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Top 5 food & drink trends from September’s industry shows

Based on totally unscientific research at The Restaurant Show (Olympia) and Casual Dining, Commercial Kitchen and Lunch! (ExCel) during September, here are my five key takeaways…

  1. The vegan market has gone insane (including some marketing budgets)

The big boys have moved into this already crowded space although not always entirely convincingly. Brands like THIS, The Vegetarian butcher, Moving Mountains and Meatless Farm had a huge presence at the shows. Although, personally, smaller outfits like Biff’s (and their crispy fried jackfruit wingz) stood out for authenticity – and flavour!

  • Functional drinks are upping their game

Energy drinks have a bad name but some really innovative brands are creating functional drinks with interesting ingredients that actually offer a boost (without the usual caffeine and sugar combo) – check out Humble Warrior’s mango turmeric sparkling botanical or the natural nootropic drinks from super-minimalist Brite Drinks.

  • “Social eating” at home

This is definitely a thing, based on Deliveroo and Uber Eats metrics revealed at The Restaurant Show. It means that families and friends are curating their own feasts in their own homes with huge orders – for instance, cult takeaway King of Wingz reported regularly seeing 100+-wing orders flying around South London!

  • Consistency is the key (still)

Boring but nevertheless true, many hospitality leaders at the shows were saying that customers (as much as ever) expect the exact same standards and experiences at each visit. BUT maintaining them is so much harder right now due to the real shortages of staff and numerous supply chain issues.

  • The food industry will NEVER run out of ideas

The reason many of us love our industry so much is because of its invention. Walking around Casual Dining is a constant ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ experience: from sweet potato gins to bloody marys in a can, savoury energy bars, black sesame seed ice cream, hard seltzers, and way too many unique taste sensations to remember…

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Five ways to make Google reviews work for you

Everyone cares about reviews of their restaurants – even if they pretend they don’t.

But this isn’t about ego. There are solid business reasons to successfully manage your online reviews, particularly as Google reviews on Google My Business become ever more vital to local search for independents.

According to a Harvard Business School study:

·        A one-star increase can boosts profits by 10%

·        44.6% of consumers are more likely to visit if owners respond to negative reviews

Enjoying only your positive reviews is human nature. But seeing bad reviews as being a potential opportunity makes a huge difference.

Tip 1: Don’t take things personally and be NICE

It can be tough to take any criticism (especially when unfair) but maintaining a professional and upbeat tone in your reply is vital. This is valuable social proof that your customers will feel heard and cared about – which is powerful stuff. Use soft language, be warm, human and come across well.

Tip 2: Respond for readers generally (NOT just the person who gave your bad review)

The chances of you changing the reviewer’s mind or having them retract a bad review aren’t high – so it’s about responding for the hundreds of other potential customers. An apology and offer to make it write makes a huge difference to overall perceptions.

Tip 3: Communicate with happy customers, too

Unfortunately, most businesses only respond to bad reviews if they respond to any reviews at all. But your most important customers—the happy ones who are likely to return – need to be recognised because this dramatically increases the likelihood of a repeat visit. Repeat customers are crucial to your business. If your restaurant’s repeat customers are not around 70%, you’ll constantly need massive marketing efforts to bring in new guests.

Tip 4: NEVER pay people to give you reviews

You just can’t offer money, gift cards, or free food for good reviews. Not only is this against the terms of service for all review sites, but Google also has the legal right to fine you up to £10,000 for a paid review. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from recognising a happy, loyal customer who had already left you a nice online review and buying them a glass of wine. That’s just good customer relations!

Tip 5: Be brave enough to OWN any bad reviews!

Reputation management is the technical term for all of this. But, whatever happens, you could always do what this pizza place in Loughborough did (see below!)– ie.100% own the bad review and literally write it on the wall. As reputational management strategies go, it won’t work for everyone but I, for one, love it…

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/making-google-reviews-work-your-restaurant-especially-david-sandhu