Owing to the market conditions, opening a restaurant is a challenging task today. The leading restaurant brands, who have been in the industry for a considerable amount of time, can also hit a bottleneck at some point, which encourages them to consider a second opinion. A restaurant consultant offers this second opinion.
A restaurant consultant offers credibility and experience to your restaurant.
Imagine this:
You are sitting in your restaurant wondering about the menu. You had designed a menu yourself almost 6 months back. However, you are unable to highlight the USPs of your menu. You had specially designed 10 separate cuisines with your chef which are currently only available in your restaurant. However, very few customers are buying these cuisines due to unknown reasons. Further, you are unable to manage the pricing of cuisines, which is important as you wish to achieve a considerable amount of profit and gain the ability to offer a handsome salary to your employees.
In a situation like this, what can you do? Is it right to remove the self-designed cuisines from the menu? Or is the more viable option to increase the prices of every cuisine?
Only a restaurant consultant can tell. Let’s see how:
A restaurant consultant is a broad term used for multiple industry verticals. Restaurant consultants have a specific domain of their own. For instance, some consult on the financial matter and others offer guidance on menu design, interior design, and other aspects related to the design of the restaurant. You have to choose your area of consultation and then find the correct person for this work.
Check out how you can find the right consultant for your restaurant.
Start with the preliminary search. Contact only those consultants who seem relevant according to your restaurant and its specific needs. In this case, it will be menu design support and financials. You can also take tips from other restaurant owner friends who have hired a consultant previously.
When you have shortlisted a group of people who match your requirements, you need to narrow down the list. This can be achieved by explaining your problem to each and asking how they can find a solution. You would know when you hear an experienced person talk about the management of a menu. They would offer logical solutions such as redesigning the menu to highlight self-designed cuisines. In this step, it is best to narrow down to only a few people.
Ask for a proposal and previous work details. Analyze these proposals, ask questions, and go online to check the reviews. In fact, you can reach out to their previous collaborations (with other restaurants) to understand the quality of their work.
These steps will help you shortlist 2-3 restaurant consultants, who can resolve your issues and challenges. Below we have given some additional tips for finding a restaurant consultant.
Tips for Choosing the Right Restaurant Consultant
Define Your Requirements!
Sit with all the stakeholders and write down your requirements. In this scenario, it is the inability to sell self-designed cuisines and manage rates of these cuisines.
It is necessary to know the requirements before you reach out to any particular restaurant consultant.
Research
After you know your requirements, you would be able to analyze the type of consultant you need. For instance, a startup restaurant would need someone who can help them with the entire setup.
Once you know the type of consultant you need, you can start your research.
Closely Scrutinize Proposals
Analyze the proposals thoroughly. This is not a normal task such as arranging the tables in the morning. You actually need to go through the full proposal to understand the proficiency of the consultant.
Remember, a proposal can tell a lot about the experience of the consultant.
Ask as Many Questions as You Can
Ask a lot of questions. Any experienced consultant would answer your questions with patience and knowledgeable insights. Examples of a few questions may be:
- Do you understand our model?
- Do you understand our requirements?
- What innovative change can we bring?
- Give us some referrals.
- Tell us what is the major change you want to implement for our restaurant.
Find a Reliable Restaurant Consultant
Every consultant-customer relationship is built on reliability and trust. If you are not able to trust your consultant, it is highly unlikely for you to work with them. Hence, it is necessary to find a trustworthy consultant to manage your requirements.
To offer additional support to your consultant, utilize inresto restaurant automation software. Using this system will enable your consultant to work faster and achieve better results.
