25 Jan
In Blog

How to use social media as a test kitchen for your brand

 

 

Thanks to social media, everyone thinks that they are born restaurant critics. The number of posts mentioning restaurant service, prices, and food quality is astronomical. While platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram often appear as channels for restaurant visitors to share negative feelings and experiences, they also provide a wealth of knowledge to companies, and ultimately their sales and profits, through all the information they gather. to increase.

 

Restaurants have to assert themselves more than ever before the competition. To keep customers loyal and keep them coming back to the restaurant, the menu has to be continuously adjusted, seasonally "pimped" so as not to get bored quickly. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. But restaurant owners and operators know about the successful new creations of the food only when they try.

 

The most important step throughout the process is to listen to customers and adjust them as needed - before it's too late. The business and marketing executives of restaurant businesses should not wait until the sales figures force them to do so. You should actively observe and evaluate the guest's mood and, if necessary, correct it in real time.

 

Some of the craziest ideas may be the most successful, while some of the most banal and simplest changes will be the most counter-reactive.

 

 

It's always a big deal, for example, when a popular chain changes its menu. Monthly planning, perfecting and testing often precede. But not always the same positive feedback can be expected.

 

Despite all the preparations for new offer you can not always predict the reaction of the guests. Dissatisfaction of guests can quickly spread over the various social media channels.

 

 

Social Test Kitchen Tips

 

 

That's exactly why we've outlined three ways to tackle calmer changes

 

 

1. Determine what customers want

 

Large restaurant chains invest a lot of money in research and development, but what if there was an easy way to find out what customers wanted?

 

In the US, some companies are already set to question their followers in advance. So a chain turned to their social media followers when the company wanted to introduce a new option for green tea. In the conversations, e.g. Asked questions like, "Who talks about green tea?" and "what is your opinion on green tea?". The managers of the catering group quickly learned that their followers always spoke of different flavors of green tea. The company knew that, to be successful, it had to be driven by a niche taste. They chose a green mango tea. Thanks to social media, the election was a hit and still a popular menu option.

 

 

2. Monitor customer responses and adjust them as needed

 

Today, social media for a restaurant is what a stethoscope means to a doctor. The social media shows very quickly what and where is currently announced or maybe critically questioned. When a social media team from another US supply chain noticed a growing number of complaints about a new "carnitas prescription", it immediately began to look for solutions to counteract (and correspondingly minimize) the negative mood. An active social media analysis has revealed the cause of the problem; At that time, many people pointed to a cinnamon taste that, in their opinion, did not belong in the "carnitas". So the team soon discovered that the individual restaurants needed more training and education to properly cook and spice up the pork.

 

 

3. Measure and evaluate the success

 

Thanks to this social media analysis, "Carnitas Burritos" tasted better nationally and above all the same. After following the conversations in the social media, one experienced a quick change of mood. The amount of conversation about the "bad" pork shrank quickly by almost 75 percent. Posts mentioning the new recipe were much more positive and commented. Even posts that expressed aversion and hatred were replaced by comments like "I love the new pork".

 

Changes in the catering industry are necessary to address the different guest demands and also to be fair. While social media can sometimes be seen as a hotbed of negative sentiment, it is precisely these that offer insights that can help improve business. They are an invaluable resource. Social media is the best source for public opinion and thus your perfect test kitchen.

 

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