Gift cards are used by local businesses to reward others. Are they using yours? Every day you wonder how can you increase your restaurant sales, did you realize your restaurant gift cards sales are probably the most unused tool in your tool belt. Most restaurant owners think of how they can get consumers to buy […]
If increasing the profitability of your restaurant is one of your goals for 2018, you should make customer retention a top priority.While acquiring new customers is important, retaining existing ones is even more essential for a successful restaurant operation. Retaining Customers is Cheaper Than Acquiring New Ones Retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones. […]
The year has come to a close and the industry sources show that the final quarter of 2015 had the worst traffic growth since the first quarter of 2014. Where have the my restaurant customers gone? Some specific markets are doing well such as California but others have experienced significant declines. Industry sources site such […]
Over the past few years, many restaurant owners I have met with have been very skeptical of review sites such as Yelp or TripAdvisor. They contended that the reviews are false, misleading or competitors just writing bad reviews about them. In some cases they claim that Yelp was misleading in its representation of reviews. Recently […]
Restaurant Margins are tight, we all know that. Rising food cost, minimum wage increases, and competitive pressures make a day to day impact. It’s a tough business, every penny counts, but are you getting every penny your restaurant is earning? I’m sure your distributor is passing along all of the allowances that they get from […]
As we start a new year it is important to take a step back and look at how you did last year. Was it a good year filled with great things that will lead you into 2015? Was your restaurant marketing plan effective? Many restaurants owners I meet with are just too busy to take […]
November is upon us and the holiday planning is set in place for most restaurants. Gift card promotions in place and holiday parties are booked. Fortunately gasoline prices are dropping which will free up discretionary spending. The challenge is to drive traffic into your restaurant and away from the big box stores. Promotions on social […]
Over the past few weeks I have visited with many restaurant owners to discuss what their restaurant marketing programs are and the results they are getting. Some are doing great while others need help in building the business with effective marketing programs. Throughout my conversations, it became apparent that many restaurants are overspending on programs. […]
Where has the customer traffic gone? In recent meetings with clients, the focus has really shifted on how do we build customer traffic counts. The NRA data confirms that customer traffic counts have been declining steadily for several years. Restaurant sales have shown minor increases largely due to price increases. The question still remains the […]
Restaurant’s Changing Lives! That’s a powerful statement. Recently I was in Philadelphia and had lunch at a Maggiano’s Restaurant. When the waiter put down the menu, there was an additional menu in which a percentage of the proceeds were donated to the Make a Wish Foundation. A great program to help those in need. Taking […]
Every week I speak with restaurant owners in many parts of the country. In each conversation, they tell me of their concerns in running their restaurant business. In each of these conversations they all expressed many of the same concerns and they revolve around these five issues: Growing sales and reducing cost. Rising food cost […]
With food costs rising every week are your restaurants profits taking a hit? Almost every day there is something in the news about the price of something going up. Beef, pork, dairy, and coffee are all going up. As a restaurant owner, what is your strategy to handling these increases? Some chains will be raising […]
Recently I came across a study that was done by Deloitte consulting on loyalty within the restaurant industry. It is a very good analysis of loyalty in the industry, but another fact caught my attention. The study looked at driving factors of why consumers go to restaurants. There are many factors that drive our decisions […]
How do restaurant operators look at the cost of marketing? The NRA’s guidelines for restaurant marketing says that restaurants should allocate anywhere between two and four percent on restaurant marketing. Do restaurant owners follow this model when budgeting for their business? Like many families, the budget sometimes goes out the window when juggling expenses. The […]
Understanding the lifetime value of your customer is important part of restaurant marketing. What is a customer worth to you? 2014 is off to a crazy start. A recent article on Fox Business News cited that the winter weather has impacted small business by as much as 13% in the first two months of the […]