A poll taken in the National Restaurant News paper asked
Is it important for a restaurant to train servers in the art of upselling?
The reults:
Yes - 93%
No - 7%
Another questions asked:
Do you encourage your servers to employ suggestive selling techniques?
Yes - 100.0%
No - 0%
Conclusion: Your competitors are doing it, are you?
* In the next two years, takeout is expected to grow to a $195 billion segment of the foodservice industry.
* During this same time period, off-premises sales should grow at three times the rate of on-premises dining.
*Dinnertime takeout occasions have doubled since 1984
*Bottom line, the increase takeout dining is redefining what “takeout” means to today’s consumer. What operators have to looking for is ways to capture their share of the takeout market.
(source: Chicago-based consulting firm Technomic Inc.)
The United States Restaurant Industry
* 46.7% of the nation’s food dollar is spent on meals away from home, up from 25% in 1955.
* Total U.S. foodservice industry sales will reach $476 billion in 2005, up 4.9% over 2004.
* U.S. consumers will spend more than $1.3 billion per day on food away from home in 2005.
* The restaurant industry’s sales equal 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
* The restaurant industry is the nation’s largest private employer, providing jobs for 12.2 million people in 900,000 locations.
Quick Facts
* The chances that you dined out yesterday: 1 in 2.
* 40% of all adults have worked in the foodservice industry at some time.
* 25% of table-service restaurant sales come from travelers & visitors.
* Entrée salads have increased in popularity more than other menu items at both full- and quick-service restaurants.
SOURCE: Colorado Restaurant Association using National Restaurant Association and Colorado State Government data.
Why restaurants lose customers:
1% Customer dies
3% Moved away
5% Influenced by friends
9% Lured away by the competition
14% Dissatisfied with product
68% Turned away by an attitude of indifference on the part of a company employee
This can be avoided! Make sure your training procedures include service and sales training for each new hire as well as on-going training.
Source: THE PRYOR REPORT, Vol. 10, No. 4a
This is just a great stat that shows the importance of the independent restaurants.
For food distributors on average, 60% of their business comes from chain restaurants but accounts for only 15% of the profit.
What that means is that independent restaurants only make up 40% of products bought from distributors but account for 85% percent of the profits.
The food distibutors had better find ways to keep the independent restaurants happy and healthy!