Dinner has long been a difficult daypart for most retailers to tap into. Chef Koetke recommends you first make sure dinner is something your customer wants. From there, deliver items that meet the needs of the dinnertime diner, be it for immediate consumption or a reheat at home.
My foodservice business is strong in the morning and at lunch, but it dies down through the late afternoon, at dinner and in the evening. Any advice for stirring up business at and around dinner?
While this seems to make great business sense, my first question is: Do your customers want this? Before doing all the work to develop menu offerings, training staff and determining a proper pricing model, do the research. Ask your customers. Study the market in your area. What is the business potential? Who is the competition and how can you differentiate?
Assuming that the data is encouraging, the next step is to understand customer preferences. Do they want dinner for the drive home or dinner to bring home to eat alone, with friends or with family? Do you need to provide kid-friendly food? Is a particular ethnic food popular with your current or potential customers? Are healthy options important? Study the customer and learn where they are getting their dinners and what might be lacking among current dinner options. Consider giving a sample group of customers the opportunity to taste and provide feedback on potential menu items. If you have a loyalty program, it might be a good place to tap into those customers. When the new dinner menu is rolled out, you must create excitement. Appeal to the same customers that are already buying food earlier in the day. Offer discounts on dinner items when they buy food during earlier day-parts. Provide samples of dinner items earlier in the day.
When it comes to choosing menu items, think about portability, reheatability and taste. As you well know, the figures on how many meals are eaten in the car are staggering. Make sure that some of your dinner items are ideally suited for car consumption and won’t fall apart, spill or leave hands dirty. At the same time, assume that not all the meals will be eaten immediately and many will be reheated. Not all foods reheat well, so be sure to offer some foods that are ideal for the microwave or oven. Test the heating/reheating process yourself to make sure that the food retains its texture and flavor.
Finally, don’t forget taste. While portability and reheatability are important, taste is always the deciding factor. If the food is not good, your dinner initiative will be a failure. If your food is delicious, count on repeat customers.
Christopher Koetke is vice president of Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago. He is a certified executive chef and certified culinary educator by the American Culinary Federation. Have a question for Chris? Email awestra@cspnet.com, subject “Ask the Chef.”
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