time preparing menu items that won’t sell. And if your budget is big enough, you can come up with new items for your restaurant. Try
| Create a specials menu.
Most customers pay attention to the specials menu put up in front of the restaurant. Because customers sometimes don’t know what they would like to eat at the restaurant, putting up a specials menu in front of the restaurant can attract them. You can do this by creating menu items that sell only during specific periods or important festivals, and you can keep changing your menu items as appropriate for each festival. It will give your restaurant greater variety. And if you want to release new menu items without using existing ingredients, creating a specials menu will let you use new ingredients only during set time periods. If you can, ask customers to find out what they want and develop new dishes based on that.
Create promotions for popular restaurant menu items. |
Many restaurants probably have signature dishes that customers enjoy eating frequently. However, as time passes, your signature dishes might become repetitive for regular customers. So, creating promotions for existing menus at your restaurant can give customers new experiences. You can do this by creating sets, pairing new menu items with what you’d like to recommend or creating weekly promotions or offering special discounts to keep your menu items fresh.
