There are many ways to start an eco-friendly move for your restaurant which can boost your profits at the same time. By changing the way you run your restaurant and taking the most obvious environmental protection step first, your business can set a positive example for others in restaurant industry. Following are some easy ways in which you can  protect your surroundings:

1)Recycle all waste paper, glass, cardboard and plastic bags and invest in a waste compactor. Try to implement a glass imploder in restaurant which will significantly decrease the waste output.

2)Collect, compost and recycle all the waste food and used kitchen oil.

3)Start using biodegradable products such as decomposable glasses, plates, bowls, spoons etc. Start using eco-friendly and recyclable containers are you using for take-aways.

4)Try to reduce your restaurant’s daily carbon emission by monitoring and reducing your daily energy use. Daily energy requirements can be decreased significantly by better design and installation of energy efficient equipments.(for example you can install timer switches to save electricity).

5)Replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent or LED lights saves a lot of energy.

6)Ask employees to think about how they can contribute towards this move. Ask them to bring innovative ideas for recycling  of waste, dish washing, electricity use etc.

7)Ask your local suppliers if they can use less/biodegradable packaging for your stock, which would help them in saving money and you will have less material to recycle.

8)Source your products from suppliers in your area. You are now cutting down on the distance it has to be delivered which in turn would save some amount of fuel that is used for transportation.

9)Get in touch with some gardening businesses or pet shops in your area that may be interested in your waste food products to make compost or to serve as pet food. In this way you will have to dispose less waste and you can offer a free service to them.

10)Last but not the least, repair all water leaks, install aerators, and install water-efficient toilets to save a plenty of water from wasting.

Above-mentioned are fairly simple ways of making sure that we would have clean air to breathe and a natural environment to live in.

Tip: Grow some trees, plants or vegetation if your restaurant has any front/back yard area. It would provide you fresh air, fruits/vegetable and shade and will add to the beauty of your restaurant.

While the risk of opening a restaurant is huge, the reward can also be huge. If you follow the right concept, and manage it well, you could see your investment paid off in few years. All you need to do is to avoid these top reasons behind the failure of a restaurant.

1) No Unique Selling Point: It is not just food that appeals to the customers, they need a reason to come to you instead of your competition.

Good food and/or service is not a unique selling point. It does understate the importance of great food and service, but it isn’t the only reason someone is going to try your restaurant. If you want to offer something truly unique, you need to move past food and service. What you need is something original to sell, something other than the best food or the best service. You need a unique selling point which your competitors lack to offer.

A true unique selling point is an emotion you offer to people. If you make a real, emotional connection with your customers, they will remember it for longer, how you made them feel.

2) A Large Menu: This is a very common mistake done by independent restaurants. Large menus create several problems within an operation and also lack focus. When you try to offer everything that your customers like, you aren’t giving them more choices and more reasons to come back, rather you are confusing them. They don’t know what your specialties are, what you supposedly do well, what they should order, and how to describe your specialties to others. If your message is focused and easy to convey, more of your customers will convey your message.

3) Lack of Analysis: If you think you can cook fantastic food and everyone confirms it, and now you are ready to open a restaurant then you are wrong.

Owning a restaurant isn’t about cooking. It’s not about having good food. While those things are components of a good restaurant, they are not the reason for it’s success. Even if you have the perfect menu , knowledgeable staff , a trained line to reproduce your food, and plenty of stuff to attract your guests, you are just 1/3 of the way there. The other 2/3rds include marketing and managing the restaurant. Beyond making good food and selling it, you need to know how to collect data and analyze your business to make sure you have the necessary information to run a profitable restaurant.

4) No Strategic Pricing: You need to have a strategic method for pricing your menu. Take a look at what your competitors are charging, and then design the financial picture of your business that will be different from others. You need to have a pricing strategy that takes your unique financial situation into account. You’ll need to make important considerations regarding market price point, menu item cost and needed gross profit.

5) Wrong Marketing Tactic: The worst scenario witnessed among new restaurant owners, is that they think they can market their new restaurant only through ‘word of mouth’. The problem with assuming word of mouth marketing is that when you’re new, no one knows you so you can’t depend on word of mouth marketing until you are well established

For this you need a better plan. The best marketing tactic you can employ in your restaurant, is to gather contact information of each and person that comes through your door, and market to them. Marketing to existing customers can bring a greater opportunity for increased sales. These existing customers are a better source for new customers/people who are not yet aware of your restaurant.

Branding: It’s what customers, employees , vendors, the media and all other key constituents come to expect in dealing with your restaurant. Brand-building is closing the gap between what you promise and what you deliver. A strong brand is one that has alignment between the promise and execution. It’s not something that happens when you advertise, and it’s not that people recognize your logo or recall your advertising.

Positioning: Positioning is an under-leveraged restaurant marketing component. Positioning is the place you hold in the customers or prospects mind relative to the competition. Effective positioning involves incorporation of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The USP is the one thing that only you can claim. It’s a point of differentiation that the competition either cannot or does not claim.

Due Diligence: Restaurant marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Effective restaurant marketing must be built on a foundation of fact and knowledge about the market, your competition, your customers, your Internal Customers, financial history, marketing history, the industry, and outside forces that will impact your business. It’s a lot to worry about, but restaurant marketing has to factor these considerations into the overall strategy.

Menu Mix: Every six to twelve months, you’ll want to conduct an analysis of your menu. This will include profitability analysis and competitive menu analysis. To keep your menu fresh, relevant, and profitable, you’ll need to know specifically how each item on your menu is performing and also how it stacks up next to your top competition.

Training: Training is a vital component of restaurant marketing. Training needs to go beyond just employee orientation. You’ll need an ongoing program that constantly improves and evolves your staff competencies. It’s also a good idea to include a restaurant marketing component in your training program so that you have a staff of ambassadors to help your sales-building efforts.

In a restaurant with traditional system of ordering or we say where there is no online food ordering system, each and every person in staff from manager to cashier, from chef to waiter, is busy. They have to take care of every thing such as number of customers, table reservations, payments, takeout/delivery orders etc. by themselves which sometimes can become a matter of physical and mental stress resulting into quitting the job finally. According to a research study, the restaurant industry has one of the largest attrition rates as compared to any other industry.

Since your restaurant employees constantly keep on looking for ways to make your customers’ experience as enjoyable as possible, so it becomes necessary to bring down the amount of focus and energy of your restaurant employees so as to offer them a stress free job. Online food ordering assists you here by streamlining the overall ordering process. This helps in lowering the probability of human error thereby reducing any undue stress on your restaurant staff. Your online food ordering system enables your customer to visit your restaurant’s website, choose the food item from menu, click the button to order which can be  then received  via email or fax. Even reservations can be done online by customers themselves.

The convenience that online food ordering provides to your staff make their job easier and relaxed. This makes them put all their energy and effort into offering an enjoyable culinary  experience to your restaurant’s customers.

Here is a wishing that the coming year is a glorious one that rewards all your future endeavors with success.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

May God shower the snow of joy and happiness on you, may the bells jingle for you and may  Santa be extra good to you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

‘Internet has  a great impact on customer’s  experiences and plays a key role in the restaurant industry.’ Thirty-nine percent of the respondents liked receiving promotional emails from restaurants with the two most popular online promotions being coupons for drink or food specials.

The current market scenario reveals that chain restaurants which are crowding the market day by day, are making a smaller restaurant to look at new ways to market and entice customers. Email and cell phones are overtaking most venues of communication and the traditional mode of advertising.

Restaurant industry is changing completely with technology. Today, the Internet is replacing and becoming additional exposure to traditional advertising and marketing. Since, the first contact that many people have make with a restaurant is through its website, it is required that the website should reflect the restaurant in its look and feel, is easy to navigate and have mapping directions (which is considered to be the most important thing on a restaurant’s website) and contact details of  the restaurant.

We all make plans before traveling to any place. This includes hotels, tourist sites, and restaurants. Just because a restaurant is close to a hotel does not ensure that guests will visit it. If the restaurant does not have an online presence we may not consider visiting it. A restaurant website should be set up that once the customer arrives at the restaurant all that they need to do is to sit down and enjoy their dining experience as they have all of the relevant information prior to arriving.

We notice that it is customary of restaurateurs to distribute pamphlets/flyers to advertise about their menu specialties, which we often try to ignore and dump them into garbage. No doubt, this adds a lot to paper waste and pollutes the environment. The serious environmental issues require restaurants to shift from paper menus to online menus. This would benefit environment, in terms of reduced amount of wood used to produce paper and the amount of fuel used to deliver it. By submitting menus online, restaurateurs can now save as much as 90 per cent of the cost of producing paper menus. All they need is a computer with Internet connectivity to receive online orders from their customers. The online food ordering approach fits in perfectly with the need to cut cost, reduce staff and environment friendly food ordering.

More the restaurants will switch to online ordering, lesser will be the amount of paper menus generated, which in turn will save millions of trees which are cut down to manufacture paper every year. This will also help restaurateurs to list their efforts  in the measures used to reduce global warming and encourage other restaurants to give up the conventional practice of using paper menus and start using a techno cum eco-friendly way of displaying their menu items online.

Starting with Thanksgiving following to Christmas, the holiday season is arriving to knock your doors soon. It is the time when everyone is in a relaxing frame of mind and doesn’t want to even think of their chaotic schedules at work. Christmas holidays become an excuse for gatherings and parties when people get a chance to dine in with their dear ones. But those who want to remain in a little lazy feel and wish to have food from their choice of restaurant without stepping out; online food ordering is a fine selection.

With online food ordering system, menus can be accessed directly so that all details about the food to be ordered can be retrieved. Just click on the food shown on online menus and place your order for delivery/ pick up. You don’t need to have a superior tech sense for ordering food over internet. It is so effortless that even kids can place orders for their happy meals, with just a few mouse clicks. Restaurateurs also feel at ease with these ordering systems as they do not require bulky installations and set ups. By merely signing up the system, one can start taking /placing of orders.

You might have suffered from the frustration when your order was noted erroneously by the person at the restaurant receiving your phone order and the height of annoyance reaching the top level when delivery boy brought the wrong order. Online food ordering liberates you from that annoying situation as there is no chance of error prone ordering due to bad phone connection.

Time and cost are cut down to a remarkable amount by adopting these online ordering systems. Restaurateurs benefit from lower maintenance and labor cost whereas customers get cost cut offs incurred in long phone calls for ordering food. Payment of food is also a trouble free task while ordering food online. Various payment gateways are opened for you such as pay pal, pay upon delivery etc., ensuring a complete protection of your valuable information.

During this festive season and chilling winters, online food ordering system can be considered as Santa’s gift for those who wish to have their favorite food from their choice of restaurant, and that too at their homes while cozying up in blankets!