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How to Fill Your Restaurant - Part 1 Getting Out and About
Welcome to the www.localserviceguide.com on How to Fill Your Restaurant.
I’m Caroline Blatchford and my company, Local Service Guide, is dedicated to helping businesses, including restaurants, find new customers and increase profits.
When we talk to restaurant owners, there is one topic which comes up time and time again – How Can I Fill My Restaurant? Even the busiest restaurants have quiet periods.
So we took up the challenge and set out to find really great ideas for bringing more customers into restaurants. We’ve talked to real owners and managers, from real restaurants. Some of the ideas are very new, some are more traditional with perhaps a fresh twist and some are even a little wacky! Read on and find out how to fill your restaurant.
This Local Service Guide report is divided into five parts. The theme for Part One is “Getting Out and About”. A really effective way to find new customers is to get out of your restaurant and spread the word.
The Idea!
Give potential customers the chance to try your food by taking out samples. Create a stampede to your restaurant by standing on the High Street and handing out samples to passers-by.
Winning Tips
The key objective of this promotion is to get people to come to your restaurant. Keep this in mind during your planning of the event.
Give the Idea a Twist
We’ve Tried It!
On their opening day, Subway (Portswood, Southampton, UK) gave away food to passers by. It was a huge success. In total they gave away 150 subs and in return collected 160 contact details from potential customers. Manager Sunny Khaira said “It was a great way to open the restaurant. We did a range of promotions but I am confident that letting people sample our food to taste quality for themselves was a key factor in our successful launch.”
For all of these ideas make sure that you obtain consent and comply with all laws and regulations.
In Part Two of our report, we look at ways of “Using e-mail to fill your restaurant”. Click here to go straight to Part Two.
BACK
I’m Caroline Blatchford and my company, Local Service Guide, is dedicated to helping businesses, including restaurants, find new customers and increase profits.
When we talk to restaurant owners, there is one topic which comes up time and time again – How Can I Fill My Restaurant? Even the busiest restaurants have quiet periods.
So we took up the challenge and set out to find really great ideas for bringing more customers into restaurants. We’ve talked to real owners and managers, from real restaurants. Some of the ideas are very new, some are more traditional with perhaps a fresh twist and some are even a little wacky! Read on and find out how to fill your restaurant.
This Local Service Guide report is divided into five parts. The theme for Part One is “Getting Out and About”. A really effective way to find new customers is to get out of your restaurant and spread the word.
The Idea!
Give potential customers the chance to try your food by taking out samples. Create a stampede to your restaurant by standing on the High Street and handing out samples to passers-by.
Winning Tips
The key objective of this promotion is to get people to come to your restaurant. Keep this in mind during your planning of the event.
- Make an offer - e.g. 15% off any meal in your restaurant taken in the next week.
- Focus on your style - Every aspect of the promotion should reflect the style of your restaurant. Your clothes, the food, the way you serve the food and the layout of the table all need to be in character.
- Ask for a vote – don’t just hand out a sample, involve the tasters more e.g. by asking them to vote on which of two chocolate desserts is the best! Once they start talking to you and even to each other, you are really onto a winner.
- E-mail addresses – ask voters for their e-mail addresses so that you can let them know the results and send details of future offers (more in Part 2)
- Who are you? – Not everyone will stop to taste – make sure that even those who just walk past know who you are. Use signs – big signs!
- Contact details - give everyone who stops or passes information on your restaurant e.g. telephone number, location etc.
Give the Idea a Twist
- Use different locations (offer a free meal to obtain consent):
- the foyer of the local cinema
- outside a major business at going home time
- railway station
- local country fairs and fetes
- Add music which reflects the style of your restaurant.
- Give cookery demonstrations to local interest groups.
- Enter competitions – it gets great press and media. Douglas and Elizabeth Pestell owners of La Petite Maison, Topsham, Devon, UK have received some excellent press coverage for their restaurant from entering (and winning) awards such as Taste of the West Awards 2003. Douglas told us “It’s not enough to win and expect the press to come to you. We were very proactive in contacting the local press, radio and TV to tell them about our success. It takes time but it really paid dividends. We were inundated with new customers after the competition and many of them have become regulars.”
We’ve Tried It!
On their opening day, Subway (Portswood, Southampton, UK) gave away food to passers by. It was a huge success. In total they gave away 150 subs and in return collected 160 contact details from potential customers. Manager Sunny Khaira said “It was a great way to open the restaurant. We did a range of promotions but I am confident that letting people sample our food to taste quality for themselves was a key factor in our successful launch.”
For all of these ideas make sure that you obtain consent and comply with all laws and regulations.
In Part Two of our report, we look at ways of “Using e-mail to fill your restaurant”. Click here to go straight to Part Two.