What do we do when your restaurant isn’t profitable?
As seasoned hospitality turnaround specialists we know that there are a few simple building blocks that are the foundation of every successful restaurant turn around.
It would have been nice if there was an easy and cheap answer to sustainable restaurant growth? Whether you’re new to this business or have been around the block, you’ve surely realised that there is no silver bullet to increasing your restaurant sales, keeping it high and increase profits accordingly.
One mistake most restaurant owners make is to believe that marketing is the answer to growing sales and revenues. Building a great and profitable restaurant comes down to lots of hard work on a few fundamentals.
Then, and only then, will you move on to marketing programs.
All great restaurants are built on the same building blocks which are easy to know and understand, but are really challenging to implement effectively. It also turns out that these fundamentals are also your best marketing tools in the long run:
1. Service. When was the last time that one of your guests had truly surprising exceptional service? So good that they actually mentioned it to someone?
It’s easy for your service to become ordinary when you’re serving thousands of guests but if you are only serving a couple of guests and your service is ordinary – something big must be wrong. We will challenge your team to create simple ways that ordinary can seem extraordinary each and every time.
We believe that the best way to generate word-of-mouth marketing is by delivering consistently surprising service.
Surprise your customers with great service!
2. Food. As a restaurant, food is your foundation. Getting a customer into your door to try your food is the first step in creating a long-term, repeat guest. Get them to try your food, and they will fall in love with you, right?
Your food is a great marketing tool. Delicious food accurately and consistently prepared is a must. Like any restaurant, sometimes you won’t get it right.
This is a great opportunity to move a guest from dissatisfied to a raving fan all in one step. First, of course, make it right. Give them what they ordered and paid for since it is what they ordered and paid for. Encourage them to keep what was made incorrectly – they may quickly find they like it a lot more for free.
Then give them something so compelling that they can’t help but come back into your restaurant. Surprise them with your solution.
3. Environment. When a guest comes in your doors, you’re inviting them into your world, into your “home” to eat your food. Every element of the environment sends a message about who you are, and what you’re like.
Creating a clean, inviting environment with the right atmosphere is critical to giving each guest that desire to return. You have an opportunity to create an energizing respite for someone’s day.
Friendly service, smiles all around, clean tables and clean bathrooms all help create that atmosphere.
4. Value. Your restaurant don’t have to be the cheapest to be the best value. Your prices have to be fair in conjunction with all of the other components of the value equation – food, service, environment, convenience, brand, speed, location, etc.
Everyone wants a good deal on a great product. If you can over deliver on every component of value, our guests will have great reasons to choose you over the competition time and again.
Fixing a value problem is one of the hardest things to do in the restaurant business. When prices rise too high or your service and quality slip, customers walk out the door and never return. It’s much easier to make customers happy today than to recover someone who leaves dissatisfied. If your customers are leaving without planning to return it creates a downward spiral that is hard to correct.
Be sure to get ongoing feedback from your guests so you can identify a problem before it gets out of control.
5. Location. How are you leveraging your location? Are you near residential, businesses, or schools? Each of these has their own excellent marketing opportunities.
Getting involved with the community around your restaurant is critical to building the long-term relationships that will help your location thrive over time.
Your current location is fixed, but remember that a good location can be a powerful marketing tool. Invest in your location and all the other marketing you do will be more effective.
6. Be known for something. What do you want to be known for? A menu item? Your environment/decor? Your service? Pick something and engrain it into the fabric of everything you do. Do something nobody else is doing. Creating something truly unique can be the difference between success and failure in restaurants. If you want to draw customers in the door, you need to give them a good, unique reason.
7. Get clear on what makes YOUR RESTAURANT special. Creating differentiation is critical, but how do you create something authentically different? When you get clear on what makes you special, stick to it. Own it and Do it consistently right, every time.
8. Operate in the thank you economy. Live and run your restaurant in the thank you economy and show it to your customers. Without your customers, your restaurant wouldn’t exist. Your success in your restaurant may be in direct correlation to how much you love your customers and how much you show it to them.
9. Be your best. Whatever you choose to do, do it at the highest possible level. Hire employees who have the same view. Find people who are excited to be the best they can be in whatever they do, and then thank them for it. Know what you are, and what you’re not. Get clear on what you are, and don’t succumb to the temptation to be everything for everyone.
If you are getting these fundamentals right and you are over-delivering on them, you are already doing your best marketing. Generating new and satisfied customers who return frequently will happen naturally.
After you’ve optimized these areas, you’re ready to take your marketing programs to the next level by increasing community involvement, local store marketing, catering, loyalty programs, upselling, partnerships, interactive marketing and social media marketing.
Please contact us for a no obligation consultation and assessment.