Lately, in our small community, it’s been hard for our restaurants to be successful, and in some cases, they have struggled to even keep their doors open. In early October, our Data Team posed the question: “What's the best way to get the community's feedback to our current and potential restaurant owners?” With this in mind, we created a survey that asked people what they look for in a restaurant, and made a video that would promote our survey on social media.
We ended up getting 259 responses coming from not just Osborne County, but 18 different U.S. states as well! Based on the knowledge I have gained from my data analytics course, I know that 259 responses isn’t necessarily very much data. “Big Data” needs to have at least 1,000 entries or rows of data, which gives a greater variety for analysts. For my team, we didn’t focus as much on the number of results, but more the areas that our survey was able to reach considering the size of my class, school, and community itself.
Once I received the survey data, it was time to turn the information into something usable. When creating my vision, I chose to focus on who people typically go out to eat with and what the common aspects are that people look for when choosing a restaurant.
I started my dashboard by showing a bubble graph that depicted with whom people typically dine. My next graph represented the population of individuals who took our survey. Then, I created two filters both focused on the population similar to Osborne, but varying by the top two choices of with whom people typically dine. Based on those sets, I designed treemaps that represent the three most popular aspects those categories look for in choosing a restaurant.
Based on the dashboard I made through Tableau, I found that people typically dine with their family or spouse. Once I created my filters based on that and Osborne’s population. I discovered that regardless of who they dined with, the top three aspects people looked for when choosing a restaurant were cleanliness, hospitality of staff, and wait time.
With that information in mind, my suggestion would be to create a restaurant that is family friendly, but also connects with couples. The menu could have a variety of options from the kids menu to the regular menu with 2-for-1 deals, specials, and/or appetizers that focus on date nights. The seating would have to be strategic as well including high chairs, booster seats, and a plethora of table sizes to choose from.
To be sure and adhere to the aspects that these two groups look for most in a restaurant, one could try some of the following…
Parents, especially new ones, tend to be a little more cautious when it comes to their children in public places. For the most part, I would say that adults are a little more broad with just wanting the restaurant to be visibly clean. I would also suggest making it widely apparent that surfaces are being wiped down, including chairs, tables, and counters, as well having staff and restrooms consistently clean.
When talking about hospitality of staff, I would recommend stressing the simple things with employees; greeting customers at the door, being kind and personable, staying off their phones, and making sure customers’ needs are met.
Wait time may be difficult to control based on time of day, popularity of the restaurant, and number of customers. Proper staffing that accommodates the amount of customers present at the restaurant may help avoid long wait times, but waiting can be inevitable. With the help of simple distractions such as music, games, or even TVs the customers could possibly pass time easier while waiting for their table to be ready or their food to be prepared.