I own a restaurant, and I am constantly changing our specialties. If something is really selling well, then we will rotate it with a few other dishes several times a year. I don’t want to invest in a dish without getting some prior knowledge on how well people will be receptive to it. I know the best way to know this is by receipts at the end of the day, but I also use a survey creator so I know whether to even try a new dish out or not.
I used to create new dishes without doing this, and it was always hit or miss with our patrons. Some of the dishes sold out quickly we took a loss on others. Those losses are what hurt us the most, so I knew that I had to do some homework before committing our kitchen crew to the work. If it was not going to pay off, then it just was not worth it to even try on certain dishes. I found out that the best way to do this was just to compare some ideas for dishes that I had with one another.
I found this site that allows me to create surveys, and I was able to include descriptions of the dishes that I wanted to create. I basically let this be an elimination process. I asked the survey takers which dish they would be most willing to try, and which they would not want to spend money on at a restaurant. Since I have started using this survey site for this reason, I have not created one special that has not been a wild success. There are no more losses in this area, and I could not be happier. I am no longer wasting money or time, and the patrons are coming back even more because of the new dishes.