How can you adjust your menu planning to meet customer feedback and trends?

One thing to remember when collecting feedback is to take a non-biased approach to the task. You're going to read and hear some great praise about the menu and items you've poured your soul into, but you're also going to read and hear some very unflattering things about your work as well. It's important to hear and gather negative feedback. Be careful of allowing confirmation bias to take root when gathering feedback and data, and make sure you don't create an echo chamber that will give you false positives. Customer feedback is about the brutal truth and using it to refine your craft. We learn very little about reality from praise and positive feedback. Negative feedback and construct criticism are far more valuable.

As with all feedback (data), you are looking for tends. These are the top priority to address. Next comes one-off negative comments, which can be the beginning of tends, so they need to be monitored. Positive feedback is not a priority, but should be leveraged to boost team morale.

It's essential to maintain a flexible and customer-focused approach. Listen attentively to customer input through reviews and direct interactions and stay informed about emerging food trends. Diversify the menu to cater to various tastes and dietary preferences, embrace seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients, and introduce exciting limited-time specials. Be prepared to adapt the menu based on feedback and monitor pricing to align with customer expectations. Consistency in preparation and presentation is key, and promoting a feedback loop helps maintain a strong connection with patrons. Regular menu updates that reflect changing seasons and evolving preferences ensure a dynamic and engaging dining experience.

In my experience it’s knowing the eating habits of your guest. I come from a cuisine that has a long and rich culture base Cajun creole cuisine southern comfort food. I have always based what I prepare on what the guest is more familiar with. I also am always open to hearing constructive criticism. Not everyone’s mamas cooked the same way.

One of the most often overlooked ways to keep up with industry trends is simply going out to eat at new and upcoming venues. Whether it's a fine dining establishment or a new food truck on the corner, the magazines, trade shows, blogs, podcasts, and other media outlets only report on what is already being done, usually after the trendsetters have already established the trends and now larger, slower-to-maneuver entities are picking up on them. Unless you're a major innovator yourself, you want to position your menu just behind the trendsetters, but well ahead of the corporate behemoths. By they time they've caught on, the trend is usually on its way out already.

Just because you might like a new menu item doesn't mean that everyone will agree with you. Testing and refining recipes and gaining real-world feedback is crucial to proper menu engineering. Start with feedback from your peers. Do you offer industry nights? Do you have roundtable events with other chefs and restauranteurs? If you're in contract food service, do you work closely with other chefs and managers within your company? Prepare new items and have them give you candid feedback with brutal honesty. If the items pass muster with those around you, start feeding these new items to customers in a variety of ways. Run specials, limited-time offers, or even give dishes to customers as "freebies" to get the feedback you need.

Some of the most successful brands out there have one rule. Don't touch the core features. McDonald's doesn't mess with the Big Mac, Outback will always focus on a quality steak at a great price, and Olive Garden knows better than to mess with salad and breadsticks. If there are core go-to items, you have to keep them around to keep the faithful happy. That doesn't mean you can't make major changes to the menu. There are great, high-end restaurants all over the world that completely change their menus on a seasonal basis, but they do so with a solid framework in place. There always needs to be a balance between the familiar and the new, price points, seasonality, and availability. Keep your core brand identity intact, play in the periphery.

Today's customers demand change on a more regular basis than in the past. Make this work in your favor by analyzing sales and performance of menu items and making changes when necessary to optimize your sales. Seasonality, availability, and other factors that have become industry buzzwords are excellent reasons to drop an item that simply doesn't perform and replace it with one that may do better for your bottom line. This is a never-ending part of the job. Never stop innovating and planning based on the data you collect.

Inform your staff in advance, sharing detailed information about the new dishes, ingredients, and preparation methods. Familiarize them with the menu changes, encouraging them to taste and understand the new offerings. Clear communication is key; ensure your staff can confidently answer customer questions about the new items. For your clientele, create a clear and visually appealing menu with the updated dishes, highlighting any significant changes or improvements. Utilize various communication channels, such as your website, social media, and in-house signage, to inform customers about the upcoming changes. A transparent communication with both staff and clientele is essential to generate excitement and understanding of menu changes.

Agree with most everything on here, will throw up one more thought. Look in the "way back machine", not just recent comments. What were your reviews 5/3/1 Years ago( if you have them ) . Example, I found menu items that were offered before I took the helm that were winners but removed as preception of being tired. But those were the most favorably reviewed. Put your spin on it and could be a star again.