A recent report from Fast Casual mentions how Olive Garden and other brands in the casual dining category are carving out opportunities in the current economic environment. Specifically, the experience they offer in relation to quick-service brands is making them a more appealing choice to many consumers – and they are promoting the potential benefits. While quick-service restaurants have struggled to keep prices as low as their guests have come to expect (or have had to shrink portions to contain price spikes), they are meeting with some pushback. A survey of 2000 consumers by LendingTree in May found that 65 percent of consumers had been “shocked” by a high bill in a quick-service restaurant in the past six months. Almost 80 percent consider the food from these restaurants a “luxury” and 62 percent report eating it less. Quick-service brands’ use of dynamic pricing is also making some consumers leery – even though guests could use it to their advantage to get better deals. There is potential here for restaurants across categories to make some changes that can help retain consumers who are questioning the value of restaurant meals right now. Boosting your experience factor is especially important. Using guest data to improve personalization and speed of service, implementing tech to improve your order accuracy, promptly responding to online reviews (and making changes as needed), and treating your team with the care you want them to show to guests can all go far to make the experience you offer feel worthwhile if your menu prices having been climbing.

In the restaurant industry, it can sometimes seem like a very fine line separates the winners from the losers. Restaurant businesses with strong management can, and do, fail. But look a bit more closely and several themes often carry through the winning brands – and there are many brands across restaurant categories that are thriving right now, all while serving consumers who demand a lot from their restaurant experience. A recent episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” delved into some of the themes of thriving brands. At their foundations, they offer great food, strong customer service, and a price point that the guest views as a good value for their visit. In addition to caring about the experience they offer guests, they focus on delivering a good quality of life for staff (to include pay, flexibility, and tech that makes their jobs easier). Importantly, they don’t focus on who their customer isn’t – they invest in enhancing the experience of the people who are already coming to their restaurant. This may seem like a simple premise, yet many brands do the opposite by focusing more attention on fixing what they do poorly than on fine-tuning what they already do well. Obviously certain problems demand focus, but those efforts will reap greater benefits if they support your goal of serving core guests better as opposed to trying to reach new people. Finally, thriving brands have some built-in financial flexibility to weather unexpected down periods. This was an issue for Red Lobster, whose sale-leaseback deal a decade ago gave it far less room to maneuver when times got tough across the economy.