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One question that often remains unanswered is what to do with all these people coming to your restaurant and asking for donations (gift certificates).
It seems like lots of people all the sudden think that it is a great idea to go to their favorite restaurant and ask the owners for gift certificates to donate to their children's schools, their churches or their preferred charities.
Of course, they don't realize that hundreds of customers and organizations have the same idea and ask for the same gifts. And perhaps they think that this sinking economy is not impacting your business.
And what can you do, poor restaurateur, but suffer the unpleasant experience of having to say NO to these, often pleasant and good people?
Don't despair. I have a couple of ideas for you to use next time that you get the happy solicitor asking you for a donation:
- If the solicitors are organizations with many people: school, hospital, church, charity, etc. Offer to give them many small gift certificates that don't cover your average price per customer. For example, if your average ticket is $25 per person, offer gift certificates for a value of $10. Also make sure that you clearly print on them that they can't be combined. You want to take advantage of this opportunity to give away coupons masked as gift certificates for a value less than your average check so that the customers coming will spend more money in your place.
- If the solicitors are individual customers. Offer to sell them the gift certificates at a discount. You can apply the same principle than before. You can sell them several $10 gift certificates for a value of $5 each. They can buy as many as they want but they have to give them or raffle them to many people (and not bundling them together) so that many people get to come and try your place. Tell them that you are contributing your share by giving them the discounts, but they also have to contribute theirs by paying for the difference. After all it's their idea and it should be their donation, not yours.
If you apply both techniques you will:
- Be happier because you won't have to say NO to a good cause
- Leverage your marketing by distributing gift certificates that will bring additional customers (who could be potential clients) to your place at a minimum cost
It is a win-win proposition.
Happy Sailing,
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
These are tough times for everybody but perhaps restaurateurs are feeling the impact more than most other business since people are cutting down the eating out budget.
I read somewhere that the restaurants suffering the most are the middle priced ones. People who used to pay $20 to $30 for a meal are going now to fast food places to eat cheaper. Fancy restaurant clientele are not being affected that much by the crisis so they can still afford to go out to their favorite upscale restaurant and pay the fare.
So what can you do, if you have a small mid-priced restaurant to survive these down times?
Here are some suggestions for you:
- Look at your marketing budget and cut any expenses that you can't measure. This doesn't mean to cut down in marketing. Cutting down in marketing in slow times is a terrible idea, although for many restaurateurs is the first thing to do to save money. What you have to do is to make sure that your marketing dollars are working hard. If you don't know if a marketing campaign is working for you, then assume that it is not. For example, don't spend money advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio or Yellow Pages if you can't count how many customers these ads bring to your place. You need to make sure that you are making more revenue from the ads than you are spending in the advertising. This looks like an obvious thing but I can guarantee you that many restaurateurs never question or analyze their advertising expenses.
- Reduce your portions if you give lots of food in your dishes. Not only you'll be doing a favor to your customers (they really don't need to overeat these huge portions) but you will save in food costs. Reduce quantity and improve quality. Everybody will benefit.
- Look at your menu and see if you have dishes that give you very small profits (either because of the high cost of their ingredients or because they are very labor intensive and difficult to prepare). If so, replace them by dishes easier to make or that require less or more inexpensive ingredients. Again, you will save in food costs increasing this way your profit per sale.
- Keep an eye on your labor expenses. If you see that some days of the week are slower, reduce your employees these days. If you reduce your labor expenses, you will cope better with slow times since you won't spend in food if they don't eat.
- Spend extra time and energy pleasing your clients. They are your most important asset, more than your food or your chef or anybody else. If you don't have clients, nothing else matters. Period. Make them very welcome to your place, bend backwards to please them and try to always exceed their expectations. This is the best way to assure that they will come back.
- If you haven't done so, start a formalized referral system to bring back your best clients. Please read my previous blog to get more information about this point.
- Replace costly snail mail by communications via your website and email. This cost you nothing and will allow you to keep in touch with your clients more often.
These are just some ideas for you to implement. In these time of crisis, ingenuity and excellence go a long way to make sure that you'll be there when the economy recovers and hungry customers are looking for the best places to eat. Your restaurant should be always on top of their minds and their harts.
Good luck!
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
Brenda Segna writes in her blog http://segnamarketing.blogspot.com/2008/11/myspace-for-seo-and-web-marketing.html about using MySpace to attract young customers to a Pizza place.
Some restaurant owners (check out these ones: http://www.myspace.com/tarantinopizza and http://www.myspace.com/mamacitascafe as an example) created a MySpace site to promote their businesses.
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults. It is a very music oriented social networking site so teens and young adults constitute the majority of its 120 million members (yes, you read this right One Hundred Million Members!).
As you can imagine, if you have a restaurant targeted to the younger crowd (pizzerias a prototypical example), your message can find them easier if you advertise in the places where they "hang out". In this case is a virtual hang-out but as valid as the physical world one for marketing purposes.
Creating a MySpace page is free and relatively easy (although the two examples that I gave you have been designed by professionals) so you may want to consider it. There is also the ability to add background music, blogs, etc.
Check out www.myspace.com and give it a try. You never know if it will bring you lots of new customers.
Happy Networking,
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
I't come to my attention a new Web site called www.Bite2Eat.com
It's a site where people can order (take out or deliver) food. Although there are several sites that follow this model, Bite2Eat is trying to differentiate themselves from the others by adding a community spin to the on-line ordering business. They call it "Buddy Order" and they have a video explaining how it works. In my humble opinion, the video is not very clear and I told them so in an email that I sent them with some feedback.
Since they are just getting started with this effort, there is room for improvement in their site to better explain how their offering is better than their competitors. However, they are very open to get feedback and improve upon it, so if you would like to tell them your ideas for improvement, and how can they serve you better, you can do it here: http://bite2eat.com/form_pages/contact_us
As a restaurateur, you can register to participate free of charge. You will only pay a commission of 10% for each sale that you make through their service. This is a good business model for both parties since you will only pay if you sell your food, and they only make money if you have sales so they are very motivated to work with you and promote your business if they want to be profitable.
Go ahead, connect with their site and register, you don't have much to lose (nothing actually) and perhaps you will start getting lots of additional customers ordering food to go.
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
I was reading today the Wall Street Journal online when I read the news that in a new promotion with TiVo Inc., Domino's Pizza Inc. will begin taking orders using only a TV set from customers who have broadband TiVo service. For the ones of you who don't know what TiVo is, you can find more information here: (http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivois/index.html)
This is how it works: When a customer forwards through a commercial for Domino's, TiVo will flash a pop-up advertisement that asks the customer if she would like to order a pizza, then direct her to a Domino's ordering screen.
I think that the idea is brilliant. Think about it. Who is the ideal candidate to order pizza? Probably somebody who is hungry and watching TV. Domino's can target their ads to a hungry multitude eager to get their products and able to buy on the spot!
Both companies will benefit from this deal. TiVo will increase its revenue by allowing their technology to display a Domino's link to their ordering screen. Domino's will capture thousands of new customers that otherwise will remain inactive or order some food from some competitors.
This is the power of Join Venture. All parties benefit.
Now think about your restaurant: Is there any company that you could make a deal with to promote your business?
Do you have a local business or company whose employees go to your restaurant for lunch on a regular basis? If so perhaps you can make an agreement with the owners or managers and provide them with customized lunches (pre-packaged and easy to eat) that their employees can order (online or on the phone) and your restaurant will deliver to their premises. Explain to the managers that, in this way, their employees don't need to spend time and go out for eating. They may save time and the employees may appreciate the convenience.
You can also think about other creative solutions such as doing business with:
- Local jewelry stores: you can sell them gift certificates for a discounted price so that they can pass them along to their customers
- Car dealers, beauty saloons, hair saloons, spas... : same concept
- Other restaurants: yes, you can cross-promote other restaurants with a totally different kind of food. People like variety and will try different foods. For example, if you own an Italian restaurant, you can cross-promote a sushi place or an indian restaurant... And they can do the same with you. It is a win/win proposition. I hope that you get the idea.
- etc.
The possibilities are unlimited. Just think about a partner that can bring customers to your restaurant and try to make an attractive offer that benefit both of you.
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
Seth Godin has a really good blog call Hungry. You can check it here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/hungry.html
If you don't know Seth, he is the bestselling author of more than seven books. He writes about marketing, the spread of ideas and managing both customers and employees with respect. (This bio is taken from his Squidoo page). I really recommend you to subscribe to his blog since he usually posts really insightful and interesting information.
The point that he makes in his blog Hungry, is that people are not really hungry most of the time. They just want to experience the satisfying feeling of fullness or the satisfaction that people associate with eating good food.
If we extrapolate this idea to the restaurant business, your restaurant provides (or should provide) your clients, not only with food to fuel their bodies, but with an emotional experience to satisfy all their senses (yes, with emphasis on the senses of taste and smell, but without forgetting the rest).
This is why it is so important to appeal to your clients' five senses all at once:
- Sight: With beautiful and tasty decor and ambience. Put some art if you can afford it, and above all, have your place spotless clean.
- Hearing: Have some good background or live music to make their dinning experience even better.
- Taste: The key one for obvious reasons. If your food is not good, the rest doesn't matter really.
- Smell: Closely related to taste and specially appealing if you are selling good wines or other aromatic foods and drinks.
- Touch: This one is interesting. The quality of your silverware, your plates, your glasses, your tablecloths (if you have them), napkins, etc. they all contribute to the overall experience.
Most of the restaurants provide satisfactory experiences to at least two or more of the senses, but not many restaurants are able to provide with the whole experience to all senses simultaneously. Some of the best restaurants in the world are considered best not only for their exquisite food or drinks but because they appeal and massage all senses at the same time.
Only when you can pamper all 5 senses at once, you will move from the category of good restaurant to the category of excellent restaurant. You will provide your clients with an "incredible dinning experience", a experience that they will remember and tell all their friends and relatives giving you the best advertising that you can get anywhere.
Give it a try. Look at your place and make a list of things that you can improve to appeal all the senses. You don't need to spend a fortune, just be thoughtful and think how can you improve the sensorial experience of your clients. You both will be happier. I guarantee you.
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
I am so busy building my consulting business and finishing editing the last chapter of my Restaurant Marketing Strategies book (almost done, two more weeks and I will have it ready!) that I didn't even have time to blog lately.
However, today I was reading today an interesting blog from 9 Giant Steps called "A restaurant is actually doing The Straddle: (http://www.9giantsteps.com/?p=1000) and this blog got me motivated to write a short comment.
Twitter (for the ones of you who are not familiar with all the Social Media happening lately) is a service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages answering the question: What are you doing? You can find more information about this service in their home site: www.twitter.com
George Howard, the blogger in www.9giantsteps.com was wondering if any restaurateur was tweeting out their specials to spread the word to potential customers using this social media.
Well, the world is big and there are many restaurateurs trying to actively promote their business so he got some answers from a couple of places that use Twitter as a means to advertise their specials.
This is a great idea for a bar or a place with lots of activity and things happening. Many people use Twitter from their mobile phones or notebooks connected via WiFi so a well placed information about your specials could entice somebody to visit your place.
Location and timeliness could be the factors that make somebody react and go to your restaurant instead of your competitors.
The nice thing about Twitter is that the messages have to be short by definition. Twitter doesn't allow you to write anything that has more than 140 characters so you need to be concise in your messages.
Go ahead, give it a try and be creative. You never know how many people will respond to your messages.
By the way, my Twitter name is @jlriesco so feel free to follow me, send me some messages with feedback or just to let me know that you read my blogs.
Happy Tweeting!
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
A good friend of mine who owns an upper scale small family restaurant called me in panic. The business is slow, in fact it is so slow that she was afraid that she will have to lay off people because her cash reserves were getting depleted.
It is true that with this uncertain economy, with the stock market collapsing, the sub-prime mortgage down the tubes and the credit taughter than titanium, sometimes it seems like the end of the world.
So what can a restaurateur do to keep the business going?
The best course of action is to focus on the bases. Yes, the economy is not good, yes people go out less and eat less in restaurants because they have less money (specially if they invested in real state or the stock market) or they are just afraid that the economy will collapse and want to save some money... but you know what? This is more an emotional reaction than a real depression with lots of jobs being lost.
Most the people are still keeping their jobs and there is always enough people who go out to eat to fill in your restaurant IF (and this IF is really important in these taught times) provides them with something better than your competitors.
In easy times it easy to make money by just about anybody with a business. People are happier to spend their money when the economy is vibrant and there is plenty to spend and they are less picky where they spend it.
However, turn the economy around, just like now, and people start watching really careful where they spend their hard earned dollars. If they decide to go out for dinner, they better hand pick a restaurant that it will guarantee them a great dinning experience.
This is where your restaurant should shine and set apart from your competitors. Focus on your clients with a laser sharp intensity. Make their dinning dollars count by giving them the best food, best drinks and best service that you are able to provide at your place and they will be grateful to you and come again looking to repeat that great experience.
Also, don't skimp in your marketing. this is a mistake that many restaurateurs do. In times of crisis, they start cutting down their marketing and sales effort and this brings less clients and less revenue.
Try no to panic and run your business the best you can. This is the only way you can weather these stormy times. Hang in there and wait for the economy to recover and people to come back to eat at your place.
Good luck!
Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
It looks like you can't turn on the radio or TV these days without hearing about the crisis of the economy and recession in the country.
If you just listen to these (bad) news, it looks like the sky will fall on top of our heads any minute now. Restaurant business is a economy driven business and perhaps eating out is the first thing in the chopping list when people don't have enough disposable income.
However, the good news is that there is always enough people to fill in your place if you don't get scared and make the following 4 main mistakes:- 1. Reducing Your Marketing and Sales
⁃ This looks like a no brainer. If the business is slow, you need to beef-up your marketing, not cut it down.
⁃ However most restaurateurs make the mistake of reducing costs by reducing their marketing investments. Please notice that I am not proposing to spend more money in marketing. There are many ways to increase your marketing presence while decreasing your marketing costs.
⁃ If you haven't done so yet, setup a formalized referral system. This is the best and cheapest way to get and maintain quality clients.
⁃ You can find more information about referral systems in my audio interview. Download here: http://myrestaurantmarketing.com/Products/Audio/Audio.html
2. Cutting Corners in Quality to Save Money
⁃ You may feel tempted to cut down in the quality of your ingredients to save some money but, believe me, your clients will notice that the quality of your dishes is going down and then they will take their money to some of your competitors.
⁃ Because it is a slow economy, this also means that your clients will be more selective in their restaurant picks. Don't lower your quality to save a few bucks. Your clients will resent it and so will you when they don't show up anymore in your place.
3. Reducing Your Work Force⁃ It is OK to adapt your work force to the needs of your restaurant, but don't make the mistake to have so few people in your staff that your service will suffer. Great food and service are the cornerstones of any restaurant and you can't afford to cut any of them.4. Caring More About Saving Money Than Taking Care of Your Clients⁃ Never forget what your restaurant is all about. It is all about your clients. Without clients, there is no business. Without business, there is no restaurant. Don't ever forget that.
Your clients are the lifeblood of your restaurant and in tough times is specially important that you make them feel like royalty. If they are going to spend their hard earned money in your place, you better give them a great reason to do so. After a great dinning experience, they will be more likely to go back to your place than to give their money to your competitors.
This is it, if you can avoid these mistakes, you will be better off than many of your competitors. Don't forget that there are enough clients to fill your restaurant. Only the restaurateurs that forget the basics and try to save money in the wrong places, will suffer the down turn of this always variable economy.
Happy Sailing,Jose L Riesco
© Riesco Consulting Inc.
www.twitter.com/jlriescohttp://www.myrestaurantmarketing.com
