Challenges Facing The Food Industry 2017
Every industry faces challenges of their own, and the restaurant industry is no different. Since 2015, restaurant and eatery management have been bombarded with a multitude of hurdles, such as high labour costs, emergence of new competitors and last but not least, the growing popularity of food delivery services. There are so many things happening in the industry right now. Hence, learning to identify the these restaurant challenges and addressing them would definitely help your business stay on top.
What Are The Top Challenges facing the food Industry?
Too Many Competitors
Due to rapid growth in the industry, there has been a lot of new restaurants and eateries. With the courtesy of Delivery Apps, diners now have vast selection of food and cuisine, making the industry more intense and saturated than ever.
Demand for High Quality Staffs
With many new restaurants emerging, the need for experienced staff with strong hospitality background is paramount. While it is difficult enough to find good chefs and quality staff members, keeping your current staff members are even harder.
High Labour Cost
As a result, staff wages have reached new heights in Brisbane. Along with the hit of high penalty rates for workers working on weekends and public holidays, some restaurant owners are even considering to close on weekends just to stay afloat.
How To Address The Top Challenges Facing the Food Industry?
Keeping your fingers crossed and hoping that the government will potentially decrease the penalty rate should be the last thing on your mind.
Be Creative and Proactive! Instead of cutting costs, look for new revenue streams as an alternative. Improving your current revenue streams would also be a good starting point to address these top restaurant challenges.
Find Hidden Audiences
Apart from exploring new sales channel to engage more potential customers, you can also review current revenue streams to optimise their performance. If you have not reviewed your revenue streams for a long period of time, it is time to do so. You will be surprised how minor changes can instantly improve your business.
For example: Due to the rise of solo dining, if there is consistent flow of solo diners visiting your venue every day, or you have had solo diners visiting your restaurant in the past, you may consider rearranging some of your tables to create a Solo Zone for them to enjoy a private/quiet dining experience. They might simply come back to your restaurant solely because of that little change you made for them.
Increase Table Or Seat Turnover Rate (Transaction Frequency) At Peak Hours
In 2017, what is the next thing your customers are going to do after sitting down? Check out the Menu? No! They are looking at their smart phones or chatting with their friends. Since they are so distracted, they will delay ordering, hence spending longer time on your table and this results in a lower table turnover rate. However, if your servers can assist your customers promptly and order their meals efficiently, you can get your table ready for your next customer sooner and hence improve your table turnover rate.
Find And Develop Your USP To Improve Your Business Awareness
Due to high competitions and low profit margins, developing your branding (differentiation) would be the better approach for business growth. Although affordable prices is one of the key factor that drives customer to your venue, it is not the dominant factor. People like food with good prices, but they also love quality and healthy food just as much.
Find Loyal Customers
Do you see some familiar faces in your venue? Proactively engaging your returning customers to find out what they like about your dining venue would help you attract the like-minded people to become loyal customers.
Polish Your Army
Your Staff members are the knights of your restaurant. If your staff members know your restaurant/eatery inside out, they can help customers resolve any food related queries in a timely manner. Along with proper training, they inevitably become your best business promoters and ambassadors, hence increasing customer revisiting probability.
Call To Action
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