If you can't wait for 10 or 20 years and you
want instant community status, here are five
techniques you may wish to apply to your
business.
#1 Church, Charity & School
Fund Raisers
Were you thinking about running a $1,250 ad in
the next newspaper? How about
instead of spending your money on ink and paper
you donate 50% of Monday Night's take to a local
church?
The church gets a wonderful fund raiser for a
worthy cause and you get the benefit of their
event advertising. Lesson:
advertising costs money and fund raising events
cost time.
#2 Local Media Is Your Friend
If you know when someone famous will be visiting
your establishment or if you book a 100th
Birthday for someone in the community, be sure
to alert the local media. The reason
you don't see more "feel good" articles on the
local news is that they are hard to find.
If you are creative and forward this type of
story to your local media, they will think of
you more often... which is great! Maybe
they will even invite you to cook on the air.
#3 Restaurant Reviewers Are EZ
Look at what most reviewers write when they
don't like a restaurant:
-
The rest
rooms were adequate.
-
The service
was friendly but uninspired.
-
The food was
warm, not hot.
-
The price was
upscale.
So learn from
this and stop making the mistakes you read about
each day:
Keep the rest
rooms sparkling. Did you know that
FreePOS can send timed alerts to your staff
every 30 minutes? The computer will
remind them when to clean the restrooms.
Keep the
service great by optimizing the preparation
cycle and rewarding servers with bonuses for
selling your best dishes.
If food isn't
hot, fix the problem without resorting to a
microwave oven. Remember, microwave
ovens create problems - they do not fix
them!!
If you would be
willing to pay $12.95 for your Chicken Pasta
sell it for $11.95. Always leave
value on the table for your customer.
Don't worry about food cost percentages - worry
about sales volume.
#4
Sample This, Sample That
Encourage your
servers to offer a sample before a customer
orders. If your prices are upscale,
this is even more important. Wines,
sides and fresh seafood make for excellent
samplers. And what better way is
there to sell a $28 per plate lobster spaghetti
dish than to sample a bite of the lobster before
ordering? It works!
#5
Kids Are Great
Want to know
where Mom & Dad go for dinner?
Wherever the kids say. If you want
special requests for your restaurant from kids,
empty out a closet and fill it to the brim with
candy of all varieties. Then let all
the kids who come to your restaurant pick three
items from the "candy closet" before they go.
