As a property manager who is responsible for booking mobile amenities for your property, you may use social media to stay up to date on trends. While checking your explore page you notice one of the new local trucks has gone viral. Once that happens you may be flooded with requests from your tenants to book this truck. Before you make that decision, there are some factors to consider. Below are some questions to ask to help you decide whether to move forward or not.
Is this truck something I want myself or are my tenants going to be interested in it? You might think that lobster is the best thing in the world, but if your tenants don't, there are going to be problems. It takes time to prepare and set up for a lunch event. If only two people are showing up to support the truck, you won't have it in rotation for long. Food trucks are businesses and have specific monetary goals they want to reach. If the tenants at a location won't eat the food, don't ask the truck to come.
Understand your truck rotation. Unless it's what your tenants really want, you don't want one type of cuisine dominating your line up. Will this "hot" truck be too close in style to the truck that was at my property just last week? There CAN be too much of a good thing. Ideally, you would not schedule the same truck more than once a month. Likewise, don't schedule the same type of food too frequently. If tenants are tired of the same food, they won't come out.
You know your property and your tenants. Ask yourself (and your tenants) how often your property can sustain having a food truck. Maybe your property only needs a truck once a month. If a huge chunk of the property is working remotely on Fridays, Food Truck Friday is not your best option. Having good relationships with tenants to know what will serve them best will help make your job easier.
Put thought into where the truck will park. Do you have a good location for them to function properly? Location, location, location! Mobile businesses need an area where they can be seen and are easily accessible. Trucks come in different shapes and sizes, so each different truck needs appropriate space. Also, for safety reason, remember not to park the truck in a fire lane or too close to building exits. Make sure your grounds crew knows when trucks are coming. Most successful properties cone off area for the trucks to park so there is not confusion on the day of an event. In our current times, social distancing is also important. Making sure these considerations are met can help make events more successful. Setting up near picnic tables, recreational amenities, or near prominent walkways can be ideal locations.
When scheduling a truck, make sure you understand their expectations as well. How much business would they be expecting? How much business do they really need to function properly and make a profit? Can your property support these needs and expectations?
Promote the event. Make sure you email all the tenants in advance to let them know about the event. One of the core features of the MOBLZ platform is managing communication. Without good promotion in advance, the attendance will be lower than desired.
If, after all of these questions are answered, you decide to bring a mobile vendor to your property, make sure you follow up with them afterward to see how they fared. MOBLZ automatically provides food trucks with a form after every visit to a property so they can leave feedback about their service. Feedback like this gives you the opportunity to see which trucks are doing well on your property, and often brings to light things you may not have considered or improvements you can make to give everyone the best experience possible. Following these guidelines and using MOBLZ to manage your food truck schedule and mobile events will help to keep both your tenants and the trucks happy.