Externalizing Your Food Truck's Focus

Externalizing Your Food Truck’s Focus

Mobile food businesses that are too inwardly focused often miss important happenings and opportunities in the market. Use these three ways to get your food truck to look outward for customer insights, competitor moves, and market changes:

Listen to customer-facing employees. Your service staff are your ear to the pavement. Value them, ask them what they hear from customers, and if necessary, train them to listen for the right information.
Get people out front. Ask your manager(s) to work in the service window. People calling the shots should meet customers face to face.
Share data, good and bad. Some food truck owners protect their employees from troublesome market or customer data. While well-intentioned, this hinders your staff’s responsiveness. If there is bad news, deliver it with a well-articulated action plan.

By Richard Myrick|2016-08-04T09:39:33-04:00Jul 24, 2013|Growth|

About the Author: Richard Myrick

Richard Myrick is an architect by degree (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan) who began his career in real estate development and architectural planning. In September of 2010 he created Mobile Cuisine Magazine to fill an information void he found when he began researching how to start a mobile hotdog cart in Chicago. Richard found that there was no central repository of mobile street food information anywhere on the internet, and with that, the idea for MCM was born. Richard also wrote the "Running a Food Truck for Dummies" available in bookstores everywhere and Amazon. You can reach out to Richard by email at: [email protected].