Should Your Restaurant Offer Meal Kits?
The pandemic has hit everyone hard, from customers to business owners. The restaurant industry hurts particularly hard. As a result, owners and managers found new solutions to the common problem: How can we make enough revenue to survive? The answer, interestingly enough, lies with meal kits.
Many consumers can’t afford to or don’t want to risk dining out. Delivery, takeout, and curbside services all surged in popularity to meet growing demand this year, but it’s not enough. To help families in need, businesses have begun experimenting with new ideas.
The Next Big Thing?
Long months spent isolated inside have grated on your best customers. They need meal kits to weather the rest of the pandemic. Dole out best-selling dishes, specials you don’t usually offer, or a signature spin on a staple food. Customers will flock to purchase a kit, boosting your sales and helping your business survive the pandemic.
What else do meal kits do?
Connect customers to your food even if they can’t enjoy it in the peace and ambiance of your indoor seating area. Instead, they’ll have the tools they need for a taste of your best cooking, from the comfort of their own homes.
Add shipping on top of pickup options and garner more new customers. If they’re satisfied enough, they’ll think of you after the pandemic when they want to satisfy this same craving.
Give guests something to do together to pass the time. They’ll enjoy a group activity and reap the rewards at the end with a family dinner to appreciate what they all made.
Skip the dangers of a grocery line and the frustrations of having to decide what to make for dinner. Meal kits are a convenient way to get everything sent right to the front door.
Stay fresh in customers’ minds. When they’re not actively visiting, you could slip out of their daily routine and they’ll forget about you in the meantime.
Making Meal Kits a Success
You get an additional bonus when selling meal kits compared to serving sit-down meals: User-generated content. Also known as UGC, this refers to any post your followers make on social media when they tag your restaurant, check-in with geo-location, or even just post a photo of their finished meal thanking you for the time spent with family. Make sure to repost, share, like and spend time on fans’ pages to show you’ve noticed their patronage and appreciate the free publicity. Successful restaurants need strong customer relationships.
Social media is a great place to get to know your customers on a personal level, which also makes it the perfect arena to announce your new venture. By integrating yourself into their daily feed you guarantee the most loyal of them will see your announcements.
Add links to the right landing page on your socials and promote those posts for a wider audience to see. Every click matters, so make sure to properly utilize social media. To reach the most viewers possible, your pages need to do their part by generating clicks and sales for your meal kits.
The future of foodservice lies in your online presence. Is your restaurant ready to face the challenge?
