Restaurant Guest Satisfaction Snapshot™ – December 2021
December 2021: A Challenging Month for Restaurants with Sales and Guest Satisfaction Declines
December was a disappointing month for restaurants, with sales growth of 4.1%, compared to 8.4% in November. It was the weakest month for the industry since the 2.7% reported in March 2021. The biggest downturn in sales growth occurred in the last two weeks of December. Restaurant traffic also declined, although it held up a little better than sales. Traffic growth in December was -8.4%, down from -4.6% the previous month.
A significant portion of this sales and traffic growth decline can be attributed to the end-of-year holidays falling during the weekend, which erased some potentially strong weekend sales at the end of 2021. The data also suggests other factors are at play behind the latest sales stumble, such as Omicron concerns or consumer pullback in response to historically high inflation rates and skyrocketing restaurant guest checks.
In addition to sales and traffic softening in December, restaurants also faced difficulties satisfying their guests. The number of guests who mentioned restaurants being “short-staffed” or “understaffed” increased in the second week of December and climbed to record-high levels by the end of the year.
The percentage of online restaurant reviews about ‘food’ classified as positive was essentially flat year over year. December 2021 was also the third-worst month of the year based on the percentage of positive ‘food’ mentions. The only months with a smaller percentage of positive ‘food’ mentions were January and February when the industry was still undergoing a slump due to the winter Covid wave.
Similarly, and not surprisingly given the record-high number of “understaffed” mentions, the percentage of ‘service-centered restaurant reviews classified as positive dropped 3.4% year over year in December. This month also had the lowest percentage of positive ‘service’ mentions through all of 2021.
Connecting the Dots on Performance
Analyzing the Distinctive Qualities of Top-Performing Restaurant Brands in Q4
Overall sales growth softened in Q4, but top-performing brands continued posting impressive results during the quarter. Limited-service restaurant companies classified in the top quartile based on sales performance achieved sales growth that was almost 14% better than the median growth for that segment of the industry. For top-quartile brands in full-service, sales growth was 11% better than the benchmark.
So, what sets these brands apart? What differentiated those top performers most about the experience they provided their guests during the quarter? What did their guests say most set those brands apart from the rest of their competitors? The answer varies by restaurant service style.
In limited-service, top-performing restaurants tended to have a higher ‘service’ net sentiment than the rest. Still, the difference in sentiment was only 1.3%. Net sentiment ‘service’ scores for top performers and the rest were low for both sets of companies, highlighting the service challenges all limited-service brands are going through.
For full-service restaurants, the story is quite different.
- Top-performing full-service restaurants were able to drive bigger net sentiment differentials across most attributes of the restaurant experience compared to the rest of the full-service. The only exception was ‘value’ sentiment, which was much closer between top performers and the rest.
- The attributes that the top performers most excelled in were ‘food’ and ‘beverage’. Top quartile full-service companies had 16% better food sentiment and 14% better beverage sentiment than the median company in Q4.
Notwithstanding the many challenges facing the industry, these top-performing restaurants were able to deliver a markedly superior ‘food’, ‘beverage’, ‘service’, and ‘ambiance’ experience to their guests.
Top DMAs
- Food- Orlando, FL
- Service- New York, NY
- Intent to Return- Philadelphia, PA
- Beverage- Orlando, FL
- Ambiance- Orlando, FL
- Value- New York, NY
Bottom DMAs
- Food- San Francisco, CA
- Service- San Francisco, CA
- Intent to Return- Minneapolis, MN
- Beverage- Raleigh, NC
- Ambiance- Charlotte, NC
- Value- Raleigh, NC
Regional & Market Performance: East Coast Sees Strongest Sentiment Performance
The markets with the highest restaurant guest sentiment during December were Orlando, New York, and Philadelphia. Out of the 25 largest markets in the country, the DMA with the highest restaurant net sentiment based on ‘food’, ‘beverage’, and ‘ambiance’ was Orlando. The market with the highest ‘service’ and ‘value’ net sentiment was New York; while Philadelphia topped the list for restaurant intent to return.
San Francisco has been facing some challenges in recent months, and the trend continued in December. This market has the lowest net sentiment during the month based on restaurant ‘food’ and ‘service’. Raleigh also tends to have lower restaurant sentiment and was the market with the lowest beverage and value sentiment.
Looking Ahead
Our hypothesis at the end of 2021 was that guests would hold on to their restaurant spending throughout the holiday season and unleash that pent-up demand for those celebrations they had to skip a year ago due to the pandemic. However, we believed that once the holidays were behind us, the underlying conditions would catch up with consumers and we would likely see a slowdown in restaurant spending.
The rapidly rising prices throughout the economy and specifically, the historically high menu price increases have both eaten into the purchasing power of consumers and some cutback in restaurant spending is to be expected as a result. Additionally, Covid is still a concern, especially in January as Omicron-fueled cases are expected to peak. The expectation is for a softening in restaurant sales during January and probably in the months ahead as well.