Article

Commentary: Embracing cross-segment competition

Three tips on how to stand out as casual and fast casual characteristics blur.

August 28, 2011

By Jeff Ritson, president, The Bistro Group

The restaurant industry continues to evolve – and quickly. It is constantly adjusting to better serve the consumer, whose needs for quality, control and speed are at an all-time high. Today, fast casual and casual are closer than ever with caliber of menu options, commitment to value and hiring quality team members.

As the similarities between casual and fast casual dining are amplified and differences become blurred, it is critical to highlight both the strengths and similarities in each category. Casual and fast casual segments both must understand their likenesses and differences to each other in order to allow for the best operation and customer experience. Franchisees and restaurant operators can use the following three tips as guidelines to achieve stand out success:

Maintain Brand Identity

Identify your brand for what it is, quantifying it in either the fast casual or casual setting to ensure your customers receive the best experience available. However, as casual and fast casual operations collide, it is imperative that casual dining restaurants continue to stay the course, and maintain their brand image by providing the sit-down experience on which guests have come to depend. Casual dining establishments need to focus on their strengths: value and speed, but at a level that provides a customer with an experience, not only a meal. On the other hand, many fast casual brands build their existence on quickly delivering a quality product at a good value with fewer menu options and a lower price point. While many factors between both concepts – such as trends, menus and pricing – must be flexible to compete, brand identity must be identified and maintained.

Customize Customer Experience

If you are an individual who is in a hurry, yet still have the desire to partake in the "T.G.I. Friday's experience" it is the job of the restaurant to quickly assess the customers needs A) are you in a hurry, and B) get you in and out in the time frame you need, while still leaving with a positive experience. McAlister's Deli, a fast casual example, has the advantage of understanding most of their consumers will be in the mode of expecting quality of food and service in a timely manner.

A casual restaurant, such as T.G.I. Friday's, may not have that same advantage of automatically understanding their consumer as the segments continue to blur the lines. A casual restaurant, such as T.G.I. Friday's, may have the same person enter the restaurant with identical needs as a fast casual customer and the casual restaurant bartender or server must quickly make an assessment about that customer's needs, with timeliness as the most important one to identify.

Previously, each segment was clearly defined and a casual restaurant server or bartender didn't have to understand and assess that perhaps the same customer still may want the casual experience in more of a quick casual time frame. Therefore, in years past, the casual restaurants didn't make it a priority to help the customer get in and out. We understand as the segments merge it is important to read your customers. Some may be entering for a quick casual timeline with casual options. Each customer is different and must be identified as such.

Increase Innovation

Technology and product development play a huge role, trying again to meet the consumers' needs in terms of their ritual. Technology can improve the customer experience, but also be customized for the ultimate visit in either segment. This is especially true when working to meet the consumers' needs in terms of their dining feeling. Integrating new tools and equipment into daily operations in order to meet customer expectations – not to mention address the business' needs for efficiency – is a smart move to make now, rather than later.

Embracing advanced technology, using QR codes on in-store signage, using technology to reinvent payment of the bill or using an iPad at the table for real time ordering are all tangible technologies to give consumers the control they crave, while improving casual and fast casual dining experiences.

Identify, customize and innovate between casual and fast casual

The Bistro Group sits in a unique position within the restaurant world, having firsthand experience owning both fast casual and casual dining chains. Having the ability to watch, learn and apply in each segment provides for a great understanding of the similarities and differences within the two. Casual dining and fast casual are becoming inexplicably intertwined, however that is not something to be shunned but rather embraced.

Having competition is healthy and cross-segment competition creates a sharper model for the best customer experience available. No longer are there stark differences in caliber and quality of an hourly team member, commitment to value or quality of food. Rather the difference is exemplified in the experience at the restaurant. Casual dining operators can embrace this fact, using innovation and technology and maximize their consumer dining experience.

Fast casual operators can continue to bridge the gap in their number of menu offerings and pricing. Originally, fast casual variety was limited, and just a step above quick-service food. Now, fast casual has grown closer to casual dining menu items in an effort to address the consumer's need for quality ... what was previously reserved for casual and fine dining establishments only.

The restaurant industry will continue to evolve, but isn't that part of the challenge? We embrace change; understand how to maximize each category and most of all how to provide the very best consumer experience for whichever segment the customer has decided to dine in during their day.

Jeff Ritson is the president of The Bistro Group, a leading franchising company that owns and operates both casual and fast casual dining brands. The Bistro Group is the third largest privately held franchisee of T.G.I. Friday's restaurants in the country. With more than 31 T.G.I. Friday's and five McAlister's Delis across Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, The Bistro Group has successfully grown its family-owned business over the past 20 years.