In the digital age, customer reviews have become a crucial component of a restaurant’s marketing strategy. Word-of-mouth has always been a powerful tool in the restaurant industry, and with the advent of online review sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Reviews, customers can easily share their experiences with a wider audience. But how can […]
September 1st is fast approaching, and the COVID-19 crisis is not letting up. Many states are reporting increased cases and travel restrictions are in 30 states. Some states, like Pennsylvania, have reduced seating capacity in restaurants to 25%. With all this happening, it makes me wonder, what will restaurants do in the fall? Think about […]
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. […]
A new year, a new start. Many restaurants view this as an opportunity to start fresh with a new menu. Last year is over and it was a tough one for many restaurants. Many major chains went through buyouts, many restaurants closed. The brave that made it were concerned much of the year. Time for […]
Are Your Employees Hurting Your Profits? We all agree there are many moving parts that impact the profitability of a restaurant, one of the key ingredients that is often overlooked are your employees. If you think about it, they are more than just servers and cooks. Every action they take has an impact on your […]
Day in a day out you work at your passion of building your restaurant business. You have a vision and a dream of what success is like etched in your mind. You work hard every day to make it happen. Then you wake up and look around you. Reality sets in, you are running from […]
Restaurant leadership is like being the head coach of a professional football team. Depending on your business, you team may be large or it could be a small handful of players. Either way, it takes a leader to get all the parts functioning independently and producing a product as a team. Think of the football team. You have the […]
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 […]
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 […]
When was the last time your restaurant’s website made you money? The majority of restaurant websites that I take a look at are not really helping restaurant owners increase revenue. Yes, a website is designed to create awareness and promote a professional image, but it can also drive new traffic and create new revenue streams for […]
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 […]
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 […]