In part 1 of this food truck insider series, we discuss why a food truck rotation needs attention and maintenance to ensure continuing success. These simple tips can help or MOBLZ can help you succeed.
One of the most vital tips in maintaining your food truck rotation is practicing consistent and regular communication with your food truck vendors. It’s extremely important to check in with vendors before, during, and after their food truck service. This will allow you to build a relationship and foster trust with the food trucks and increase the chances of having them come back for your future events. Bonus tip – this also helps you keep track of sales. Other trucks will want to know about sales before committing to your site.
Another way to have an effective food truck rotation is by communicating with your tenants and employees. Employees will often give feedback on how they felt about a specific food truck and will surely tell you which trucks you just don’t need to invite back if you will only ask. But in asking, make sure you really hear what your people want and don’t want in order to improve numbers at events. Encourage employees to leave reviews for the trucks in the MOBLZ directory or directly with the trucks. They’ll come out for who they enjoy, which means great ticket sales for their favorite trucks. If you’re scheduling trucks your folks don’t like, they won’t support the truck and you’ll lose the goodwill you’ve gained with them and the trucks, too.
If you don’t already have a food truck rotation, MOBLZ can help you do that! We know that creating an exciting lunch rotation can be challenging…especially when your job isn’t in the event planning arena. When thinking about a DIY food truck calendar, we’ve created a Food Truck Rotation Checklist that you may find helpful.
Reward your most popular food trucks with regular dates. This will allow them to build a reputation on your campus and do well no matter what. Regulars will turn out for lunch even on a rainy day.
Work with your MOBLZ representative to plan themed events for your location, making events not only about food. Consider holidays and seasons as well as opportunities for fun, learning, and networking. Are you planning special events around St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Fall Festivals, hosting fun Trivia Day events, or holding sponsored employee/tenant appreciation events? You should be! Get more event ideas in our Events Guide for Managers. In our Event Guide, you’ll find other things that can be added to bring in the community --work with local organizations and charities to start recycling programs or encourage your team to give back by supporting women's shelters, schools, blood drives, food drives, and more.
Look for two more posts in the coming weeks giving more insights on how to be successful with your food truck rotation.