The Trifecta of Restaurant Success

The food, the operations, and the branding — if you're a restaurant owner, it's your hat trick — your trifecta of glory, the keys to restaurant success.

Achieve an A+ in these three areas, and you'll have a pretty darn good chance at restaurant success. If one of these areas is lacking, the other two will have to go into overdrive to pick up the slack. That's not ideal, and it definitely doesn't fuel your restaurant to run on all cylinders.

Are you missing the mark in one of these areas? Let's dig in on how YOU can achieve the ever-sought-after, seemingly unattainable trifecta of restaurant success.

Restaurant Success No. 1: Food

First things first — The food has got to be good, and the presentation of the food has to be even better.

If you’re opening a restaurant, and you’re unsure of what should be cooking in the kitchen, you better partner with someone who does. No matter what your concept is, a chef should be hired who can create culinary magic and is passionate about using quality ingredients.

You can have the coolest space and all the marketing in the world, but if people sit down at your tables and aren’t impressed with the quality of their meal, you can bet they won’t be back.

Get creative. Line up a stellar menu. Get to cookin’.

Restaurant Success No. 2: Operations

Your business sense has to be sensible.

Behind your business operations, there are a multitude of factors that come into play to contribute to your restaurant’s success. We’re really talking about your service, the customer experience, and the day-to-day logistics that make your dining spot profitable.

If your operations are messy, your service will suffer, and the experience will fall flat. We can promise you — this won’t go unnoticed by customers. Items such as food costs, staffing, and other ordering options should be carefully planned and considered.

If you spend all of your money on fancy-schmancy to-go bags, but no one is ordering to-go food or you don’t have a user-friendly experience through the to-go ordering process, your dollars are going to waste away. Why spend money on top-notch bags when it’s difficult for your customer online — see where we’re going with this?

We’re not trying to be crazy penny pinchers, but you should carefully evaluate how you are using every single dollar and determine if it will simultaneously enhance the customer experience and your profitability.

Then, you’ve got to deliver on the staffing side of the puzzle. Take care of your team, so your team takes care of your customers. Ensure that everyone on staff understands that customer experience is a priority, and create systems that make expectations for each encounter known to your team.

To obtain this elusive star on your trifecta crown, it’s imperative to create an experience at every available customer touchpoint that’s backed by operational systems that can easily be replicated by each and every employee.

Restaurant Success No. 3: Branding

Now that we’ve got your food and operations on track, it’s time to dive into our secret recipe for branding.

One scan through your social media newsfeed and you’ll see that, increasingly, customers are demanding to be immersed in a dining experience. From your menu to your restaurant’s interior, every touchpoint is an opportunity to connect the customer to your brand.

In order to create this connection with your customers, you’ve got to first define what it is you’re offering and why it matters. Step one.

Once you have laid this out, you can begin to develop your brand messaging with a positioning statement, define your attributes, and create a visual direction. It’s only when you have this foundation firmly in place that you can create brand support that connects with your customers. And by brand support, we’re referring to anything and everything that a person may physically encounter related to your restaurant.

The obvious starters are your logo, website, menu, and restaurant materials. But you’ve also got to consider each and every element of the interior of your space ­— from the parking lot to the bathrooms, and everything in between.

Anything that hints at a disconnect will create fractures in the customer experience which will start to dismantle the perception of your restaurant in the minds of your customers.

Does this whole branding thing seem like a lot? Well, it is, but don’t worry...

We’ll take three. You take one and two.

We know this isn’t easy, and that’s why we love to work with restaurateurs to completely manage and develop the branding portion of their concept.

Our process for restaurant branding is seamless. It has been proven time and time again to allow our clients to focus on what they know — which is typically the food and the operations — and leave one-third of the work to us so your brand can shine brightly.

If you’re looking for a team of restaurant branding experts to tackle your project, holla at your girls. We eat this stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.