Need Help Improving Your Family-Owned Restaurant?

[waternohitter]

Our family owned restaurant has been in the business for almost 5 years now. We are doing well but I think, we need some changes. Maybe change the menu? Or the look of the shop? A friend suggested that we do surveys so that we know what our patrons want. I don't have any idea how I should go about this. Any tips or advice? Is there a cheap but effective way of doing this? Is there a company that provides service for this kind of thing?

 

[Choppy]

What are your goals?

• Make more money?
• Become more popular?
• Employ more people?
• Offer better food?
• Offer a more enjoyable dining experience?

 

[waternohitter]

All of the above. LOL. Just joking. Offer better food and offer a more enjoyable dining experience. If you have both, the rest will just follow.

I looked online and stumbled upon this audit management software. It has what I'm looking for and and it seems that it also does internal audit. I think I'll try this one first. We've done the suggestion cards before and it brought in some really good ones. Hope this thing with the survey works out.

 

[ZapperZ]

Our family owned restaurant has been in the business for almost 5 years now. We are doing well but I think, we need some changes. Maybe change the menu? Or the look of the shop? A friend suggested that we do surveys so that we know what our patrons want. I don't have any idea how I should go about this. Any tips or advice? Is there a cheap but effective way of doing this? Is there a company that provides service for this kind of thing?

Have you looked on Yelp, Trip Advisor, etc. on the type of reviews that your restaurant have been getting? That is the quickest way to figure out what needs to change and improve.

Zz.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't go to restaurants much, but I go to a lot of coffee shops and I am convinced the single most appealing thing about any given place is friendliness. This brings more people back than anything else. It's what I would call the "Cheers Factor". If people feel comfortable and welcome, the menu is almost immaterial.

 

[Bystander]

almost 5 years now.

Average lifespan of "mom & pop" establishments on the Front Range is 5-6 mos..
Guess what. It "ain't broke," and that means you want to be careful what sort of "fixes" and improvements you make.

 

[Matilda Salazar]

Our family owned restaurant has been in the business for almost 5 years now. We are doing well but I think, we need some changes. Maybe change the menu? Or the look of the shop? A friend suggested that we do surveys so that we know what our patrons want. I don't have any idea how I should go about this. Any tips or advice? Is there a cheap but effective way of doing this? Is there a company that provides service for this kind of thing?

I really don’t know if there are companies that offer that kind of services but I like the idea of conducting a survey. It’s relatively easy and you can collect data from large amount of respondents. However, there are respondents who do not provide honest and accurate answers so better watch out for that.

 

[Doug Huffman]

There are consulting chefs making just such recommendations.