5 Ways To Build Food Truck Staff And Customer Loyalty

Why do you own a food truck or why are you planning to start one? Is it merely to line your pockets and fill your bank account or do your employees and customers’ factor into the decision making process? Do your plans include staff and customer loyalty?

I think it’s safe to say that almost all of you are responding to that question one way. You understand that by doing well by staff members, customers and the communities you operate in brings value to all of those groups.

Unfortunately no matter how much you tell yourself that, what happens to your staff and customers when sales slow down?

If you want to be a successful mobile food business you have to continue to be loyal to your employees, customers and the community.

This is especially important to a food truck business since most of your employees have direct contact with your customers. They need to understand your menu and the mission of the business. They also build relationships with customers and are a big reason the customers keep coming back.

If you want to grow and thrive in the mobile food industry there are : long-term employee relationships, low overhead, bulk purchasing, low prices, no debt and treating employees and customers like family.

5 Ways To Build Food Truck Staff And Customer Loyalty:

Develop Long-term Relationships

No matter what position a staff member is hired for, you need to think about and share your vision for their future within your food truck business. Promoting from your existing staff builds trust and gives employees goals to shoot for.

These long-term employee relationships will also boost morale and productivity within the truck. This helps the business out by providing lower turnover and keeps overhead as low as possible. The lack of turnover will also cut down on the costs of training.

By the time someone reaches a leadership position they will have a thorough understanding of all of the systems and intricacies of your food truck business. This means that they can operate more efficiently.

Buy In Bulk

This one may sound odd at first, but much like successful restaurants, you need to take advantage of your food truck community/organization to negotiate volume discounts with local suppliers. This will also add to building a long-term relationship with suppliers to assure they will provide you with low prices.

Keep Prices Low

This one ties into the previous point. By getting volume discounts from suppliers, you will be able to keep your prices as low as possible while providing consistently high quality menu items. Not only will this keep customers coming back (and drawing new ones). But they’ll do so as long as they see the perceived value in the quality of the food you serve them.

Don’t Carry Debt

Food truck owners need to try and stay away from long term debt. This may not be the easiest point to follow through with. However, it will help you from having to make monthly debt payments. In turn it allows you room to earn a profit while still charging your low prices.

Make It A Family Affair

Treat each of your employees and customers as if they are a member of your family. Your employees extend loyalty to customers. If you take anything away from this article it should be that the best investment to make in your food truck business is to create and sustain the loyalty of employees and customers.

The Bottom Line

Earning staff and customer loyalty as a food truck owner can be difficult if you don;t know how to do it. Use these tips to build loyalty with both groups today.

If you have anything you think we missed on building staff and customer loyalty, please feel free to add it in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Facebook | Twitter