How’s that menu looking?
Are you putting a lot of time, effort and thought into your menu, or are you just winging it? At first, because you are just breaking into the industry, winging it might be your best option. Over time, you need to start incorporating strategies. If you don’t, then how do you expect to thrive and grow, food truck entrepreneurs?
While marketing, social media and customer service are so important in the food truck industry, so is changing up your menu strategies. Do you have the same menu year-round, or do you change it up as the seasons change? If you go with the same menu year-round, hopefully it is as unique — yet simple — as In-N-Out’s menu. If not, then you could be in trouble.
Why Food Truck Entrepreneurs Need To Change Up Menu Strategies
- You Have To Find Ways To Attract Customers During The Offseason
- Food Trends Need To Be Taken Into Account
- You Never Know What’s Going To Work Until You Try It
- Being A Chef Is An Art, And You Have Every Right To Be Creative
- Your Customers Will Appreciate You Changing Things Up
You Have To Find Ways To Attract Customers During The Offseason
As food truck entrepreneurs already know, the offseason can be a rough time filled with stress, pain and up-and-down business. That’s why changing up the menu is so important — because it helps to attract customers.
For example, look at Carl’s Jr. They come up with new burgers all the time, and then market them like crazy. This, of course, likely leads to customers coming in just because of that burger. That’s a very unique and smart strategy, and food truck business owners should use that same strategy during the offseason.
For example, when Thanksgiving is just around the corner, create a festive meal and then market it like no other on your social media accounts. The main thing here is the fact that changing up the menu can help to attract customers. Everyone likes to try new foods, after all.
Food Trends Need To Be Taken Into Account
Why should mobile kitchen entrepreneurs change up their menus? Well, because food trends need to be taken into account. Right now, the pumpkin spice trend is taking over the food scene. This trend is massive, and everyone seems to be jumping on board. Why not? It’s great for business and, once again, helps to attract customers.
So many industries take trends into account. For example, sports websites will try to drive traffic by taking many different angles on one news topic. Take Deflategate for example: ESPN did story after story on that topic, and other sites followed along.
While you don’t want to go overboard, it’s completely okay to join the trends. Other food trucks are certainly doing it.
You Never Know What’s Going To Work Until You Try It
When it comes to your menu strategies, you never know what’s going to work. Therefore, you might as well try everything out. Make sure you are keeping track of what works along the way (this is your data). Then analyze this data and incorporate it into your menu.
Going back to the pumpkin spice trend, did anyone really think this flavor would be the king of fall when it first became a thing? If you did think it was going to become the flavor of fall, then hopefully you jumped on it early and often.
Nonetheless, you never know what’s going to work until you try it, and that 100 percent relates to your menu.
Being A Chef Is An Art, And You Have Every Right To Be Creative
The act of being a chef is an art. As a result, you have every right to be creative with your menu and each individual recipe/meal.
If you want to make a dish look fancy, then by all means do so. Be creative with not only your menu, but the strategies that go behind it as well.
Your Customers Will Appreciate You Changing Things Up
Last but not least, your customers will appreciate you changing things up.
People venture to your food truck for many different reasons. For example, they want great food, they don’t want to cook and they don’t feel like waiting at a sit-down restaurant. Mobile kitchen trucks are convenient, and changing up your menu will not only make your customers happy, but it will be an added bonus as well.
Now, you don’t want to change up every single meal — unless that’s your strategy and it has been working like a charm — because it would be silly to get rid of a crowd-pleaser.
You eat at other restaurants all the time (or you have at least eaten at one before), so you have been on the customer side. What excites customers? How about going to a food place and seeing a new meal, a new special. People talk about new menu items all of the time, because people love food.
In the grand scheme of things, you want your customers to enjoy your food so much that they will actually come back for more (who knows, maybe they will even recommend your truck to others), and changing up your menu strategies is one of the many ways to achieve that feat.
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About the Author
Jeremy Adams is the President/CEO of Prestige Food Trucks, which is the world's leading custom food truck manufacturer. In his current role as President/CEO, Jeremy manages dozens of employees, interacts with clients, and maintains a healthy relationship with all of his business partners. Since Prestige, Jeremy has launched many other successful companies.