When you offer food truck customer choices, you create memorable experiences that increase the value of your mobile food business brand. Offering the wrong choices can keep customers away from your service window. So, the challenge is determining which are the right choices for your customers.
It turns out the best customer choices you can offer are those that allow them to personalize their experience with your business in a small way.
Customer Choices: Why Up-selling May Be The Wrong Direction
Food service providers have historically used choice to bundle their menu products. This is known as up-selling. The value in this approach is a better price for the consumer, and thus is why up-selling discount packages isn’t the best choice. By creating meal packages conditions your customers to be price sensitive.
Offering incentives for meal packages can actually devalue your food truck menu if there is no logical reason for it. Most consumers recognize meal deals as an approach that favors the business. The classic example is the super-sized combo meal.
Bundling conditions your customers to focus on the lowest common denominator – price. Will that get your customers talking up their experience with your food truck? Don’t count on it.
Small Customer Choices Allow Them To Personalize Their Experience
At most food trucks, you choose your meal from selected offerings. As an example, let’s look at trucks that sell burgers. For most of them, the choices are usually two: regular and large. With or without cheese.
This model provides customers with a simple first choice. Then the fun begins. You get to personalize your order by choosing from extra toppings that are all FREE. This ranges from lettuce and tomato to fresh jalapenos and various sauces. Now don’t worry about the customer that piles on all of the items…those costs become minimal.
The net result is that the customer appreciates the added value and feels great about getting just what they wanted. The truck is now on its way to building personal relationships with their customers. When you have consumers make easy customer choices you engage them in a collaboration – one that is interactive, inherently personal – and therefore, memorable.
Contrast that with the how fast food restaurants operate. If a customer asks nicely, they allow the order to be customized; mostly by deleting ingredients you don’t like. Isn’t it better to offer positive customer choices that add value than permitting choices that devalue your menu items? Should a customer pay the same when it gets less? The key is making it their choice – then its ok.
The Bottom Line
So what is the burger and bun on your food truck menu? Once you have that figured out, now just add the right customer choices to customize their order; little ones that add big value for your customer.
RELATED: 4 Ways To Differentiate Your Food Truck Business
Do you offer customer choices on your food truck? If you’d like to share your thoughts on this topic, you can share them in the comment section below or on social media. Facebook | Twitter
