Let’s hear it for the mums - top tips for Mother’s Day
Being one of the top earmarked days for foodservice professionals, we decided to offer our own top tips on surviving this busy time, and making sure your catering business makes the most of this celebratory mood:
Spoil the mothers
Make sure that what you’re offering to diners is really something special to help you stand out from the crowd. Whether it’s offering the mum something for free, providing live music while you dine, or give mum a special gift to take home, there’s lots of creative ways you can add value to the Mother’s Day experience. Offering discount vouchers to entice the party to come back and indulge in more family time is a great way of encouraging repeat business. Whatever it is, your customers will appreciate that you care enough about the special date that you’re willing to put a little extra in. Make sure these extras are advertised well to generate excitement about any special promotions.
Get ahead by bulk preparing
As a special day in the caterer’s calendar, it’s highly likely you’ll be offering a reduced or set menu in order to serve your customers more efficiently. With a Williams Blast Chiller you can get the lion’s share of the work done in advance, with no compromise to flavour, texture or appearance of your dishes. By using a Cook-Chill system you can prepare meals ahead of time, blast chill or freeze them, then regenerate them on the day. Exact portioning is a doddle with Cook-Chill, ensuring consistency across your entire service. You’ll be surprised at the wide variety of dishes that you can blast chill in this way, from desserts to joints of meat, and even delicate fried foods. Find more blast chilling tips in our guide to Cook-Chill.
Protect your business
No-shows and last minute cancellations can be damaging to restaurants at any time of the year, but even more so at peak times when you know you could have easily filled that empty table. Consider asking for a small deposit contribution when tables are reserved, and make sure you confirm all bookings a couple of days before to give you a buffer.
Don’t forget about drinks
Extending the Mother’s Day cheerfulness to your bar is another way of helping mum feel as if she’s being treated to something tailored to her. By laying on an extra special drinks menu, you can encourage extra spend and really take advantage of the celebratory atmosphere. Making sure that the ingredients you need for themed cocktails or flavoured coffees are at peak freshness are all organised ahead of time is a great win. Back Bar prep equipment such as the TW4 Thermowell - a refrigerated countertop unit designed to keep ingredients perfectly chilled, means everything is kept in top condition ready to adorn your homemade creations. Remember to include the non-drinkers and the children too with a range of tried and tested mocktails. Happy children = happy mums.
Consider extending your opening hours
As we know, dining out for breakfast and taking lunch at home is an increasingly popular choice for those who enjoy eating out. If it’s a viable option for you, why not offer a Mother’s day breakfast or brunch menu? This is often a more suitable option for those with lots of family visits on the agenda for the day, or those with young children. You could even push the boat out and offer breakfast diners a family takeaway lunch package to leave with, containing everything they need for a relaxed lunch to heat up at home.
Here’s to a fruitful and prosperous Mother’s Day!