The restaurant industry is finally starting to return to normal after a long period of disruption, and business owners are looking to make up for lost time. If you are the owner and operator of your very own eatery, chances are that you’re looking for ways to spruce your enterprise up.
One way to do so is to add some new furniture, although we’d suggest that you branch out from the traditional table and chair route.
Most restaurants these days have a spacious set up, and tables and chairs can be highly useful in those kinds of places. However, restaurant booths can also be a viable option.
There are several benefits associated with using them, all of which come together to make them the kind of choice that can take your business to the next level.
Firstly, it’s important to take consumer preference into account. Catering to the needs of consumers can make or break a business, and you’d be surprised at how many restaurants fail in that regard.
It’s not just your menu options that need to be optimized either. You also need to make sure that your furniture is in line with what customers have come to expect as well.
Studies have shown that customers have a strong preference for booth style seating. For one thing, booth seating has an air of nostalgia associated with it. Going out for a meal is about a lot more than just eating some tasty food.
The general vibe of your restaurant will also play a tremendous role. Evoking nostalgia can make the dining experience downright addictive for your patrons, and we can’t think of a better type of furniture that suits that purpose than booths!
There’s also a lot that you can gain from a privacy standpoint. While there’s nothing wrong with having an open set up, some customers want to eat their meals away from prying eyes. This is yet another area where booths can come in handy.
They have high walls on opposing sides that can give customers the privacy they desire, but they also tend to leave open space that can facilitate easy meal delivery for your servers.
It’s also important to recognize just how comfortable booths can be in restaurants. Unlike chairs, booths are usually designed to be plush. Customers can rest their backs against them and get some phenomenal lumbar support.
That can be particularly useful if you’re catering to the working crowd. Busy professionals who step in for a lunch meeting in the middle of the work day will be really grateful if they have the option of selecting booth seating. The comfort levels are just so much better with them that you’d have a hard time justifying going for anything else.
Now, satisfying your customers is all well and good, but what about your staff? They are the people that will be directly contributing to the success of your franchise, so you should never compromise on the ease with which they can get things done.
The great thing about booths is that they can open up a lot of space in the middle. That will allow your servers to pass freely instead of having to side step countless tables along the way. Even if you put a lot of effort into organizing your furniture, the nature of tables makes it so that they can get out of sync rather quickly.
That will make serving a veritable nightmare for your wait staff. Customers will gradually adjust the chairs according to their needs, and the tables will likely end up moving as well. Such movements can be hard to predict, but you won’t really have to worry about all of that if you opt for booths instead.
The level of roominess that you can attain by using booths instead of tables and chairs is also quite pertinent for smaller establishments. Indeed, we would go so far as to say that they are the only viable choice for eateries that are on the smaller end of the spectrum!
Real estate is one of the biggest expenses that you’d need to deal with. It can eat into your profits in a way that few other things can, so you might be forced to compromise on space in the interests of financial viability.
This would no longer be a concern if you have the foresight to add some booths into the mix. They can maximize space so much that even the most cramped quarters will start to seem relatively expansive.
Not only will this further enhance the ability of your servers to quickly cater to each individual customer, it will also give your patrons some breathing room. No one likes to eat with someone breathing down their neck, so you can clearly see how booths can be useful in that particular context.
All in all, it’s quite obvious that the pros of using booths in your eatery far outweigh the cons. Customers and wait staff will be pleased in equal measure, and you might also notice that your work day won’t be nearly as hectic once you switch over to booths!
One thing that you need to make sure of beforehand is whether or not these booths will fit in with the rest of your aesthetics. Practical advantages aside, it is utterly critical to adopt a holistic approach that will incorporate the furniture into the overall look and feel of your dining establishment.
Modern booths can be a quick fix, since they are designed with modern interior décor requirements in mind. Traditional booths can also work nicely, however, especially if your restaurant is trying to impart a rustic feel that will help customers feel like they are right at home.
