Turkey with Stouffer's® Brocolli Au Gratin
Build Healthy Sales This Holiday Season
Hospitals and holidays make for a busy combination. But you've got two groups of customers who can benefit from special services at this time of year: employees, and visitors and families. That means the potential for additional holiday sales. Take a look at these ideas, plus tips on how you can make the season go more smoothly.
Home Is Where the Sales Are
Holidays have always been a time when people entertain more, and with the economy as it is and people staying home more—rather than traveling or going out to local restaurants—this year promises to represent even more of an opportunity for catering as well as takeout. That’s why it makes sense to leverage your resources to provide off-premise foodservice not only for staff and patients’ families, but also the local community if your administration allows it.
...this year promises to represent even more of an opportunity for catering as well as takeout.
In fact, catering has helped to offset sales slumps in noncommercial locations of all types, according to a recent article in FoodService Director, from cultural venues to hospital facilities. Furthermore, portable food items—including those eaten off-premise, accounted for 21% of total sales for healthcare operators, in both hospitals and long-term care, indicating a healthy potential appetite for catered and takeaway meals during the busy holiday season.
One way to build sales is to do employees and visitors the favor of addressing their needs during this extra-busy time of year. Visitors, in particular, could use a hand with the holidays—along with everything else, they have to support loved ones who are in the hospital. Let them consolidate their “to-do” list by offering meal components or gift baskets they can grab during the course of visiting a patient.
For Example: The Highlands of Wyomissing, a senior living facility in Wyomissing, PA, for instance, has boosted revenues by selling pies as well as takeout holiday feasts for not only residents but also their families and staff.
Many operators have gotten into hybrid catering/takeout programs in which customers can pick up larger-volume amounts of some or all of their holiday meals, from a turkey or ham to hors d'oeuvres, breads or rolls, side dishes, and desserts. You can even sell packaged food at discount, from liters of soda to entire trays of prepared foods, such as Stouffer's® Beef Stroganoff or Lean Cuisine® Glazed Chicken for a convenient dinner at home during the busy season
Ideas for Building Your Holiday Business
- Sell paper goods like tablecloths and disposable plates along with food, as either an at-cost convenience or with a profit-making markup
- If you have the resources, provide delivery of platters and other self-service items
- Set up a kiosk in the lobby to sell holiday specialty items—boxes of chocolates, baked goods, cards and wrapping paper, and other sales builders that staff and visitors can use during this busy season
- Offer fruit baskets, muffin trays, attractive boxes loaded with cookies, or housemade truffles . . . customers are always looking for gift ideas or items to take to a hostess
- Create a program where part of the proceeds from holidays sales go to a local charity, so customers can feel good about giving back
Embrace Time-Saving Measures
The holidays can be an especially busy time—if you’re lucky. Now is an excellent time to turn to high-quality prepared foods and speed-scratch methods to help you and your staff get through the crunch. This is especially true if you’re ramping up your services to include takeout, holiday parties or themed dinners.
The best speed-scratch items can be true signature starters: Simply add your own ingredients and presentation flourishes to create a unique offering.
Consider gravy, the workhorse of many holiday and cool-weather menus. Start with any Trio® gravy mix and take a creative approach:
- Substitute wine, cider, stock, spirits or another liquid for the water when preparing the mix
- Add fresh herbs or spices, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions or roasted garlic for more body and flavor
- Mix with another sauce, such as Stouffer’s® Marinara, to create a rich pasta sauce
A selection of gravies and sauces is particularly nice at a carving station on a buffet, in the servery or at catered events, offering patrons an opportunity to customize their meal.
Save Even More Time with These Tips
- Investigate using texting or email to help employees schedule and exchange shifts during this busy period
- Contract with a local restaurant to take over a station in your cafeteria or a mobile cart in your lobby for a set fee or a percentage of sales: Customers get variety; the restaurant gets additional exposure; and you get the dual benefit of one less station to worry about without completely giving up revenue
- Look to prepared foods like Stouffer’s® Lasagna with Meat & Sauce or Chef-Mate® Original Chili to make it easier to add variety to a menu during any busy time of year
- Use holiday-time special menus to product-test items for the rest of the cold-weather season; recipes that are big hits or are especially profitable or easy on the kitchen can become part of the regular menu, with all the glitches already worked out
- Urge employees to stay well and help them with every possible resource: stress busters, flu shots, safe work conditions, an opportunity to rotate shifts for time off. The last thing you need right now is a sick staff