Why A Restaurant That Tries to Appeals to Everyone Could be Costing Your Business

If your restaurant is trying to appeal to everyone, there is a good chance it isn’t appealing strongly enough to anyone. It is one of the most common traps we see in hospitality. The intention is understandable. You want to maximise covers, increase sales and avoid turning customers away. So you add more dishes to the menu, broaden the offering and try to create something for every age, taste, and occasion. But along the way, the restaurant can loose its identity. And when customers don’t know exactly what a restaurant is, why it’s different or why they should choose it, the business can quickly become just another option. In hospitality, being everything to everyone can sometimes mean becoming memorable to no one.

What exactly are you trying to be?

One of the first questions we ask when looking at a restaurant concept is a fairly simple one: Who is this business actually for? It is a surprisingly important question. A restaurant needs an identity. It needs to know what it is trying to achieve, who its customer is and why that customer should choose it over the many other options available. When a restaurant tries to appeal to everyone, that identity can quickly become diluted. You end up with a menu that contains burgers alongside curries, pasta next to steaks, vegan options alongside sharing plates, and perhaps a little bit of everything in between. There may be plenty of choice. But choice doesn't necessarily create a strong restaurant.

More choice doesn't always mean more customers

We often see businesses make their menus larger because they don't want to disappoint anyone. The thinking is understandable. "What if someone doesn't like our main concept?" So another dish gets added, then another, and another. Eventually, the kitchen is carrying a huge number of ingredients, recipes and processes simply to accommodate every possible customer preference. The result is often increased food costs, increased waste, more complicated purchasing and a kitchen that is harder to operate efficiently. More importantly, the quality and consistency of the food can suffer. A focused menu allows a kitchen team to become exceptionally good at what it does.

Give people a reason to choose you

The strongest hospitality businesses tend to have something in common. They know what they want to be known for. It might be exceptional local produce, pub classics, outstanding seafood, or it might be relaxed, high-quality casual dining, or perhaps a great neighbourhood restaurant with a simple, well-executed menu. Whatever it is, there is a clear proposition. Customers understand it. And importantly, they remember it. That is much more powerful than simply being somewhere that has "something for everyone."

Don't be afraid to exclude people

This can be difficult for a restaurant owner to accept. But you don't necessarily need every customer. If your concept is built around high-quality seafood, for example, you are naturally going to be less attractive to someone who doesn't eat fish. That's okay. Trying to create an alternative menu specifically for that person can compromise the very thing that makes your restaurant special. A strong restaurant doesn't need to appeal to everyone. It needs to appeal strongly enough to the right people.

Focus also makes the business easier to operate

There is another important consideration here. A clear concept and focused menu doesn’t just help with marketing. They make the business easier to run. Fewer ingredients can mean better purchasing and stock control. Fewer recipes can mean better training. A smaller number of dishes can mean greater consistency. A focused operation can make staffing, preparation and service more efficient. And when every part of the operation is working towards the same proposition, the customer experience becomes much more consistent. This is where good restaurant design goes beyond simply creating an attractive menu. The concept, menu, kitchen, staffing structure, purchasing, service and customer experience all need to work together.

Know what you want to be known for

There is nothing wrong with giving customers choice. The problem comes when choice becomes the concept. A successful restaurant should be able to answer three questions: Who are we? Who are we trying to attract? What do we want to be known for? Once those questions have been answered, many other decisions become considerably easier. Your menu becomes clearer. Your recruitment becomes more focused. Your training becomes more relevant. Your purchasing becomes more controlled. And, perhaps most importantly, your customers understand why they should choose you.

Sometimes less really is more

Hospitality is a competitive business. There are more restaurants, pubs, cafés and bars competing for people's attention than ever before. Standing for something is therefore increasingly important. Trying to appeal to everyone can leave a restaurant somewhere in the middle — not bad enough to fail immediately, but not distinctive enough to become the first choice for anyone. The best restaurants don't necessarily give customers everything. They give the right customers exactly what they came for — and do it exceptionally well.

Need help finding your focus?

Sometimes the challenge isn't that a restaurant has a bad concept. It's that the concept hasn't been properly defined, structured or translated into an operation that can consistently deliver it. At Create Hospitality, we work with hospitality businesses to help develop concepts, menus and operational structures that are commercially realistic and built around the customer they actually want to attract. Whether you're opening a new business, reviewing an existing restaurant or simply feel that your operation has lost its direction, an experienced outside perspective can often identify opportunities that are difficult to see from inside the business. If your restaurant needs more clarity, structure or direction, we'd be happy to have a conversation.

Create Hospitality — helping hospitality businesses create better food, better operations and better businesses.