Ways to Deal With Picky Eaters
Picky eaters might be one of the toughest customers that your restaurant will need to attend to. They will usually have unique requests that will disrupt the system that you have put in place for your kitchen to ensure a smooth operation.
However, it might also be a potential “gold mine” for you. This is because not many restaurants have an option that is specially catered to them; if done right, your toughest customer can also be your biggest supporter. Here are 5 ways to deal with picky eaters.
#1. Introduce A Customisation Option
Food customisation can be a nightmare for any kitchen in the world to handle. To make things easier, there should be 2 list: one is the “base / core” that a customer does not have the option to change and the other list is a variety of options that customers can mix and match.
This can help ensure your customers get exactly what they want, thus making them satisfied customers.
Think about how Subway offers and manage their variety of sandwich options.
Offering customisation option could get you extra points from customers who are picky eaters.
#2. Non-Meat Option
Now these customers are not necessarily picky eaters, however these customers have their own preferences that you should respect.
With the number of vegetarians on the rise, it is a smart move for restaurants to start offering a wide selection of choices that cater to this group.
A menu that only has limited choices for vegetarians or one which customers will need to specifically request for meat to be excluded, will definitely irritate your customers.
A move as simple as showing food items with 2 options: with meat and without meat will definitely make your vegetarian customers felt taken care for.
#3. Offer A Flexible Set Meal
One of the best moves that a restaurant has made in recent years is to offer set meal options.
Despite making less profit per item sold, the total profit increased with the increase in sales.
However, this can be a double-edge sword because not everyone will enjoy the options presented in a set meal. These set meal might end up with an “a la carte” order or no order at all.
By giving an option for customers to mix & match the set meals, your restaurant will still enjoy the increase in total profit while keeping your customers happy.
Challenges
Despite the many advantages that come with offering a “flexible” menu options, it can be a nightmare for restaurants to manage.
From having an inefficient processing in the kitchen, to the pain in keying the order into your POS machine and discounting from the normal price items.
Fortunately, this can be a thing of the past if your restaurant invest in a smart POS system.
One such POS system is the Slurp! iPad POS which is optimised for restaurants and the various challenges that a restaurant can face.
Updating menu, discounting or even bill splitting is only a few clicks / touches away.
Not only that, your waiter can start taking orders and make specific requests on tablet which will be immediately sent to the kitchen to be processed.
This gives extra time for your kitchen to prepare these “special meals” for your customers. Get your FREE demo now at https://getslurp.com
