Exploring persuasive sales techniques to improve customer acceptance of sustainable but unfamiliar menu in restaurants

Purpose: Although restauranteurs hope to incorporate offal or variety meat, in the menu as an attempt to reduce food waste, adopting these ingredients is still challenging due to customer rejections. This study aims to propose potential persuasive sales strategies based on customers’ different information sources to increase organ meat-based menu sales for restaurateurs. Design/methodology/approach: In this research, a qualitative study was conducted to identify critical factors that show persuasive effects from external, interpersonal and experiential information sources. A total of 20 in-depth expert interviews with professional chefs and restauranteurs were conducted and key persuasive service tactics were analyzed. Findings: From their experience of persuading customers to try unusual foods, insights about how to alleviate unfamiliar food aversion were obtained. The findings of this study showed that different persuasive sales tactics can be implemented to decrease customers’ aversion to offal and offcuts on menus. Research limitations/implications: The context of offal is meaningful theoretically because it sheds light on the literature gaps related to persuasive sales strategies for food products with a negative social stigma. Practically, the findings of this study explicitly address that offal usage in restaurants can not only encourage the culinary uniqueness of a restaurant but also contribute to the reduction of food waste by foodservice operations. Originality/value: This research answers the calls for more research on sustainable food sources in hospitality literature by proposing offal as a potential alternative protein source. The findings of this study can further be used to improve customer acceptance of other sustainable but unfamiliar food items.