Fast-Casual OR Fine-Casual

Fast-Casual OR Fine-Casual  

Your Market Could be the Determining Factor

           Central to the menu often the next major decision for food service operators is the service style they will offer their guests.  We have a client who was torn between fast-casual and fine-casual.  Their business district location suggested they should use the faster service model; however, the upscale quality of their cuisine created a guest perception closer to fine-dining.  Ongoing is a recent uptick in new high-rise residential space so our client wanted to evaluate the opportunity to cater to this young, educated demographic as well.

            As a matter of course, during an operations assessment for our client, we were charged with determining the best service style to fit-the-brand.  The service style had to complement the quality level of the menu offerings to avoid a guest disconnect.  When first opened the operation used a fast-casual service format in the usual manner; order and pay at the counter, self-service beverages and table delivery of menu items by a staffer.  While the online ratings on food quality continued to rise the service component continued to take a hit dragging overall scores down from one-half to a full point.

            Using our “patterned assessment scale” combined with direct feedback during conversations with guests we were able to develop an action plan for our client that assisted them with the service format decision.  It was determined the lunch menu and dinner menu would feature the same high-quality cuisine guests had come to expect but the number of offerings for lunch per category would be reduced to facilitate quicker ticket / service time scenarios.  Guests still demanded table-service during the day as many were entertaining their clients and wanted a quick, high-quality dining option for lunch.  No surprise the growing number of new (X’s & Y’s) dinner guests also had high service expectations and they had the dining experience and disposable income to push ahead the decision.

            The best fit for the guests, staff and especially the brand was to move forward with table-service for both lunch and dinner.  The lunch menu was trimmed to accommodate for an order-to-service ticket window of ten (10) minutes or less while still featuring the upscale food quality guests had come to expect.  The only change from the original dinner menu was an adjustment to drive sales of high-contribution margin items through menu engineering.  To date our client is reporting better lunch ticket times and an 8% increase in lunch and 10% increase in dinner check averages.