We’ve just launched the 2nd quarterly wave of our new ‘Plan to Plate’ tracker, in partnership with guest engagement platform Paytronix. Every quarter, KAM tracks and trends UK consumer behaviour from ‘plan to plate’, understanding every touchpoint of their journey to and through a hospitality venue.
In this blog, Blake Gladman, Insight & Stregy Director at KAM takes us through the potential impact of menus.
Menus have been the most impactful in-venue tool of the last 3 months (period between Jan-Mar 24), with customers telling us that if pubs, bars and restaurants improved their food and drink menus it would encourage 34% of them to visit more often and 23% to spend more per visit. 28% would also be more likely to return for a repeat visit and improved menus would encourage 20% of those we spoke to to talk about the venue/recommend it to their friends, family and social media followers.
Outside of price, it’s descriptions on the menu that have the biggest influence on customer choice. Information such as ‘new to the menu’ (30%), ‘healthier options’ (28%), ‘labelled as locally sourced’ (22%), and ‘recommended by a member of staff’ (16%) are all things that, if highlighted on a menu, would positively influence customer purchases.
Can’t fit all this information on a single sheet of paper?
Well this is where QR codes can work in partnership with traditional hard-copy menus, allowing customers the freedom to explore the menu in more detail if they so wish. The latest wave of KAM research shows that 49% of all hospitality customers have used a QR code or a digital screen in a pub, bar or restaurant in the last 3 months, up from 39% in the previous quarter.
We know that as a society we are increasingly information and data hungry. This is the same when we are eating out. More and more we want to know what’s in our food, where it’s come from and ultimately what we are putting in our bodies. However, it can also be off-putting to force feed (so to speak) this information to every customer entirely on the main menu. QR codes can play an important role here, letting customers be hungry for the dishes on the menu as well as giving them the information behind the dishes.
You can find more information about the new ‘Plan to Plate’ research here.
If you’re interested to access more of our hospitality research in general then take a look at our Knowledge Hub (lots of free insight!)
