The modern restaurant industry has grown into an incredibly robust marketplace made up of discerning customers and a diverse array of operators. This new era of foodservice demands intelligence and optimization for restaurants to stay competitive.
Luckily, state-of-the-art competitive intelligence tools have been emerging and they can provide valuable insights into restaurant operations. In this article, we will discuss why restaurants need access to competitive intelligence, how they can most effectively use these tools, and what kinds of competitive intelligence tools exist.
Why Restaurants Need access to Competitive Intelligence
In order to stay relevant in today’s market, restaurants must stay informed. The foodservice industry continues to change rapidly and available competition is everywhere. Keeping an eye on competitors’ strategies and utilizing the right data-driven insights can be key to staying on top of the rapidly changing competition.
Competitive intelligence tools can provide unique insights into regional and market trends in foodservice. Restaurants have access to a wide array of data, from menu trends to pricing research, allowing them to stay informed on the competition and the market trends.
Competitive intelligence tools also enable restaurants to uncover customer preferences. With access to menu trends, customer information and food preferences, restaurants can create meals and dining experiences to better suit customer needs.
How to Effectively Utilize Competitive Intelligence Tools
When utilizing competitive intelligence tools, it is important to ensure that you are getting the most out of them. Here are some tips on using competitive intelligence tools for restaurants:
Narrowly research the competition – Focus your research on restaurants within a certain radius of your restaurant. For example, if you’re in Los Angeles, focus on restaurants in California or the Southwest region to get an idea of the competition.
Pay attention to menu trends – Discover key menu ingredients, offerings, and pricing points in the competition’s menus and adjust your own menu accordingly.
Evaluate tech advancements – Make sure to research all technology that the competition is utilizing. Look into inventory management, customer loyalty, and employee tracking technologies.
Look into customer preferences – Analyze customer reviews and feedback by leveraging competitive intelligence tools to better understand customer preferences and needs.
What Kinds of Competitive Intelligence Tools Exist?
There are a plethora of competitive intelligence tools available for restaurants to take advantage of. These tools range from software-as-a-service products to other companies providing data collection and analysis.
The most popular competitive intelligence tools for restaurants include:
Brizo – Brizo provides a board range of foodservice data to help restaurants understand and analyze the foodservice market. Brizo has in-depth menu data, restaurant tech coverage, sales prospecting tools, and marketing insights
Restaurant Insights – Restaurant Insights provides comprehensive market research and data on the restaurant industry. Restaurants can access sales and operational data, customer reviews and feedback, menu analytics, and customer segmentation.
Data Enrichment – Data Enrichment is a tool that assists restaurants in enhancing existing systems with more comprehensive market insights. With Data Enrichment, restaurants can make more informed decisions when it comes to production and expansion.
Find Kitchens – Find Kitchens is a tool that helps restaurants expand operations and streamline production innovation. Find Kitchens offers comprehensive data analytics and insights into the foodservice market.
The core message
Competitive intelligence tools can provide restaurants with invaluable data and insights into the foodservice market. With the right tools, restaurants can understand menu trends, pricing points, customer preferences, and more. However, it is important for restaurants to ensure that they are using the right tools and utilizing them properly in order to take full advantage of these innovative concepts and trends.
