We ve owned a family diner and lounge business in a small town for 11 years, and recently business has been way down.There s a very similar restaurant directly across the street, but that hasn t been a problem before and right now their business is booming and ours is dead.A Subway opened a few weeks ago, which was a big deal but it hasn t been incredibly busy. There s also a Chinese restaurant, Burger Baron, and gas station diner, but none of that has affected our business before.What could we possibly do to gain customers? We ve tried specials and senior-sized portions of everything since the town has a lot of seniors in it.
Make sure your spoons aren t greasy.
Visit your most successful competitors and see what they may be doing better or different than you that attracts the people who go there. Or, ask some of their customers why they go there. Look for obvious differences between the different choices in your town. If Subway is killing you, find a few $5.00 options for the customers so they have a decision to make about where to go with their $5.00 lunch money. After you find out what the people like about the competition make some changes to your business which will attract those customers to your place. Then try to do it even a little better.Good luck.
The current economic conditions can be a major reason as to why a lot of people are not choosing to spend money outside. As for the restaurant across the street, maybe they have better prices? more variety of dishes?Maybe try asking your customers, what dishes they liked and didn t like.Hope this helps, Good luck with your restaurant.
Try a couple of promotions-- like a free appetizer or desert on a certain night of the week that is traditionally slow-- or a buy 1 get one free dinner or something similar.Put in a comment box-- or offer a coupon for people who fill out a comment card to find out if there are things you need to improve.Maybe get the word out in a newspaper or mail circular.
Advertise! You won t get customers unless they know about you. Work with your local radio station.
try some different menu items and then advertise those new items so people will come in and try it.
come up with a few recipies that are very unique and can t be found anywhere else! if people like them they will keep coming back for more! :oP
Give free food everynow and then , make sure it delicious, and people will come back , We love to eat out ............Good Luck
The best thing to do is, advertise! nothing beats it
People go to restaurants for 3 basic reasons, good food, good service, and a good experience. (Note, prices are not a reason. People are willing to pay for those 3 things)People stopped coming for a reason, find out what that reason is. Walk around and ask people Have you ever heard of This Restaurant ? If they say no, tell them about it, if they say yes, ask them if they have ever eaten there, when the last time they ate there, and why they have not been back recently. Don t tell them that its your restaurant unless they ask, or you ve asked all these questions all ready. Invite them back!Get out of your restaurant and bring people in. Take your most profitable dish, make it bite-sized and give away free samples. Dont just give them free samples, but tell them what it is, where its from, and how they can get more. Talk to your customers, have your waiters talk to them, ask them what they like and what they don t like. Not in the middle of their meal, but as they re leaving. If the hostess is not busy, tell her to make sure the customers had a good time, good food, and good service, and if there is anything that could be improved for their next visit. Invite them back!Its also possible that your menu is out of date, look through your sales numbers for each item (if you have them), it might be time to take the lowest-selling item off the menu and replace it with something new (This is a good way to motivate your cooks into coming up with new ideas, and making them feel more like a part of the restaurant).Specials only work when you have customers already, they re not going to bring many in the door, everyone always has some kind of special, its almost expected when you go to a restaurant. Go eat at the restaurant across the street, taste their food, analyze their service, look around,is it clean? are you happy to eat there?what don t you like about it? what do you like about it? Eat at your other competition, answer those same questions. Then, eat at your restaurant, compare it to everywhere else you ve been, see what you think needs improving. (Its helpful if you bring one of your staff/co-workers with you because they might pick up on something you didnt. (Plus thie cost of the meals are tax-deductible as a business expense if the business pays for them, since you re doing research for your business)Good Luck, hope this helps.
