How to Get More Customers in Your Restaurant

It all started in Vancouver a few years ago.  A Japanese style Korean Barbeque chain from Japan decided to open a location in Vancouver. 

They selected their location, which happened to be a space that was WAY too big in the eyes of Vancouver restaurant professionals. It was also a place where time after time, restaurants had previously failed to succeed.

You see, the space was too large for such an obscure chain restaurant doing food and drinks that "normal" Vancouver people might not have been able to relate to, or so the “experts” said.

On top of being too large, the location was bad, impossible to see, and set well back from the road. In addition, parking all around the area was VERY expensive.

You see, it just couldn't work. Unless they had some kind of a secret weapon.

You could almost hear the little restaurant saying, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”

Now, they already had the secret weapon. It was secret, and simple; so secret, that they could hide it right in plain sight and not have anyone copy them; so simple that most restaurant owners would argue that it is not only unnecessary, but just might be frowned upon by customers.

Genius? YES. But … frowned upon?  

This simple secret weapon wasn't really a hard thing to do, but it would take some time, some training, some effort, and possibly even have a small cost.

You see, it would be hard to implement (according to most restaurant owners), as someone would have to be made responsible to do it right.  A member of the overworked staff, who already had no time at all when it was busy, might have to add another task to their job. 

Of course, as a restaurant owner this is always difficult, as you wouldn't want to put your staff out with a work task they might not like, or feel uncomfortable doing. Worse, you wouldn't want to pay someone else to outsource it.  You see, it just won’t work, so most restaurants never even bother.

Let’s also not forget the fact that almost no one in the restaurant industry uses this very simple, secret weapon, so it must be a bad idea!  As a restaurant owner, you probably believe that this secret weapon is something so simple and so silly, that you won’t like it or believe that it could possibly work!

So...just what is this secret weapon?

Sorry, not so fast.

Let me tell you what happened when 'the little restaurant that could' took a chance on 'the secret weapon'...

This obscure little restaurant, did the hard work to set up this secret weapon for only about the first 3 months of its existence.

Then it reaped the rewards of its awesome power.

They were busy. Well...they were more than just 'busy. They actually had customers lined up almost constantly for the following two years, and even to this day, just by utilizing OVER and OVER this very simple secret weapon.

It likely cost them less than $250 to set up.  It costs them under $100 a month to maintain.

They have now opened another location in Vancouver, and they adopted the same secret weapon that helped them build their clientèle in their first location, for location 2.  Now, the 2^nd location has been packed since opening day.

Ok, enough of the suspense.

What is the secret weapon this restaurant has so successfully employed?

DATA!

Yep, simple data.

Well, I guess it’s not just data. It's DATA that they collected, and now utilize almost once a week.

So, let’s take a look at how they implemented and utilized this secret weapon called "DATA".

They collected their data the "old school" way, and we suggest that this is always at least one method of data collection.

Yes, we know there are iPads, and Surfaces, and various other types of tablet device, and iPhones and Android devices, and all of this "smart" technology, but sometimes the "old school" way is better, as it's more familiar to many of your restaurant guests.

Yes, you should have a QR code that sits on a card and offers people to join your mailing list by filling in a simple survey from their smart phone, and SOME will.

YES you should have a very short URL to redirect to your survey/data collection landing page for those who prefer to do it this way.

YES you could suggest that your customers  give their twitter name, name and email address by twitter (if they have a Twitter name).

YES you should ask them to follow you on Facebook.

BUT…

This company didn't do ANY of those things for the first 3 months.

They simply gave out a small 1/8 of a page mini survey/feedback paper to each person at the table, along with the bill.

They offered all who subscribed to the newsletter an entry in a monthly draw for a $100 restaurant gift certificate.

They started with a random pen left at the table to fill in this overly photocopied ugly piece of paper, that wasn't even cut straight (darn hard to get good help in a restaurant)!

Then they "upped their game" and gave out a golf pencil that was branded with the restaurant name. They were even encouraged to take it home if they'd like.

Then the magic happened.

The restaurant owner actually did something with the data!

He made someone responsible for actually entering the data into a CRM type sales automation system.  They likely used the simplest one around, or who knows, maybe even just did it with Outlook. 

Regardless of how they did it (because it really doesn't matter), they TOOK ACTION.  They made it someone’s JOB to enter this data nightly, or who knows, maybe the paid a subcontractor to do it.  And yep, I'm sure many of the surveys had hard to read email addresses, and I'd bet the bounce rate was out of this world too.

By month 3, I bet ½ or more were duplicates so they were wasting time.

But they kept entering.

Right from the first week of collecting this data, they sent out an email showing off specials during certain times of day, OR letting customers know that "Monday is ALL DAY Happy Hour!  $9.99 pitchers of beer at the time, ALL DAY Monday"!

Within weeks MONDAYS were packed.

Pretty soon they were full to capacity every day.

They didn't sweat that many of the emails couldn't be used because they couldn't read them.

They didn't worry about the fact that their survey paper looked awful.

They didn't stress that their staff didn't feel comfortable handing out the survey.

They didn't worry that their pencils got taken home more often than not.

They just continued to tweak their secret weapon.

They continued to USE their secret weapon.

They continued to be full to capacity, night after night.

They opened another location, rinse and repeat.

Imagine if they had an even more robust secret weapon.

One that would have taken away some of the cost and time by giving patrons options like mentioned above; 

• Having an iPad at the bar or front desk to have people join the mailing list while they wait for a table.
• Taking the Survey by QR code
• Taking the Survey by Simple URL
• Taking the Survey by submitting a Direct Message on Twitter, or a mention on twitter.

The 'little restaurant that could' continues to be a booming success, month after month, year after year, while restaurants in better locations, with better themes and menus than they have, in Vancouver, with better parking, continue to fail.

Not one of the failures employed the secret weapon.

This is where the story gets better!

This great Korean Barbeque Japanese restaurant went a step further;

They started a loyalty program with an actual member card.  Patrons received points for eating at the restaurant, and they could then redeem those points to get $25 off of their meal once they had accumulated enough points.

Again, "old school"; the waiter/waitress had to take the member card, and disappear into the back, likely login to some system that allowed them to track your purchase, and how many points you had, and notify you manually when you had enough points to redeem.

The little restaurant continued to evolve, they continued to add power to their secret weapon.

They connected the loyalty program to their POS (point of sale terminal, or cash register).

The customer receipt now told the customer what his point balance was at the end of each visit.

Customers could EMAIL in a picture of their receipt if they forgot their card, and it was someone’s JOB to match it up in the system, and credit that customer. Goodness me...what a terrible thing to make a staff member do when they're so busy! 

By now I think you might be starting to see that this company had a bigger secret weapon than just their data; they had the determination to make it happen, instead of making excuses for why it might be too hard, or that the staff might not like it.

Then they upgraded their secret weapon again!

They invested in a simple mobile app!

This now allowed people to join them for the purpose of getting updates, as an app, and of course we all know a mobile app sends out push notifications instantly vs. the email mailing list that can take some time to send once it gets large enough.

Using the app allowed their message to be received in real time, and not end up in a spam folder, or ignored by a "millennial" who only looks at their email once a week, if that!

Then they upgraded the weapon again.

The entire loyalty program was now contained in the Mobile Application!

Customers could literally redeem their points for something free, right in front of the waitress, and it was brought to them. Now, instead of waiting till the customer had $25 built up, he could redeem for even a $5 item.

The patrons responded, and continue to respond. The 'little restaurant that could' is packed full night after night, and even has a very healthy lunch crowd.

RESTAURANT UTOPIA!

Do you know anybody who owns a restaurant that might want to employ the deluxe version of a secret weapon like this?

Small Biz Dream would be happy to HELP!

CLICK HERE to receive more information on how to implement your own 'secret weapon' for your business...

This entire account is from the author's Small Business Consulting point of view from the outside looking in, as a regular customer, and curious business analyst, not with intimate knowledge of how they handled all the details on the inside.