What is the difference between a restaurant that withstands the test of time and one that fails in the first year? The ability to identify their target market and cater to their needs. People’s food and atmosphere preferences will change with time, and you must be able to adapt.
To secure a monthly profit, you must have a constant stream of new and loyal customers. You can take advantage of restaurant consumer behavior to do so. We’ll show how:
What is restaurant consumer behavior?
Restaurant customer behavior refers to the actions people take before and after choosing a food place. When analyzing it, you also identify the factors that influence certain decisions. Here are a few examples of customer behavior:
- Why a client chooses a specific restaurant
- What persuades a customer to order more
- What influences consumers to become loyal patrons of a restaurant
- Why do clients choose never to visit a specific restaurant again
How to identify customer behavior in a restaurant
There are two ways you can look at restaurant customer behavior:
- Macro: this includes more general restaurant customer behavior such as global food trends, a country-wide shift to a different technology, or discoveries in food preparation;
- Micro: this focuses specifically on your target audience and their preferences.
Read more: Restaurant Target Market: How to Identify It and Why It Is Important for Your Business
To get an in-depth view that will help you make profitable decisions for your restaurant, you must identify both and be on the lookout for any changes that you may need to adapt to.
Tips to understand customer behavior
Therefore, if you want to identify customer behavior, you must:
- Stay on top of food and restaurant trends: due to unlimited access to social media and a chronically online population, food trends spread far and fast. People who see a popular food online, expect to be able to order it in their city. Take advantage of these trends by incorporating some at your restaurant;
- Look for new technology to help your business: customers tend to look for the easiest way to order and they will pick their next food place according to how accommodating it will be. For example, most consumers don’t carry cash anymore and want to pay easily using a fast and secure POS system;
- Conduct surveys: this is a great way to gather data on your target audience’s preferences, purchase behavior, and much more. You can even do a short survey in your Instagram stories, boosting your engagement in the process;
- Hold interviews: select a few individuals who belong to your target market to get more in-depth answers that will help you cater to their needs;
- Observe your diners and monitor your restaurant data analytics: you can also gather information by simply spending some time in the restaurant and noticing if your customers and enjoying themselves or if they need something else. Moreover, looking over restaurant statistics gives you an idea of your most liked items, promotions, preferred hours to dine, and more;
- Organize focus groups: before launching a new product, most businesses hold focus groups where they gather a variety of people to test the new addition. You can do this as well with a couple of items on your menu to see if people are interested in ordering them and how much they are willing to pay.
Read more: Market Research for Restaurants 101: Guide to Long-Term Success
5 factors that influence customer behavior and how to profit from them
If you understand restaurant consumer behavior, you will be able to make the necessary changes to create the perfect environment for your target audience. This will help not only attract first-time customers but also turn them into loyal clients.
Menu variety and price
Less is more in the case of menu items. Big menus with a variety of options can overwhelm customers and are also perceived as low quality because clients don’t trust that you can uphold the same standard for all dishes.
Here are a few tips to make your menu attractive to as many customers as possible:
- Keep it short: prioritize quality over quantity and categorize items clearly so clients can easily find what they are looking for, such as the dessert options;
- Add pictures: make people hungry with mouth-watering images for each dish. You can hire a professional photographer or learn more about restaurant food photography to have great images for free;
- Make portions smaller: if you want to keep prices smaller than your competition, consider making your portions slightly smaller so you use fewer ingredients;
- Place expensive items near high-profit ones: to trick people into buying the less expensive one that actually helps you make more money;
- Offer promotions: to make your food seem like a better deal and get people to spend more at your food business;
- Have health-conscious options: there is a growing trend of people who want to eat vegetarian and vegan and also stick to a specific diet. To cater to them, you can mark the items in your menu that are safe for them (halal, dairy-free, nut-free) and also add nutritional information to each dish.
If you want to create an easily customizable menu that you can update with diet-specific information for free, look no further than the menu maker from GloriaFood:
Ordering experience
Many people find using a phone to place an order or book a table a waste of time. That’s why third-party apps became so popular because they allow clients to order food with no human interaction, in just a few clicks.
But you don’t have to waste money on third-party providers, you can provide the same ordering ease directly on your restaurant’s website. If you use the online ordering system from GloriaFood, clients will be able to book a table or place an online order in seconds.
The fast and easy ordering process will motivate them to come back if the food is good. Moreover, the installation process is also facile for you. You only need 10 free minutes to cater to your client’s preferences:
You can also make ordering a breeze for on-premises customers. Don’t let them get frustrated when they can’t get a server’s attention on a busy night, allow them to order and pay by simply scanning the QR code on their table.
Once seated, they can leisurely scan the menu, choose what they want to eat, and pay, all from their phones, with no time wasted. This way, you can also provide a faster service which all clients appreciate.
Restaurant reputation
92% of customers read restaurant reviews and what they find there will significantly influence their restaurant consumer behavior. Potential customers will not give a restaurant with a rating below 4 stars a chance.
Therefore, you need to build your restaurant reputation by:
- Encouraging positive reviews: get as many good reviews as possible to offset any negative ones. If you are at the start, you can even offer a small incentive, such as a free dessert for proof of good review;
- Replying to reviews: be it good or bad, you must show people you appreciate the effort they took to review your business. You also get the chance to turn a bad review around if you can solve their problem;
- Interacting with people on social media: potential customers also research your social media profiles and they will look both at your posts and the way you reply to your followers.
Read more: How Can You Build Social Proof for Your Restaurant Business?
Ambiance & atmosphere
Did you know that families pick restaurants according to menu options and price while younger generations choose food businesses according to the atmosphere? Gen Zs and late millennials are looking for a place to spend more time at and the social aspect of the place can turn them loyal.
Regarding restaurant consumer behavior when it comes to ambiance, here is what you can do to make clients feel welcome:
- Use ambiental lighting: stay away from a big cold light that is better suited for hospitals and create light with small fixtures placed strategically around the space;
- Have comfortable chairs: seating that is hard on the back will increase your table turnover, but they will deter people from coming back;
- Use hunger-inducing colors: learn more about color psychology and try to incorporate colors such as red, green, and blue into your décor.
- Provide exceptional service: with attentive and friendly service and fast food preparation that makes customers want to come back.
Added experiences
One of the most prominent restaurant consumer behavior trends is offering clients something else on top of good food and excellent service. To get people to make a reservation, you can add an experience that will elevate their dining.
Here are a few examples:
- Live music
- Wine and beer tastings
- Trivia nights
- Cooking classes
- Limited seats menu item launches
All these added experiences will help you build a community of loyal customers around your restaurant that will ensure your restaurant is profitable each month.
Read more: 15 Restaurant Event Ideas to Get Customers Through the Door
Final words
Learning more about restaurant consumer behavior will help you acquire valuable information that you can use to persuade people to patronize your food business. Make it a habit to do constant market research so you don’t miss out on any trend that could be helpful for increasing your profit.
