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Restaurant Case Study with Agnes- Business Killer 4: Non-traditional Competitors Cont’d
Posted by Ryan Volberg at November 14, 2007 2:45 PM
The Science of Dining – Analyzing Your Customers' behaviors
Creating the add-ons for the menu items was the easy part compared to what was coming up next. Now Agnes had to turn her attention to the items on her menu that could be stars but, unfortunately were just not selling enough.
She needed to find out why these items, many of which were based on recipes passed down to her by her grandmother were not popular. It seemed strange to her since most of the customers seemed to say that they enjoyed their selections.
The first night, Agnes decided to work with her dishwasher for the evening. When asked why, she just told her staff that she wanted to get a different perspective on the restaurant. And she got it. She noticed two things. First, one of the side dishes that was served with nearly every meal was coming back almost untouched. Secondly, while scraping the plates she kept an eye out for the items on her list of higher priced entrees that were not selling well. They were easy to spot, since they were rare and sadly, returned with much of the product still on the plate. This confirmed her fears. Her customers were willing to spend more, but they just didn't like the item well enough to finish it or to ask to have it wrapped up.
The next morning, Agnes wrote the name and description of each problem item onto a 3x5 card and spread the cards out on the table. It was as though all the other words faded away as a single word jumped out on each card. One ingredient was in every item. It was an ingredient that Agnes personally loved. And when she cooked with it for friends, they would comment on how much of it she used. She'd always taken it as a compliment, but now wondered if they were trying to tell her something else.
Before dinner service that night, she prepared each item and used half of the strong tasting ingredient. As customers began to arrive, she plated the first dish, sliced it up, and put toothpicks into each piece. Guest after guest gave her the same reaction, "Oh, very nice," and "This is delicious." This wasn't working at all. These were exactly the same comments that they made about the old dishes. Agnes realized that two things were happening at the table. First, her guests were flattered with the attention and second, didn't want to hurt her feelings. But Agnes was determined to get the truth. So she returned to the dining room armed with two plates. One had the item prepared the normal way, the other had the lighter flavor. Now she asked, "Which of these do you prefer? As the customers began to weigh in it was clear that Agnes had found her culprit. It was clear that some of the flavors that she'd been cooking with were far too strong.
That night, she rewrote the recipe for every problem item. When she worked with the dishwasher the next night, she now saw something remarkable. Customers were eating nearly everything on the plates. In fact, Agnes worried that maybe the problem items were not ordered very often that night. She checked her sales mix and discovered that in fact, sales were up. She dove into the data a little deeper and found that two servers, in particular, were selling many of these higher priced entrees. Agnes asked them about it. "Oh yeah, I meant to tell you. I had my first few customers rave, and I do mean rave about that dish, so I started recommending it to every table."
Incredible. One small change and she'd created four new signature dishes.
Now that she has her menu in line, she can place her attention on the service standards in the restaurant.
Ryan Volberg is the CEO of Vivonet, a company dedicated to ensuring retail and restaurant success.
 Category: Survival Tips Story of Agnes the Restaurateur
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