Certainly if you are a restaurant business owner, you have invested time, money and dedication into setting up your dream restaurant or a cafe. Keeping customers happy and giving them a nice first-time experience should be the goal of every restaurant business owner as this is what makes you retain your customers. Customer retention is significant for business because customer loyalty helps run the business regularly and even let you attract new customers through recommendations. According to a study, even a 5% increase in customer retention means increased profit by 25% to 95%. As a restaurant business owner, you can attain customer retention with few tips.
Obviously great tasting food and service is what keeps you in the business but it is not enough today to bring your customers back. During these current times, where everything is about social media, an average human being makes his choice of an eat-out based on the aesthetic level of pictures on Instagram. Hence, your restaurant venue should be something that is unique and photo-friendly. You can always try to do something extremely creative with your place by trying new ideas. So many restaurants today become famous with unique venue themes and its presence on social media.
When restaurants post about their aesthetic ambiance on Instagram, it attracts thousands of customers who are interested in experiencing the unique dining experience. While planning this creative decision, try to think of anything that can make your restaurant venue stand out amongst others, especially your competitors. A simple wall, swing or a picture booth can make a big difference at times. It is also one of the best forms of marketing because your customers will share their pictures on your venue with their social circle and all this will happen for free. Moreover, you can always change your interior design after 3 or 6 months for more people to keep visiting.
In a food business, customers are happiest when they get a feeling that the food they are spending for is value for money. For example, a specific customer may feel overly-charged for a burger meal that comes with the price of a steak meal. Thus, planning food charges based on perceived value for money is extremely important. You can achieve this by thorough research of different restaurants, particularly in your region of business. Nonetheless, keep the prices competitive. Furthermore, freebies such as an open salad bar, free refills and complimentary dessert is a great way to win your customer’s heart.
The menu of your restaurant is the first sneak-peek to your business. It gives your customer a snapshot of the kind of experience they should look forward to. Well-designed and well-explained menu is good for the overall communication your restaurant is going to make with the customer. Menu becomes the spokesperson for your restaurant personality. Thus, menu planning should be given enough time and attention keeping in mind your target audience.
According to experts, the ideal menu is the one that is a blend of old entrees, unique dishes and new dishes as well. Your restaurant should have classic dishes such as burgers and pastas, unique dishes such as crab gratins and some new dishes like fruit granolas. Beauty of your dish is also what draws customers to come back again, hence plan your menu keeping in mind the imagination-visualization a customer can get while reading the ingredients or sideliners.
Restaurant business should be everything good with the best food. Quality of your food is your primary priority in business while all the other things may come secondary. No customer will return to your food place no matter how good it looks if it serves bad food. The kind of food products your chefs use to cook dishes matters greatly in maintaining the top quality of your food. Goody Professional food products are something you can always start from for your food product supply and needs. Moreover, maintain the standard of the kitchen at all times to maintain consistency and make sure that each customer receives the same quantity and quality of the meal.
Nothing in business speaks for itself as much as the food service speaks for the restaurant in the food business. The food a customer eats at your restaurant appeals to their taste but an amazing food service at your restaurant will appeal to their character or personality. Food service is the gist of overall dining experience. For your restaurant, hire staff that is friendly, helpful, presentable and have a great product knowledge. While interviewing people, always shortlist the best ones because they will become the face of your restaurant business. Always remember that the quality of your food service can either make or break your restaurant.
Social media is an extremely smart way to remind your customers that they should come visit your restaurant again in unique ways. Your social media postings should not speak for your great quality food only but it should post enticing pictures, punny content and seasonal promotions according to your restaurant personality. If you learn the art of using social media to your advantage and create a social media marketing strategy that works effectively, you win!
The restaurant industry is one of the most competitive industries. One of the major challenges faced by restaurants is retaining customers. Restaurants need to come up with a strategy that will help them retain customers. Offering special discounts on food and beverages, providing a unique experience such as live music or an art exhibition or providing a personalized welcome for every customer are some of the very simple yet very impactful creative strategies to retain customers. While your customer spends time at your cafe, make sure you can come up with unique ideas to make every minute of their time turn into an opportunity for you to make them come back to your restaurant and tell people how good your restaurant is for them to visit.
