Using the Chains to Your Advantage

Finding it hard to keep up with the ever changing tastes and desires of your customer base? Ever wish they would stop changing their minds? Do you wonder if you can fit another item on your menu? When will it stop? Just when you think you have your diners figured out, they go and change their minds! Let’s take a look at a strategy for staying ahead of the game.

Using Limited Time Offers (LTOs) is one way you can keep pace with your customers’ evolving tastes. They also offer an opportunity for you to try new flavor trends without having to redefine your whole image. Many operators look at LTOs as an audition for their menu, this way they can gauge customer response without making a wholesale commitment to a new menu item. Another underrated advantage to introducing LTOs to your menu is that they can breathe new life into a menu. LTOs help keep things new, fresh and updated.

LTOs sound simple enough – find some new recipe, make up some table tents, just throw them out there and let the diners find them. Not so fast. There has to be a little method to your madness. First, let’s remember why we are doing these – 1) TO MAKE MORE MONEY 2) TO PLEASE YOUR CUSTOMERS and 3) TO AUDITION AN ITEM TO POTENTIALLY REPLACE A MENU DOG. In order for the LTO to work (working = to ideally meet all 3 of the goals, but 2 [the first 2] will work as well), some strategic planning needs to occur.

1) Launch LTOs Strategically – holiday or seasonal themes that parallel the relevant seasons and holidays (obviously).
2) Keep LTOs Consistent With Your Brand – expand on what you do best – a new flavor twist or a different combo - don’t abandon what is working!
3) Educate Your Servers – make sure they know how long the Limited Time Offer is going to last and make sure they know what it tastes like. Then encourage them to sell the LTOs – suggestive selling has an amazing power tableside.
4) Price To Increase Profits – remember, these are special limited time offers – don’t be afraid to charge for it!
5) Gather Customer Comments – Find out what works and what doesn’t. You might just have a new permanent menu item. You might have something you should never offer again. You won’t know unless you ask!

These are just some of the major things you need to consider when you start to address the implementation of LTOs as part of your business model.

LTOs are a great way to use chains to your best advantage. The chains spend millions of dollars on both their advertising department and their research and development department. Why not use them to educate your customers on new trends and flavors that have worked well in their focus groups? They are not going to risk millions on advertising if they don’t have a certain acceptance score in their testing. So, if they are pushing a “bourbon style sauce” for a steak, why wouldn’t you use their R & D dollars AND their advertising dollars to your advantage by developing your own twist on that flavor profile? Use the chains for your benefit – don’t go to the bathroom or get a sandwich during the commercials – this is your time to do market research! This is a great opportunity to bring in an LTO that capitalizes on the money they spent doing your hard work for you.

Remember, LTOs provide operators with many benefits. They give you new profit opportunities without having to redefine your whole menu, they help you keep pace with what the chains are doing, they allow you to spice up your menu with something different and they help you bring in new customers and retain your existing diners with a new twist on what you already excel at doing.