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By Peter Wolf,

For Restaurants, The Only Certainty is Uncertainty -

(This white paper by ParTech explores the present challenging climate for the restaurant business and discusses the shifting consumer service model. The link to the full paper is below.)

  Entering 2010, the appearance of improvement in the global economy has lifted the spirits of most restaurant operators who want nothing more than to move beyond the challenging business climate and defensive strategies of the last 18 months.

After two of the most difficult years on record, the National Restaurant Association’s forecast for 2.5% sales growth in 2010 should be seen as welcome news. However, operators have become acutely aware that the competitive chase for not only growing, but even maintaining market share will require more marketing agility and execution efficiency than ever needed before.

Why?
     The mix of declining (post-meltdown) consumer confidence, new food and eating preferences, and explosive growth surrounding Internet-oriented social media is creating seismic shifts in demand and frequency patterns – shifts that effects all restaurant formats, geographies, and business sizes.

Simply put, it will be the operators who rapidly adjust to these detected changes that will not only survive – but thrive.

Eating Out is Changing – Quickly

      To those most famous two “guarantees in life”, death and taxes, we venture to add a third – the ever-evolving restaurant dining experience. Global chains and single site operators across all formats are regularly fine tuning their image and front-of-house offering to attract and retain the dining public – all with an obvious eye toward increasing sales and profitability.
So it’s 2010. What is different now?
At the heart of today’s eating-out experience is the sheer expansion of influencing decisions operators must understand that can quite simply make or break the dining experience in the eyes of today’s consumer - . Some of these new impact factors are readily visible, others not as much. They include:
• Shifting formats to meet shifting demand. Current growth rates for quick service formats are expected to outpace fast casual and table service as consumers continue to seek value as a core demand driver. However, the dividing lines between these traditional formats are expected to blur as new menu, ordering, and service capabilities help broaden the dining appeal.
• Demand-driven menu management. Consumers will direct more of their spend toward restaurants that not only focus on delivering a wider variety of healthy, safe, and socially conscious menu choices, but also to those that provide new levels of order methods, personalization and efficiency.

(continued...)

Click HERE to see the entire document.

Authors bio:

Peter Wolf

ParTech (www.partech.com)

 Peter Wolf serves as vice president of marketing and business development for ParTech, a company transforming the hospitality technology sector as a leading provider of software, hardware and service solutions to restaurants, hotels, spas and retail industries.

 Wolf, an 18-year veteran of the business technology industry, is responsible for driving the company’s overall marketing strategy, including its “Boundless Hospitality by PAR” initiative designed to on enhance restaurant technology to help operators solve key new industry challenges and support sweeping changes in consumer behavior. He also directs the company’s business planning strategy, identifying new markets to expand Partech’s portfolio of products and services.

 Previously, Wolf held executive management positions at multiple Fujitsu business units. Prior to ParTech, Wolf was Vice President, Marketing for the IT Services Group at Fujitsu America, Inc. Before Fujitsu America, Inc., Wolf was Vice President, Self Ordering & Univations Operations at Fujitsu and served as Vice President, Self Service Strategy at Fujitsu Transaction Solutions, Inc.

 Wolf is a graduate of Manhattan College and earned a master’s of business administration degree at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Newark.