Catering is one of the industries most influenced by current events. So it’s only natural that, in the wake of the global health crisis, new trends have emerged.
Last February, NPD Group published its 2021 report on the out-of-home catering sector. A special year in 2021 with the health crisis and 5 months of plant closures. Despite this, the year ended with encouraging growth (+6% in visits and +5% in spending). NPD Group even predicts a recovery to the same level as 2019 in 2023.
To keep abreast of consumer expectations and adapt your offering, discover the 14 restaurant trends of 2022 that we’ve compiled for you.
3 -???? More customer-focused catering to build loyalty
Today, customer satisfaction is a key concern for restaurateurs. A happy customer is a customer who will come back and talk about the restaurant. To build customer loyalty and promote their business, restaurateurs have every interest in taking good care of their customers.
To achieve this, the customer experience must be unique and entirely personalized. Numerous actions can then be implemented, such as accompanying a delivered meal with a personalized note, proposing targeted promotions or loyalty offers, sending a personalized e-mail, setting up a subscription system…
Of course, it’s also a question of greeting customers with professionalism and care. The open kitchen concept is one of the most popular customer experiences, emphasizing the bond and trust between the kitchen team and the guests, as well as transparency.
2 -???? Developing an online community
Developing and animating an online community is an integral part of building customer loyalty and enhancing the customer experience. Today’s consumers like to be close to their favorite restaurants. Social networks are a powerful tool for establishing a climate of trust, communicating in real time about the establishment’s offers and events, and building customer loyalty.
When you consider that 69% of millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) say they share a photo of their plate on social networks when they go out to eat, you understand the importance of having a presence on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and even TikTok. Word of mouth is now spreading online!
It’s also an opportunity to talk to customers, to be present, and to answer any questions they may have before or after the experience, whether in the dining room or on delivery.
3 -???????? Dark kitchens and their online-only offer
The dark kitchen, which can also be called a “cloud kitchen”, “ghost kitchen” or “virtual restaurant”, has been on a roll in recent years. This “ghost kitchen” concept consists in offering a catering service that can only be delivered or taken away. Here, there’s no dining room, no waiter, not even a table. The cooks take orders online, in a kitchen that doesn’t welcome customers and doesn’t have a storefront.
This concept perfectly meets customers’ need for immediacy and variety, which is why they are increasingly turning to meal delivery. It’s also advantageous for restaurateurs, whose investment in equipment is much lower than for a traditional business, with goodwill and room fittings.
Even though many operators and restaurants are now launching virtual brands, the adventure is not that simple. It’s a project that needs to be built up and matured, because it’s not so easy to stand out and make yourself known to your customers without physical premises that attract customers.
4 – ???? More deliveries and takeaways
The health crisis has had a major impact on consumption patterns, and takeaway sales and home delivery are experiencing unprecedented growth in the foodservice sector. Off-premise consumption thus represents 81% of the total market, compared with 63% 3 years ago. In addition, classic restaurants have doubled their off-premise sales between 2019 and 2021.
Consumption, which was forced to develop by the health crisis, is now becoming a real trend that restaurateurs need to capitalize on!
So it’s interesting, almost essential, for a restaurateur to combine on-premise consumption with off-premise consumption (click & collect and delivery). There are a number of options: to be present on delivery platforms that cut into margins, to use a marketplace such as dood.com, or to launch its own solution in its own image and in direct contact with its customers.
5 – ???? The QR code menu
The QR code has been around for many years, but it was democratized under the pressure of the covid-19 health crisis. In restaurants, this system has proved particularly useful for complying with hygiene regulations, and is now becoming an efficient, cost-effective tool for managing menus and promoting offers and new products. It allows customers to access the digital menu simply by scanning the QR code displayed on the tables. They are then redirected to a PDF file, the interactive menu or the restaurant’s website.
The advantage of the QR code menu is that it not only fits in perfectly with the trendy digital experience, but also saves time and facilitates service in the dining room.
6 – ???? Payment and ordering at the table to redefine the customer journey
Following on from the digital QR code menu, order-taking and payment at the table are part of a drive to digitalize the customer experience. If, until recently, the aim was above all to limit contact and apply barrier gestures, today it’s a solution that combines operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Consumers can order their meals and pay the bill from their smartphone, making the whole experience more fluid.
From the restaurateur’s point of view, it’s an interesting solution to help make up for the shortage of manpower, but it also increases the average basket, and offers more substantial tips to waiters. Indeed, the dematerialization of tipping appeals to 71% of French people, while 35% of them say they never leave a tip for lack of cash.
7 – ???? Using data to adapt your offer
Online presence and online services enable restaurateurs to collect a wealth of useful customer data. This information can then be used to adjust the offer and propose additional services, such as cover-free ordering.
Data can also be used to analyze customer behavior, providing a precise overview of a number of criteria that will indicate areas for improvement: the best-selling products, and those that should be removed from the menu, for example, or whether there is a seasonal pattern in customer consumption.
This customer database can then be built up from information gathered at the table, but above all on social networks, online ordering applications, or even websites (comments and reviews).
8 – ???? More sensory experiences
Consumers love unique experiences that offer a new approach to dining. Trends in 2022 therefore focus on sensoriality, to awaken all our customers’ senses. The immersive restaurant is a highly fashionable concept. It consists in offering a unique sensory experience, in an unexpected and exceptional setting.
Many restaurants offer unusual meals, such as a tasting in the dark or by candlelight, on a bus through the streets of the city, with strangers, surrounded by animals, or in a themed setting. One of the pioneers in this field was French chef Paul Pairet and his Ultraviolet establishment, created in 2002 in Shanghai and the only one of its kind in the world. And most recently, the Under the Sea restaurant in Paris.
The ideas are numerous, and all aim to offer an original, multi-sensory meal.
On a smaller scale, but just as fascinating, some restaurateurs are putting augmented reality to work in their establishments. Customers can then preview the different dishes before ordering.
9 – ???? A range adapted to trendy diets
In France, no fewer than 1.7 million people follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. Then there are the flexitarians, and the gluten-free and lactose-free diets, which are adopted out of conviction or for health reasons.
Faced with this explosion in diets and food allergies, it’s important to be able to vary menus to broaden the customer base and meet needs.
The restaurateur can then choose to offer only vegetarian, gluten-free or organic menus. He can also offer variations on his dishes. Consumers can then order or reserve a table together, ensuring that each guest finds something to his or her liking on the menu.
On a broader level, the French are paying more and more attention to what they eat, and healthy eating is an important part of new consumer habits. One example is the success of poke bowls.
10 – ???? Alcohol-free drinks
In the same spirit as healthy food, non-alcoholic beverages respond to a real need to take care of one’s body and health. Mocktails have thus seen the light of day, or at least have come back into fashion. These alcohol-free cocktails enable consumers to enjoy a fun evening, a festive aperitif, or an afterwork party, and enjoy a delicious cocktail without necessarily consuming alcohol.
This trend towards moderation must be taken into account by restaurateurs, who must include soft drinks on their menus to meet these new expectations.
11 – ???? Choose fast casual over fast food
Until recently, people liked to eat quickly, often to the detriment of the quality of products and dishes. Today, junk food is no longer the order of the day, as customers want to eat good food, even on the move. The new fast casual concept was born, offering fast food made with healthy, homemade ingredients in a warm, friendly setting. The same principle is applied to food trucks, which are now enjoying undeniable success.
This business model is based on quality products, while offering fast food, on the spot or takeaway, at prices somewhere between classic catering and fast food.
12 – ???? More sustainable catering
Consumers are increasingly concerned not only about their health, but also about the environment. A restaurant’s commitment to sustainability can therefore be a major asset in attracting a responsible and committed clientele. Concepts are then available to increase a restaurant’s environmental commitment, such as sorting and recycling waste, using products from short circuits, using recyclable or recycled packaging, or even edible packaging, or limiting packaging for take-away sales with the option of choosing cutlery when ordering.
The fight against food waste is also one of the most attractive commitments. It can be applied by offering unsold food on an anti-gaspi app at the end of service, or by generalizing the use of the doggy bag, which has been mandatory in catering since July 2021.
13 – ???? More diverse catering
While the foodservice industry is diversifying greatly, offering a variety of cuisines and unique sensory adventures, it is also possible to broaden its offering by proposing innovative concepts that are still underdeveloped. The meal kit concept, which encourages customers to cook the products sold by the restaurant themselves at home in the form of a DIY kit, has been a great success. But diversification of the offer can also come from opening hours, with, for example, a special menu for breakfast, for afterwork, or even for afternoon tea. The idea is to broaden the offer, while at the same time widening the scope of application for restaurateurs.
14 – ⚡ The power of Generation Z
Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, is now of consumer age, and is gradually transforming the way we approach the restaurant business. We discover young people who are not only into new technologies and social networks, but also concerned about their health and the environment. Generation Z wants to consume quickly, but well!
It’s clear, then, that all the 2022 restaurant trends mentioned so far are in line with the expectations of this demanding clientele. By keeping abreast of the latest trends, you’ll be sure to reach this new, highly promising target, fond of unstructured breaks and takeaways, and not so keen on traditional table-top consumption.
From payment at the table to click & collect, via web referencing and e-reputation, DOOD accompanies and guides restaurateurs to develop their catering offer in line with new trends.