At a time when gastronomy is facing ever tougher competition, it can be difficult to stay afloat in your business. This is especially true if you are just starting out and do not have the basic principles of the gastronomic business.
Opening a restaurant can be easy, but living from it is another story altogether. You need to know your market niche, analyze your competition and work towards the needs of your target market.
Build a targeted relationship with all those who can be important for your success. Create the right environment in which your gastronomic company can thrive in the right direction. Remember, starting a restaurant is not just about money. Rather, it's about how you get in touch with the industry and how you can best deal with all of this. Not only the right financing option for your project has to be found. You also need to focus on excellent service.
If you dare to take the step and just want to get started in the exciting and challenging industry, here are the most important tips to help you be successful with your restaurant:
The most exciting catering industry wants to be dominated by unpredictability more than ever in the coming years. Be it through political influences or social issues. It's going to be more competitive and more competitive. Guest expectations reach new heights, new technologies develop more rapidly. The catering trade must keep pace with all these new trends ever faster and more intensely.
Therefore, it is worth looking at the new gastronomy year together. Also, in order to prepare optimally for the coming year with upcoming plans.
There will hardly be anyone who claims that our wastelands will be influenced by a variety of digital technologies in the future. Mobile solutions will play a key role in determining the success of the catering trade. It will be astonishing, however, that such extraordinary customer experiences will not always be of human origin. Sometimes it is just a result of a perfectly digital integration process in familiar business structures.
IoT - Internet of Things
The Internet of Things will be one of the biggest technology trends in the hospitality industry. In future, staff will no longer have to be able to track down important inventory in the company. Rather, thanks to smart tools, it can now even conveniently regulate energy consumption in the restaurant and thus save costs. Motivation spurts for even more environmental protection and sustainability. But the IoT will do even more: generate more sales. With so-called beacon technologies, real-time offers can be sent to the guests' smartphones, which will ensure immediate additional sales. The advantage will be that the mobile solutions will be significantly less complicated and reach the guests faster. Long waits when paying and therefore dissatisfied guests will be a thing of the past!
AI- Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) in the hospitality industry does not mean science fiction. Gastronomy will use them to interact even more intensively with their guests. From the use of AI chatbots to robots in the kitchen or as service assistants in the guest room: this technology becomes one with the industry and thus ensures even more hospitality. Artificial intelligences will close the gaps in processes and thereby provide significant added value for the guest.
VR - virtual reality
The digital and the real world will merge more and more. A new gastronomic experience will emerge, which “entertains” the guests even more when they visit the restaurant. New paths are broken that lead the guest in advance through virtual tours through the restaurant or kitchen.
Face I.D.
Despite all data security concerns. Tools for facial recognition will also increasingly find their way into the catering trade. As a result, many things become faster, which is especially appreciated by frequent guests at busy times such as lunch.
The path towards absolute social networking will continue to advance. Now it is important to actively use this media. They help you to stand out from the competition. But this will also require relevant content in the future. From now on, operational teams will be hired to take care of the monitoring of social networks, customer recessions and, above all, quick feedback. Showing food pictures on the homepage was yesterday. It is now a matter of offering its guests a story behind the dishes. Additional emotions must be awakened before visiting the restaurant. Everyone in the industry needs to become a brand in the new decade. Unforgettable moments must be offered to the guests, which you are happy to share. Be it by sharing experiences in a recession, or by “staging Instagram” of the restaurant visit with appropriate hashtags.
A lot of time, money and effort will be spent in 2020 to get even more loyalty among guests towards its brands. This makes direct and fast contact with the restaurant even more important. Just what e.g. Table orders at weekend evenings. Always as easy and user-friendly as possible. Websites experience a revival in the overall appearance. They are designed to be even higher quality and more customer oriented. In the coming decade, they will always offer an added value experience, whether on a tablet, PC or smartphone. And thanks to the integration of efficient booking systems, online visitors can immediately become true visitors to the restaurant. Entertaining e-marketing or social media campaigns will not only strengthen reputations, but also build closer relationships with loyal guests.
Sustainability will be the guarantee of success in the coming year. This topic does not only affect the industry. It moves the whole world - and for a very long time. It is therefore time to promote social responsibility. The guests demand it and our environment anyway. A win-win situation for everyone when the gastronomy is finally getting serious about it. Because guests want to make their own contribution more than ever. Also, when visiting her favorite restaurant. So, it is now up to the industry to tackle this with corresponding environmentally friendly campaigns, such as reducing waste, plastic-free operations or savings in water consumption. And as mentioned, digitization can also be useful!
Ready or not. The New Year is coming soon and now it's up to us to prepare you as well as possible.
The New Year will undoubtedly bring a lot of challenges. Not only political uncertainties worldwide - we would like to mention here briefly the uncertain outcome of Brexit. In particular, our industry has to deal with huge changes.
And that is precisely why trends need to be recognized in good time to be ahead of the required steps. But what will be trendy in the coming year? We see five priorities here that will certainly attract attention in 2019. These will certainly also help your company or your brand to add the extra value that your guests will be asking for next year.