Today’s economic state is better than it was a year ago, but not as great as it was five years ago. Across the board, many industries, including restaurants, have taken a hit and suffered considerably because consumers don’t have as much disposable income as they once had.
Despite this, do you believe the art of fine dining is a dying trend?
Restaurant RX, a consultinig practice providing business-building solutions for the restaurant industry, set out to explore the attitudes of customers towards fine dining. In May 2010, they conducted a national online survey, “2010’s Changing Face of American Fine Diners”, which included responses from over 1,600 fine dining and upscale establishment customers, 35 years or older with household income or $100,000 or greater. And the findings are interesting.
It was determined that fine diners prefer one-of-a-kind dining establishments over their upscale chain counterparts by a wide margin of 81% versus 19%. This is good news for those cozy, upscale restaurants located in your neighborhood that aren’t part of a chain. Additionally, during the past six months 76% of fine diners have eaten at a local fine dining or upscale restaurant while 36% chose to eat at a national or local chain.
Another key finding, which also happens to be the most important element, is the quality of the food. In fact, 9.6 out of 10 fine diners rated this as such. Food quality is the overwhelming reason that 59% of fine diners surveyed deem a restaurant a “favorite”.
Even though this next fact is specific to fine dining, all restaurants should take note of this: 9 out of 10 fine diners stated that service is an important factor. This makes this the second most important attribute for diners. Included under the service umbrella is how diners are treated, and this factor ranked as the third most important with 8.9 out of 10 surveyed.
Other factors were involved in the survey, including (on a 10 point scale):
- Value for money (8.1 out of 10)
- Atmosphere (8.1 out of 10)
- Menu variety (7.8 out of 10)
- Restaurant’s reputation (7.7 out of 10)
In terms of complaints and negatives, inconsistency (as it relates to food quality and service) took the number one spot. Given today’s economy, it’s not surprising that there were some rumblings of complaint concerning the cost to value ratio at fine dining restaurants. Poor value for the money and high menu prices were tied for the second biggest complaint.
What does this all mean in the end to restaurants? Customer loyalty. Despite the effect of the economy, “loyalty to one’s favorite is still strong.” Think the fine dining restaurants of Fairfield County are paying attention?
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