Top Challenges Restaurants Face Today

Stand out from your competitors by being a vigilant problem solver.

By Elina Sazonova, Pexels

(SALEM, Ore.) - The food industry is one of the businesses with high-risks prepositions. It requires a lot of capital, it faces a lot of competition, and the diners’ choice may be beyond overwhelming.

That’s why research shows that about 60% of restaurants fail within the first year of operation, while 80% of them fail within the first five years of operation.

However, sometimes it’s good to learn the drawbacks before you come up with a restaurant business plan to avoid them. Information is priceless to a new venture. This article gives you a list of some of the common challenges that restaurants face.

1. The menu

One of the most common challenge restaurant owners’ faces is the menu. Some of the questions you should ask yourself when developing a menu include:
• Do you have too few or too many items?
• Are the dishes priced correctly?
• Does the menu have a consistent theme?

Instead of offering a larger menu, you should focus on offering a smaller number of dishes that are well prepared. Again, diners need to know what your restaurant is all about, so keep your menu aligned with your restaurant’s preposition. You should also evaluate your menu on a monthly or bi-annually basis.

2. Poor service

Poor service is usually a turn off to customers. Even if your food is mouthwatering, the ambiance is pleasant, and the table setting is superb, but if your service is poor, the customers will never forget.

If you want your customers to keep coming back to your restaurant, you must ensure that your entire team, from top management to service personnel are dedicated to customer’s well-being.

The staff must ensure that they are pleasant and accommodating to the customers. How you handle the customers will determine whether or not they will come back to your restaurant. So make sure to create an excellent first impression.

3. Unique selling point

You should be able to define what makes your restaurant unique. Is it the food or romantic atmosphere? Your customers need to know why they should come to your restaurant, and not your competitor’s.

Once you determine what will make customers come to you instead of your competitors, you will be in a position to market your restaurant effectively and efficiently.

4. Management

It is extremely beneficial to analyze effectively the daily operations and sales of the restaurant. Problems faced by restaurant management should be faced with care and expertise.

For instance, knowing when the restaurant receives maximum customers and balance with the number of staff, the profit margin on every item on the menu, and daily/monthly sales is very essential for the success of your restaurant. Your management team can use an efficient restaurant POS system to track sales and provide audited reports.

5. Marketing

The majority of restaurant owners fail to effectively market their restaurants. If you don’t market your restaurants properly, how will your potential customers know of your existence?

If your budget allows it, you can outsource your marketing needs to an outsourcing marketing company. They have the expertise and tools to market your business effectively.

However, if you are on a tight budget, you can use your own networks [family and friends] or incentivize your internal employees to market your restaurant using social media, email, etc.

Another low cost advertisement you can use to brand your restaurant are social media influencers, also called nano or micro influencers. The social media influencers already have a loyal audience base and are engaged with them on a regular basis.

So, those are the challenges you may face while managing a restaurant. Knowing them and finding ways to overcome them can make you stand out from your competitors.

Source: Salem-News.com Special Features Dept.