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Every restaurateur’s pleasure would be to see his restaurant full of customers, orders piling up and uncountable plates leaving the kitchen, ready to be served to customers and yes, spikes in sales. However, at some point, the majority of restaurants face days with very slow sales, fewer walk-ins, fewer orders for delivery and just very dull sales revenue.
Here are 4 strategies you can use to turn this norm around.
You can set up your weekly promotional campaigns on slower days. You can strategize promotional campaigns as well as incentive programs for your restaurant. A good example of this would be to adopt a campaign such as ‘Mexican Tuesdays’ with promotional prices which encourages families to dine out for Mexican food on a Tuesday night instead of cooking at home on Tuesdays which is usually a slow day.
With the use of a restaurant management software, you will be able to collect enough customer data to create effective and well targeted marketing campaigns. Additionally, you can send text notifications to customers regarding special offers as well as discounts. Sending customers birthday and anniversary discounts based on the customer database is also a great way to increase customer loyalty.
According to Statista (2020) online ordering at restaurants is up 12.6% since last year and has been on an increasing trend for a while. Better yet, online ordering is expected to triple by the end of 2020. This transition to off-premise dining means that restaurants such as yours should acclimate operations to suffice the demands and requests of customers.
Enhancing the discoverability and usability of your online ordering platform is one of the most simple and efficient ways to seize online sales, particularly during the slow moving weekdays where most customers prefer the grab and go option. Ensuring that your online ordering system is visible on your website and social media channels as well as proper advertising inside your restaurant such as on table menus, bathroom signs and even on the receipt is key to boosting your online sales.
Having easily visible signs for where to pick up online orders such as a particular counter or shelf will also improve the efficacy of your online ordering process. Additionally, it will also increase the awareness of guests dining in who were strangers to the fact that you have an online ordering process.
Mondays and Tuesdays are the most problematic days for restaurateurs, research suggests. The reason being the absolutely slow sales and walk-ins due to the start of the working week for most individuals. One interesting method however to drive sales during these slow days is to have a special event or a themed night which customers might find enjoyable and interesting regardless of it being a Monday or Tuesday.
Two good ideas for such nights could be: TV themed nights where your restaurant can broadcast a new episode of say the latest episode of a sitcom or some other TV series on Netflix. Couple that along with a special offer such as buy 2 get 1 free or 50% off the second purchase, wow! Count me in!
Another rather interesting idea for an event would be an ‘Around the world night’ where customers can enjoy a choice of cuisine from various cultures around the world. Both these methods can be quite appealing to the majority and are definite to better your slow nights!
The creation of exclusive offers for weekdays is a good way to increase customer visits on lazy days at the restaurant. An important example of this is how the renowned restaurant chain Barbeque Nation has a lower price label on its weekday buffet in comparison to the weekend buffet. With referral to your previous sales history, POS systems will give you reports for each item sold or in stock. Based on the performance of these items, you can alter the prices or play around with special offers and promotions on these items.
Liquor items have better profit margins that food however, a great idea would be to follow value pricing on weekdays which would bring about much more dine-ins. Talk about cheap booze after a long day or work, now that’s what I’m talking about.
Originally published FEBRUARY 25, 2020
