A study by Fishbowl has found that most US restaurants are overpaying for competitor intelligence as they find it difficult to collect reliable competitor price data.

The study, which was undertaken earlier in 2019, found that the majority of US restaurants invest a vast amount of time, money, and internal resources to collect competitor menu data.

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About 70% of surveyed restaurants actively gather some form of pricing intelligence on their competitors, with 60% of those use internal resources like a manager, supervisor, or mid-level employee for collection.

Despite all the efforts, restaurants consider the data that is being collected as sub-par and feel the time spent by internal resources on it would be ‘fruitful’ in meeting customer service roles in-restaurant.

Fishbowl said the data is strained further by the fact that 95% of those collecting data only do it on three competitors.

“Restaurant sales are local, which means understanding the pricing pressure that local operators face is necessary when making menu and pricing decisions.”

About 50% of respondents claimed that their data is just okay and features errors as well as significant gaps despite the effort and expense.

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Fishbowl vice-president, research and analytics, customer development Tama Looney said: “Restaurant sales are local, which means understanding the pricing pressure that local operators face is necessary when making menu and pricing decisions. Fishbowl’s goal is to provide restaurant brands with the data they need to make better menu decisions.

“One critical piece of that data is an understanding of what’s going on in local markets. We are delighted to have reached a point that we can make reports available for all restaurant brands via a wide variety of options and price points that work within virtually any budget.”

Fishbowl is introducing PriceWatch, a report that will offer appropriate and current price data to help restaurant operators in making informed pricing decisions.