In today’s changing world, many customers do not only look for delicious foods but they are also considering a plant-based diet. They’re looking at having a healthy lifestyle that will help them reduce the chance of getting diseases from unhealthy eating habits.

“The number of new US food and drink products that mentioned plant-based grew 268 percent between 2012 and 2018 (The Washington Post, 2019)”

The trend of having this kind of lifestyle of customers should be considered by food establishments especially restaurants. They should come up with meals that satisfy the taste and needs of this kind of customers. Therefore, they should consider offering a plant-based diet in their list of offerings and that includes you of course.

Plant-based diet in a nutshell

Plant-based diets are foods that come from plants and do not contain ingredients that come from animals or meat. It is mainly offering natural plant-based products like fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes and whole grains in your menu. But how can your restaurants benefit from offering a plant-based diet in your menu?

Here are some of the benefits that restaurants can get from offering a plant-based diet:

An additional variety of product offerings

Offering plant-based diet food products will increase the variety of product offerings in your restaurant. Customers will not only choose products from the limited offerings in your restaurants but they can choose from a plant-based menu that will satisfy their tastes and preferences. With these in mind, if your restaurant will have a plant-based diet on your list of offerings, it will give you an advantage over your competitors.

By promoting a plant-based diet menu in your restaurant, your customers are not just limited to choosing the same meal over and over again. Whenever customers see new menus like a plant-based diet in your restaurant, customers will be curious about it and they will try to taste it. Say for example, of offering a plant-based patty instead of meat in your burgers. Or perhaps a plant-based rolls in your menu. Who would not want to try a new menu such as those mentioned right? 

Increase in your target market

Employing or adding a plant-based diet in your menu will help your restaurant to cater to a new market segment. Segments like customers with health problems and those who are health conscious. It’s a trend that many people are becoming conscious of the food they eat. And you should take this to your advantage.

You’re adding a new segment in your restaurant which will generate income to you. We will discuss this more in the next part of this post. Your restaurant is building a good image for promoting a healthy lifestyle by the offering of your plant-based menu.

You can also include your plant-based menu as an addition to your online delivery offering. By using an innovative, reliable and user-friendly delivery app like Taker, you touch base with your delivery segment and market.

Adding a plant-based diet in your menu is key for your restaurant growth to learn more about menu management, read this post.

Lower production cost and an increase in sales and profit

This is the thing every restaurant owner and manager like the most. Let me tell you a secret, when you add a plant-based diet on your menu you will bring a positive impact on your sales. Yes, let me show you how.

When you expand your target market, there will be an increase in your sales. Given your proper management, it will turn into an increase in your profits. You will benefit because the cost of production of a plant-based menu is lesser than the animal-based diet food products.

Plant-based diets raw materials can be seen everywhere and there will be adequate raw materials in producing such a product. With the low cost of production, your restaurant will be benefited as they will increase their profits especially in the introduction stage of plant-based diets wherein customers will try new products just for the sake to know more of that new product.

Increase in brand image and lower promotional cost

With the introduction of plant-based diets of your restaurants comes social responsibility. Restaurants having plant-based diet meals will be socially responsible as it helps customers who have major illnesses to be more physically fit as it offers products that will give them nutrients. Customers will patronize the business itself because of its advocacy to promote a healthier choice of food products.

With plant-based diet meals as one of the offerings of your restaurants, people will promote it by themselves and this will cause a lower promotional cost on your business. Customers will talk about the restaurants’ plant-based products to their friends and colleagues and this will turn into an increase in the number of customers.

These are some of the benefits we can derive from offering plant-based diet meals in our restaurant. Let us try to widen our perspective and let us try to introduce plant-based meals in our list of menu offerings. This will not just benefit your business by having lots of customers, an increase in sales and profits, an increase in brand image and lower promotional costs but also it will benefit the most important person of your business, your customers.

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.

All businesses, whatever industry they belong to, don’t want to encounter customer complaints. Why? simply because it has a negative impact that it’s hard to recover from. In other situations, it even can become very costly to settle a single customer complaint. Some businesses also closed down and declared bankruptcy because they could not handle the number of complaints they received.

In this post, we will help you understand customer complaints better and its impact on your restaurant.

If You Fail To Listen, Customer Complaints Happen

Once your customer enters your restaurant, he expects to be treated well, respected and have a good dining experience. This is the expectation that every restaurant owner, manager and staff member needs to ensure. If this is not met, customer complaints happen.

Listening is both an important skill and human gift that your restaurant team should learn and practice.

The sensitivity to listen to potential customer concerns and the ability to respond in a timely and correct manner is a quality each restaurant team member should possess. For example, you overheard one of your customers complaining about the food, what you should do is to approach him to understand his problem. Once you finish listening, take the necessary actions. You can replace his food or compensate him with a discount in an attempt to make him satisfied. What’s important is that your customer will feel that his voice was heard and his complaint was taken care of. This will help you avoid losing him. 

Customer Complaints Are an Opportunity to Build Loyalty

Yes, you read it right even. Customer complaints, which are very negative, can become an opportunity for you. It entirely depends on how you can turn it to be in your favor.

When a customer complaints about your product or your service, take it as an opportunity for improvement. This is because, after the ranting and gestures of the customer, some of them will give their suggestions. Those suggestions are valuable and free so why not take them and study their implementation in the restaurant. This will also give the complaining customer a sense of ownership of your restaurant. Show them that their suggestions are taken seriously and, believe me, they will be loyal to you.

For more tips on how you can build customer loyalty read this post.

Customer Complaints Have a Cost

We are living in the digital age in which everything can be recorded and shared in social media including customer complaints. In this situation, immediate customer recovery and crisis management must be implemented.

Customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator (Customers 2020)

There are three costs of customer complaints in your restaurant, and these are the following:

• Image Built-UP Cost
• Settlement Cost
• Productivity Cost

Image Built-Up Cost

This is the amount of money your restaurant spends to recover the bad image that the customer complaint has brought you. You are paying this cost to minimize the impact on your brand. It will also ensure the patronage and sustainability of your restaurant despite the complaint.

Settlement Cost

When your customer complaint reaches the level of the courts or any regulatory bodies, then expect some costs to resolve it. That path is proven to be costly because customers will let your restaurant shoulder all their expenses in the case including attorney fees, transportation, and civil damages. However, if you settle the case early between you and the customer, it’ll be a huge money and time saving for you. This is because the more professional people, like lawyers, are involved, the higher the cost will be. On top of that, you will avoid any other impacts that the case has against your restaurant and its reputation.

Productivity Cost

This cost is often neglected because it goes unnoticed. Remember that once a customer complains at your restaurant, all the team members and managers will exert their efforts to recover the customer. The time and attention you give to solve the complaint will be at the expense of taking additional orders and doing marketing.

Avoiding Customer Complaints

In order to avoid customer complaints, it’s better to be proactive in looking at your restaurant operations. For sure, there are some aspects you should consider to avoid customer complaints. One of the aspects you should look into is your restaurant systems and technology. For example, you should choose a reliable, quality and state-of-the-art ordering system in order to satisfy your customers like Taker. The online food delivery segment of your restaurant needs an ordering app like Taker which is not only user-friendly, innovative but affordable. To learn more about how you can create a great food delivery experience to your customers read this post.

Although customer complaints are a negative thing, they be can be turned into an opportunity to build up strong customer loyalty. Also, being proactive to those complaints can save you lots of costs and time as well as help preserve your restaurant’s reputation.

If your restaurant is looking for an online ordering system

contact us now.