Starting a new restaurant takes time, but setting it up and boosting sales remain a struggle forever. Almost all restaurants opt for unique and creative marketing ways to gain a strong foot in the market.
Competition keeps on increasing day by day, so restaurants need to try creative ways to gain customers. If you’re ready to increase customer sales with and without investment, then you’re in the right place.
Your goal should be on restaurant growth only. So, if you have started your business and plan to go out of the box, these tips will help you!
Increase Use of Technology
Be it pandemic or anything else; the hospitality industry will continue to grow and flourish in 2021. From contactless payments to online ordering, the trend is continued to grow in the future as well.
If you’re planning to grow your business, then assess the technology you’re using for your restaurant. You can get a tablet POS system for restaurants, offer digital customer ordering, install a restaurant online ordering software, or get customer relationship management software.
Make sure to make technology your priority when you’re thinking of boosting sales for your restaurant business. It can lower the burden on your shoulders, allowing you to focus on quality.
Direct a Marketing Plan
Different goals require a different marketing plan. If you want to boost your restaurant sales, the best thing is to prepare a fresh and solid marketing plan for it.
The pandemic has influenced everything, but that does not mean that it will be the same in the future. As a businessman, you must have contingency plans prepared to tackle any unwanted situation.
Set out a budget, decide goals, and work on their solutions. A marketing plan will guide you throughout the process to get new customers.
Work on Your Digital Presence
From social media to a maintained website, everything plays a key role in strengthening your online digital presence. Almost everyone now uses the internet to find their favorite product or restaurant, so why not make the best use of it?
Work on your restaurant’s social media presence to get the message out to your audience. Make sure to provide all relevant business information, including menu, hours of operation, contact details, location, etc., on your social media profile.
You can also use social media to answer customers’ queries or offer reservations online. Furthermore, post everything related to your business online such as information about add-ons, additional offerings, discounts, and so on, to get customers’ attention.
Be Professional Online & Offline
Looking and acting professional is the key to getting your business on top. Recruit the best people in the industry to work for you, whether it’s your chef or the waiting staff. They all must wear professional uniforms and should be trained enough to assist customers.
Apart from it, make sure that your offline presence is as professional as the online one. Always answer questions by customers to form a connection with them.
Plan out a Menu
Coming to another important aspect of attracting customers – the menu!
Do you have everything sorted on your menu, or it’s a mishmash of all items? Your customer can lose focus if your menu is all over the place. For instance, the customer must know what is where in the first attempt.
Rethink the menu and place everything under their respected category. All dessert items should go in one place, and pasta items should go in another, and so on. You can also adjust the menu on a biannual and seasonal basis, depending on your requirement.
Add More Services
In case you’re only offering a dine-in experience for your customers, then it’s time to expand your services. Today, when most people opt for take-out and deliveries, the best thing is to try one of both at least.
You can add a pick-up or the home-delivery option to your services section to encourage customers to buy food from you. If you don’t have your delivery fleet, you can try out third-party deliveries to deliver food to your customers. It’s cost-effective and does not put pressure on the owner as well.
Moreover, add an online ordering option to your business, so customers can pay at their convenience. Add a payment portal to your website and optimize your menu to convert customers.
Give Complimentary Items
Who doesn’t like complimentary items?
Work on customer lifetime value (CLV) to reap its long-term benefits. CLV is related to the customer spending money on your business throughout their relationship with you. It can be one single visit, a few months/years, or a lifetime.
As a restaurant owner, you need to keep your customer coming back through exceptional food quality and customer service. It’s up to you to utilize the complimentary items at your convenience.
You can either provide a few entrees at a free or discounted rate to your customer. It might seem expensive for your restaurant, but it’s a great catch to keep customers coming back to you.
Start a Reward/Loyalty Program
Another way to extend CLV is by offering a reward/loyalty program to customers. Utilize a punch card that gives your customer a free item once you’ve reached a certain amount of sales from the restaurant. This can be a reward program.
On the other hand, you can also offer membership cards using a POS system. Don’t giveaway expensive meals; otherwise, you will lose all your revenue in no time. Desserts, drinks, or appetizers will work fine for it.
Give Importance to Existing Customers
Your existing customers should be your priority if you want them to become your loyal customer. They are not only your customers but also an advocate of your customer service, food quality, and overall restaurant experience.
Treat your existing customers with respect, so they keep coming back with more people. You can make them try new dishes, offer discounts, give complimentary items, and so on to make them feel appreciated or valued.
Host Events
You might have a particular target audience, but hosting events at your restaurant can help you attract more people. For instance, hosting comedy nights, guest performances, or karaoke nights are a special way to get new customers.
Use your social media accounts to create hype for such events to attract potential customers. It will not only increase restaurant sales but will put a good impression on your customers as well.
Manage Pricing Correctly
Pricing plays a key role in boosting sales. It would help if you considered the food cost, target audience, location cost, and other factors to avoid loss in the future. For instance, if you have college students as your targeted audience, you must set a price they can afford.
On the other hand, keeping higher prices won't be an issue if your restaurant is placed in a posh area. It would help if you researched other similar restaurants to avoid any unwanted mistakes.
Putting a high price on a relatively cheap dish will make your customer avoid coming back to you. Don’t be greedy while setting up menu prices and decide them wisely. Devise a plan that benefits the restaurant in the longterm.
Make SEO a Priority
Your marketing efforts can go in vain if you’re not making the right use of SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an exceptional way to make your business rank on top of the search engines.
The more it’s ranked on top, the more attention it receives. There are hundreds of SEO professionals that you can hire to make your business rank ahead of your competition. Make sure to invest your money in the right place to avoid any problems in the future.
Get a Website
Last but not least, it’s important to have a strong online presence of your business to boost sales. A website is an amazing tool to connect with your audience and give information about your business to customers.
An appealing and effective website with a menu and all other information can attract customers in no time. Make sure to get your website SEO-optimized to improve its online ranking.
MenuCRM Helps You Boost Sales & Get More Customers
Although the tips mentioned above can help you boost sales, the right CRM strategies for restaurants have more potential for businesses. We offer high-end, technological, and results-proven solutions to bring your restaurant business on top.
You can get restaurant point of sale systems, restaurant POS software in Oklahoma, digital menu ordering for restaurants in Kansas, and so much more.
With years of experience in helping multiple businesses, we focus on assisting big and small businesses to get ahead of their competition. If you’re looking for the best CRM for restaurants, then we’re here to help you with it.
Our restaurant online ordering system and others are designed to lower the burden on you. Let our software handle the stress for you while you focus on quality.
Contact us today
to get more information about our online ordering software.
