Don’t get us wrong, running a restaurant can be very stressful and hectic. It requires very early and long hours. You need to get into the groove of managing your inventory. There are a lot of aspects that you wouldn’t otherwise worry about if you were running another business, such as sanitation and pest control. However, it can also be a very fulfilling pursuit, especially if food is your passion.
It is potentially very profitable as well. Food, after all, is a consumable basic need. You just need to prove the quality of your food and the people themselves would come back for more. There are techniques that you can do to further boost your revenue potential, though.
7 Tactics That Can Be Used by Restaurant Owners to Increase Profitability:
1. Establish Loyalty
While we always want to attract new customers, a significant part of restaurant revenue relies on repeat customers. You can use email marketing in order to reinforce customer loyalty. This can be done by offering a newsletter subscription over your website to send your latest promos, discounts, and general updates to your patrons.
Those who don’t have an established online presence can instead go the traditional route and offer rewards or loyalty cards. You can offer discounts through them or allow customers to accumulate points.
Or better yet, offer both: a newsletter and a rewards card. Those who are worried that both programs might get quite costly to maintain can always put a one-promo-at-a-time clause or an expiration date on their loyalty cards.
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2. Optimize Your Menu
Suppose you already have a nice place and good food, the next element that you need to look into is your menu. Unfortunately, menus are commonly overlooked. A lot of new restaurant owners just view it as a means to present their offers to their customers.
However, it is much more than that. It can be the first point of contact you have with your customer, even before he enters your establishment to check out the ambiance or taste your food.
The natural tendency is to fill it up with various options to cater to different tastes. However, this can prove overwhelming and confusing that can hinder decision-making. Instead, you want to streamline your choices, ensure clarity, and strategically lead your clients to the food and drink selections that you want them to purchase.
3. Level up Your Staff
Your staff is also another possible first point of contact between the customer and your restaurant. Hence you have to make sure that they make a good impression. While proper customer service training is crucial, we also highly recommend giving them solid sales training as well.
Don’t forget their aesthetics. This includes their uniform, make-up, hairstyle, and basic grooming. For instance, it’s a big no-no for a server to have long and dirty nails. It’s the perfect way to drive away your customers.
4. Invest on Improving Customer Experience
You need to understand that eating and dining are two different activities. As a restaurateur, you’re not just giving people food to consume. You seek to give them an experience. We understand, though, that creating a perfect dining ambiance requires investment.
As such, if you do not have enough budget, we suggest taking a look into different financing options to expand your establishment or make it more comfortable. There are opportunities for an online business line of credit, as well as numerous lending companies that offer such plans specifically for business owners like you.
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5. Expand Your Services
So you have every aspect carefully done. You have a great place, and provide mouthwatering food represented by a clear menu, with a highly skilled staff that supports you. Congratulations. That’s certainly not easy to do. However, did you know that there are still a lot of opportunities to boost your revenue?
For instance, we recommend exploring other possibilities to expand your services. At the very least, we recommend three fulfillment options: dine-in, pick-up, and delivery. You can then look into options of expanding your delivery reach by offering a phone hotline, in-company online delivery, and working with other food delivery platforms.
You should also look into offering various payment methods, as well as collaborating with online banks and applications.
6. Leverage Latest Technology and Marketing Tactics
Speaking of collaborations and applications, there are other ways to leverage technology for your restaurant:
a) Develop Your Own Mobile Application
Don’t just stop with a website, even if it is already equipped with an online delivery feature. We recommend developing your own mobile application as well. This will enable your patrons to order even with just a portable digital device, while on the go, and for other people.
b) Digital Marketing Is Key
There are various ways to promote your business online. You can go the usual route and strengthen your SEO efforts and get paid ads. Social media marketing is one of the most efficient ways to do it given the number of active users each day, not to mention that it usually doesn’t cost anything.
Email marketing is also not dead. You can use it to promote new offers, and special discounts, and empower customer loyalty. Finally, don’t underestimate the power of joining local groups, especially where your branch (or branches, if you’re a chain) is located.
c) Collect Positive Online Reviews
Recent statistics point out that up to a whopping 49% of adults in the United States (18 to 34 year-olds) trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. It’s also been found that people are also more likely to purchase from a business that has positive online reviews than those with negative reviews and even those without one.
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7. Grow Your Business
Finally, don’t be afraid to expand your business. Get a bigger space. Hire more employees (a lack of crew members can severely impact the quality and speed of your service, aspects that are both crucial to restaurants). Offer it up for franchising. Or simply invest in the development of new branches yourself.
In the end, though, the success of your restaurant will all boil down to your perseverance. That heart to provide quality food and service to people. With these, and hopefully with the tips we’ve shared with you above, we are confident that you will enjoy this success in no time.
