As the Second Half of the School Year Approaches, Are You Doing Anything Special?
When I ran a school foodservice department I found the second half of the school year to be especially challenging . Not only for me and my staff, but for our customers, the students.
We really had to be much more creative on how we approached keeping our customers coming back to the table in some new and innovative ways. Here is a concept that we found worked very well.
Offer your customers a dollar menu as an a la carte option. I know you are probably saying it should be all about the reimbursable meals. Well it should be but not every customer wants a reimbursable meal.
We have to provide options for them that will entice them to at least take a look and consider it as an alternative.
Think about it. They are eating in the same place for about nine months. I know it would be challenging to eat at the same restaurant for a week straight much less for nine months. I would rather have a customer eat something than to go to a fast food location or not eat at all.
When offering the dollar menu utilize items that are also being menued. Make announcements and have signage letting everyone know about your special offer. Believe it or not you will have numerous customers lined up and willing to purchase these a la carte items. I would also recommend selling fresh fruit and vegetable options. They have worked well in the past.
There is nothing wrong with being creative and thinking outside the box. After all it is all about your customers and what will best serve their needs.
Kern Halls, School Foodservice Consultant and Chief Innovator of Ingenious Culinary Concepts, turns empty dining halls into gold mines of student activity! By seeking out and combining just the right “ingredients” to accomplish what many call impossible: Halls gets students to “want” to dine in your cafeterias!
For his FREE report, outlining Marketing Tips to help you generate additional revenue TODAY, a $197 value, please visit http://www.ingeniouscc.com!
