Tips for Restaurant Success in a Tough Economy

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Do you own a midpriced restaurant? If so, your business has undoubtedly been feeling the squeeze from the economic upheaval of the past few years. A new report from Mintel, reported by Restaurant News, offers some insights into the challenges facing midpriced restaurants today and how restaurant operators can successfully deal with them.

First, the bad news. Overall, the entire restaurant industry suffered a recession-induced slump last year. But the hardest-hit segment was family-oriented, midpriced eateries—and the next few years aren’t projected to be any better.

Mintel found that 80 percent of family restaurant-goers who are dining out less often in general say they are doing so because of budgetary reasons. As a result of projected drops in attendance, sales at family restaurants are projected to decrease by 7 percent in the next four years.

So how can you beat the odds? Instead of focusing on slashing your prices or offering continual discounts and deals, Eric Giandelone, foodservice director at Mintel, suggests that a sustainable approach to value is the way to go. This means combining reasonable—not rock-bottom–prices with value-added benefits such as convenience and healthy foods that customers are willing to pay for. “Value for money” was cited by 70 percent of respondents as an important factor in selecting a restaurant, and was the number-one factor overall.

While historically, healthy foods have been a hard sell at restaurants, this seems to be changing. Mintel found that 34 percent of restaurant-goers say healthy food is an important factor when they are choosing a family restaurant. Keep in mind that “fresh” often equates to “healthy” in the consumer’s mind, so emphasizing your fresh offerings can help attract customers. In fact, 60 percent of respondents said “fresh food” was one of the most important factors influencing their choice of eatery.

When asked what they’d like to see more of on the menu at midpriced family eateries, nearly half (44 percent) of respondents requested fruit as a side option, and 41 percent want healthier preparation methods, such as grilling.

In addition to health, convenience is a major driver for family restaurant customers. Some 75 percent said they enjoy full-service dining, but respondents were also more likely to say that this type of restaurant is too slow for their midweek needs. And 59 percent said “convenience” was one of the top factors influencing their choice of restaurant. As a result, offering only full-service could lead customers to see your restaurant as a weekend-only experience.

More restaurants are adding an “express” concept where customers order at a counter and have food delivered to them. Offering this type of service at busy times, such as lunch hours or weeknights, can enable your restaurant to capture a convenience-oriented crowd. Then you can switch to full-service on weekends to attract more leisurely diners.

Image by Flickr user jbloom (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing, Small Business, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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