Why your restaurant should consider offering Amuse Bouche

In a world that expects so much and expects it now, it can be difficult to truly please your customers. Yes great food and great service will help in achieving that end but what if you want to really stand out? Is there anything else can you do? You should consider adding Amuse Bouche to your offering, even if it's just once or twice a month.

To start, what is this "Amuse Bouche" I speak of? Amuse Bouche is French for "Mouth Amuser" and is, by design, the chef's choice of a small bite-sized sample that is given free of charge to entice, excite, and delight your customers. An Amuse Bouche is often a window into the chef’s vision of what their food is.

So why is this right for your restaurant?

When is the last time you received something for free at a restaurant? Was it by chance right after they made a mistake? Maybe they brought out the wrong item, made you wait forever, forgot something you ordered, or maybe they cooked your food incorrectly. Each occurrence was a disappointment followed by a fix which in reality may or may not have actually fixed anything. Now what if you gave your customer’s something for free without it being the solution to a mistake? Well that would be pretty great wouldn't it! When a customer is given something without expectation or of monetary cost to them, more often than not they're so thrilled with the gift it prompts evangelism – making this the first reason you should consider Amuse Bouche.

Try something new

In most restaurants it's not every day that the chef gets to change the menu except when you offer OR limited time offers Amuse Bouche. This is a great opportunity for your chef to showcase future dishes, try something new, expand their creativity and maybe even have some fun! It could even offer your kitchen staff the chance to expand their skills by having one of them offer an amuse bouche of their choosing. Perhaps you even use it as a team building exercise or motivation contest to increase the innovation and drive in the kitchen.

A way to use up small portions

It's not a secret that there's waste that exists in the kitchen of a restaurant. Another reason you could consider utilizing Amuse Bouche offerings in your restaurant is as a way to minimize your food waste. What if you only have a handful of protein, starch and vegetables left over from a limited time offer you've been serving? Your chef can utilize these leftovers to create amuse bouche offerings thus minimizing the food waste.

But why use Amuse Bouche as a way to delight your customers? The White House Office of Consumer Affairs found that it costs businesses of all industries 6-7x more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Despite this fact, only 7% of consumers say that their service experiences with a company exceeded their expectations. Think about that...if you could find an inexpensive way to not only retain but also delight and excite your customers to the point that they generate positive word of mouth for you, why wouldn't you offer Amuse Bouche?