In the competitive restaurant (and bar, and café) sector, more foot traffic is always better. Sure, it’s also a good idea to capitalize on repeat business, and even create a trusting and friendly relationship with your regulars, but you always want to be bringing in new people to your establishment, especially if you’re just starting out and are running a brand-new establishment.
From combining online and offline marketing tactics, to special promotions and creating a more appealing setting, all the way to integrating technology that will help you run a more efficient operation, there are some key solutions you need to implement in order to start seeing results. Here’s what you need to do.
Make the exterior more inviting
Consider your restaurant like a home that’s about to go on sale – first, you need to stage it properly in order to appeal the right kind of buyer. The same goes for your establishment, as it’s important to improve the curb appeal and create an inviting setting and ambiance that will allow people to gravitate towards it naturally, and of course, inspire them to venture inside to see what you’re all about. To spruce up the exterior just right, you need to understand your target demographic.
Your restaurant should boast a unique brand identity and a unique personality, so that it can occupy a niche and thus appeal to a specific type of audience. After all, if you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll end up attracting no one. Once you discover your ideal customer type, you can scale the setting to their liking, and create a cozy, comfortable ambiance that will tickle their senses.
Host regular live events
Nowadays, a restaurant or a café is not just a place where people go to check their emails or pretend to work while sipping on the same cup of joe for three hours, no, this is a place where people want to engage with their family and friends, where they want to socialize while being entertained in a variety of ways. Needless to say, one of the best ways to get new patrons in every night and to keep the existing ones coming back is to host more live events.
Depending on the theme of your establishment, you can choose to host a whole variety of live events, such as standup comedy, poetry nights, live music, quizzes about all things pop culture, TV show and movie marathon nights, and more. This will transform the place from a regular café during the day into a more engaging and inviting place where people will want to hand out at night.
Raise efficiency and comfort through technology
One of the most important changes you need to make is that you have to modernize your restaurant. Digital transformation is taking over the hospitality industry, and forward-looking leaders are increasingly integrating a feature-rich mobile POS system that allows them to create a more efficient and productive work environment, and thus reduce customer effort while elevating comfort and ambiance.
A robust mPOS system allows your wait staff to make tableside ordering a quick and precise process, while also giving patrons the possibility to pay quickly and directly through the system. This tool also makes table status and order tracking a breeze, so make sure to invest in technology if you want to create a more professional brand image and bring more patrons to your doorstep.
Diversify your offering
The restaurant business is constantly evolving, and unsurprisingly so, as the sheer competitiveness of the sector forces business leaders to constantly innovate and come up with new ideas to keep existing patrons and bring new ones to the establishment. With that in mind, you need to keep innovating if you’re going to stay competitive and relevant to the modern customer.
One of the best ways you can do this is to simply start diversifying your menu. For example, if you’ve been running a coffee shop so far, perhaps you should introduce some light meals and healthy snacks to tap into that consumer group that’s looking for a good cup of joe, but also a nutritious meal.
Don’t forget to market online
And finally, just because you have an amazing ambiance, a professional staff, and an IT infrastructure that works flawlessly doesn’t mean that new patrons will just drop by all on their own. No, you need to entice them to visit your establishment by marketing your brand on all relevant digital channels. Be sure run a well-optimized website, post all business information on Google to make it easy for people to discover you in the search results, and don’t forget to post on social media every day.
Wrapping up
A restaurant or a café is only as successful as the number of patrons it has every day, which is why getting new people to your establishment should be your number one priority. Implement these solutions and you will have no problem growing your business in the months to come.
