H & C News is pleased to publish the third in a series of articles authored by experts from Buell Consulting Group who participated in the panels and seminars at the recent Independent Hotel Show. The articles will assist independent hotels to address the challenges facing their businesses in the competitive UK market.
A menu for success: establishing the best food offering for your business
Stephen McManus of the Buell Group was a panellist in the Business Solutions Theatre session on A menu for success: establishing the best food offering for your business. He outlines below the key points that emerged from the panel, which took place on both days of the Show.
- It is not always the price of an item on the menu which is important but the value perceived by the customer, which as well as the food served is down to the service, ambience and appearance of the restaurant that they are dining in at the time.
- Many restaurants are led by the quality of the chef and the food coming out of the kitchen and in many instances the front of house experience is forgotten or given second billing – which provides an inferior customer experience.
- Does the customer drive what the menu offer is? It was deemed that in many instances the level of research undertaken before a restaurant is launched is inadequate and more should be done. In many cases the offer is driven by what the chef wants to put on the plate rather than what the customer actually wants. Word of mouth is the most frequently used source of customer feedback, as well as sites such as TripAdvisor.
- Not a lot of science in terms of menu engineering is used in the compilation of many menus, again tends to be led by what the chef wants to put on the plate. Continual tweaking and improvement of the menu is required to meet current and changing food trends. However, despite this, instances were cited of popular restaurants and pubs where the menu had not changed for over 15 years and which continued to be very successful.
About The Buell Group
The Buell Group is the single largest advisory and service resource for the hospitality and leisure sectors in the UK.
The range of expertise and resource that it is able to bring together under one umbrella makes it unique and provides clients with much more than conventional consulting.
The Buell Group is made up of three divisions; Buell Consulting for hospitality advisory support; Buell Talent for senior hospitality recruitment; and Buell B4B for relevant services.
The portfolio of services provides a comprehensive response to any requirement operating businesses or investors may have and specifically covers Operations, Support Services such as Sales & Marketing and HR, and Legal and Professional. Also offered is a range of bespoke products including:
- Business Start Up
- Business Acceleration Programme
- On-Board Advisory
- Fit for Purpose Technology
- Strategic Business Review
- Business Recovery
The Buell Group essentially provides a multi-layered, one stop resource for business whether they require expertise in one area or many.
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