Alright so you’ve got you menu fine tuned and have just landed your first few gigs. Besides just showing up to cook for your first customers, what else can you do to improve the experience for not only them but also the establishment that is allowing you to cook food for their guests? Let’s take a look at some best practices for food truck etiquette to make sure everyone enjoys the experience you provide as much as the food you are dishing up!
Whenever I hit up my local brewery, it’s always great if I can see the menu for whatever food truck is there that afternoon without having to getup from the bar! Print out some paper menus or business cards with a QR code to your menu and place them on each table and scatter them around the bar if the establishment will let you. The easier you make it for potential customers to see what you’re cooking up and how much it costs, the better. Heck, if you have online ordering setup, give them the ability to order from the table without having to go outside and stand in line! Especially when it starts getting cold out in the winter months, you gotta make it super convenient for them to order and stay comfortable.
This one is big for your customers and the establishment hosting you. If you have extra help or have a few minutes between orders, head on into the brewery and clean up any of the mess you brought into the place! This gives you the opportunity to ask them if they enjoyed your food and shows that you are willing to clean up their mess! This also takes some of the burden off of the establishment you are at because you have taken that responsibility off of them. Its a win-win all around and will certainly increase your chance of being asked to come back!
To show your thanks and appreciation for allowing you to come cook for their guests, offer the hosts and staff a free meal or trade if you cannot afford free meals for that many people. This shows that you are grateful for the opportunity and appreciate the fact that they’ve given you a chance. This can be big when your cuisine maybe more unique or something that many people haven’t had before. You have a great opportunity here to win new customers by offering them a no obligation meal to try something new and if they like it, they will definitely brag about your food to their friends!
Always call or send an email to your hosts within 24-48 hours of the event to check in and see how they thought things went. This allows you to get some(hopefully) honest feedback from the host that you can use to improve your etiquette moving forward and gives you a chance to tell them how much you enjoyed their customers and would like to come back. Likewise, you also get the opportunity to give your hosts some honest feedback if the experience was less than ideal for you.
Finally, if you’ve done all of the above you should be able to ask your host for a testimonial which you can use on your website and when applying for other gigs. This should up your contact list and make it a bit easier to get new gigs down the road!
