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This question has been closed, and points have been awarded.
Increasing Dinner Sales Effectively
Posted By: gsofn20* on 6/29/2005 4:53 AM (CST) 250 Points
I have a greek rest (with a full bar) and I do very well for lunches, not that I would turn away more lunch business, but I am happy with what I have. I offer the same menu for lunch and dinner and dont raise my prices, where many rest do. I have counter service (cust order and pay at counter and food is delivered to them at table) for my lunches to make things faster but I have a full service wait staff on in the evenings. Some nights we are swamped and others we are dead as a doornail, while other rest in the area seam so much more consistant. I am trying to let word of mouth carry me, and all of my customers tell me they love my food and I see new faces regularly. I have done radio, local and city newspapers, complimentary drink cards, and billboard advertising. Most of those arent cheap and I really didnt see a return. I have been open for a year and a half and I dont want to become a coupon joint, not only does it tarnish the rest image, but also I dont want to have cheap customers. I just want what everyone in this business wants. I opened because I love the food industry and want to provide good food affordably while also make a living. Everyone knows you dont become a millionare owning a rest, but you can make a good living at it. Loyalty cards-- how do they work? Maybe some of you have some other suggestions? I want to establish a dinner business so that I can get some of that gravy everyone in this business loves to talk about. lol

Posted by: Mushfique Manzoor Accepted Answer
6/29/2005 6:50 AM (CST)
hi there

where is the restaurant located?? as a consumer i have seen that location is a big factor in the restaurant business. again, what kind of food you serve, all types of food or specialty food like chinese or indian or continental or all?? i suggest you to provide us more details about these.

anyway, the following are my 2 cents .....

1. yes, you hit it right, develop a priviledge card(loyalty program) for all your regular customers and offer them benefit if they have dinner like free drinks for every person (champagne, wine). this really helps in bringing back consumers and spreading WOM, but remember WOM also depends on the food quality.

2. Develop a Referral Program, in which you encourage your existing consumers to refer your restaurant to others and for each new customer, the referring customer will gather points and will win/get some gifts from your restaurant.

3. why dont you try to bring the people who have lunch at your place for dinner also. Organize a Bundle Offer for lunch and dinner.

4. if you in Financial districts, then there are business hotels, try to tap those and place some brochures for the guests of the hotels. most of the business travelers want to taste different restaurants other than their hotels.

5. develop a "Happy Price Menu" of say $15 or $20 for dinner and have multiple food items on that menu to choose from. also have combination menus and be flexible in meeting consumers' wants.

6. try to organize Exotic Dinner Week. during each of these weeks you have Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Brazilian Foods so that the consumers are attracted to taste these new and exotic foods. remember the quality and authencity of the food is imperative to be successful. during these Exotic Dinner Week create the entire atmosphere of the restaurant in that country flavour with native music, decorations etc.

7. also, if possible organize Country wise"Wine Festival" at your restaurant like Australian, Chilean, French, South African, Italian etc. wines. you can do the same event for the Champagne of various countries. this will create attraction for the consumers to have dinner at your place.

8. Organize a Musical Evening (i.e. Jazz, Classical, Pop etc.) on weekends so that people can enjoy an entire evening while having dinner with their loved ones.

now to communicate all these promotions you can try the folloiwing apart from what you have done.....

- Tie up with the credit card companies and send promotion brochures along with the credit card bills.

- put promotion flyers inside the newspapers and deliver to all the households rather than printing ads in paper which is costly. for this you need to tap the newspaper boys.

- in US all the newspapers are delivered in a rolled form. try to make a cylindrical cover of the rolled newspaper and use that to communicate the promotion. this will make the consumer to read the flyer(the cylinder).

- above all always advertise in and around your restaurant (inner wall and outer wall, doors, glass panes) about your "Today's Dinner Special" just to entice all those who have breakfast and lunch and those who pass by your restaurants.

you can also check the following links to previous question on restaurant.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=5678

http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=3897

http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=3090

hope these helps.

cheers!!
 
Posted by: michael Accepted Answer
6/29/2005 10:31 AM (CST)
Are you the only Greek restaurant in town and are YOU Greek? One good idea is to start networking with other Greek restaurants in other cities. Owners of these don't post on KHE, but they might be a great resource.

Here's a listing: http://yellowpages.superpages.com/listings.jsp?STYPE=S&SRC=&C=greek+restaur...

Michael
 
Posted by: jmueller* Accepted Answer
6/29/2005 10:58 AM (CST)
Hi-

A few things that have worked well in terms of luring me to a restaurant:

1.) Deliver menus to neighborhoods in the area. Let them know you are open for dinner.

2.) Kids eat free nights. Sorry, parents love this. My friends with kids know EVERY restaurant and I mean every place that offers this and which nights of the week.
1 Free kid meal with each parent meal.

3.)Deliver food to the local radio station while the DJ's are on-air. They love it and will mention it on air. Pick one day of the week and one station and do it without fail until they mention it.

4.) Host a local charity event. Go to the local police and fire departments, ask for a few officers to donate 2 hours of their time.Have the police officers and firemen wait tables that night and give 10% of proceeds to who ever draws the most people in. (Example, if the police officers get more people coming in requesting their table, at the end of the night they get to pick their charity that you will donate to.) Tell all the local tv stations because they will send a news crew out.
Now you get free tv coverage and all the folks coming out to support their local police/fire crew. Plus you have the benefit of their PR department promoting it as well.

Also, offer police and EMS 50% their meals while on duty. These folks are hugely loyal. Back when I was in college and waited tables at TGI Fridays, they did this and every night we had officers in eating.

4.)Forget billboards, they won't work for you. Get a guy to go outside on the busiest street corner near your place and hold up a big sign with your dinner special and the price. Pay him extra to dance around and create attention.

5.)Call your local paper and ask whoever does the restaurant reviews to come and review your place.

6.)Offer free live entertainment. Get someone to play guitar or sing.

7.) Goto local schools and tell them you will display students art work and change it monthly. This way, kids come in with their parents, grandparents, ect.. to show off their work. Most parents work, so they'll do it in the evening. If you only pick 30 pieces monthly, and then change them, you know those 30 kids want their parents to see where their art was specially selected to hang. Again, this works wonders with my friends with kids-gets them everytime.

Good luck!
 
Posted by: jmueller* Member Response
6/29/2005 11:01 AM (CST)
One more thing-since you have a full service bar.

Put together a small buffet of free food and offer during "happy hour." Deliver a flyers to all local business. Everyone loves a happy hour.

I know every place in town where I can get some food to munch on and get a drink. 9 times out of 10 I end up staying for dinner. It will cost you a little bit in the beginning, but it will pay off with word of mouth.
 
Posted by: KAU* Accepted Answer
6/30/2005 11:56 PM (CST)
One thing that works really well for lunch time crowd is having a really good special for lunch only.

Olive Garden has a lunch special for 6 or 7 bucks that is really good and draws plenty of people. It is every day so then WORD OF MOUTH works. If you change your special each day like some restaurants then WOM probably won't occur.

Joey's Only has a lunch special. Its the only time I visit the restaraunt. I get two peices of fish and unlimited fries for like 6.49 CND. or 5.99. Can't remember.

Make a permanent lunch special so that people always know they can eat lunch and have their favorite X meal for $x.xx. Just have a sign outside of your restaraunt or in the window advertising the lunch special. IF it truly is a good deal (as a special should be!) then you will do fine. Sometimes the lunch crowd can be a different type of consumer. That way you get your restaurant known to more people. They may visit you for supper too. Not to mention they may bring coworkers there for lunch and the coworkers may not eat the special... Or could become regular customers.

If your food is good, they will come back and perhaps try other items.

Oh and you may have a slight stigma since Greek food sounds like its just olives or anchoves or something. Do a quick survey of people on the street and ask them what type of greek food they like. You'll be surprised that many won't know any. Educate.

Heck, even host some sort of 2nd Year Anniversary, FREE LUNCH (a small plate with a sampler of a few different items that the avg joe schmoe and young kids actually like. Give it a small neat name that is easy to remember. Name the item your own special name if you have to.)(Give them something cheap, but tasty) for all visitors. And have some big signs outside the restaurant on the anniversary date(Balloons and stuff). You will draw plenty of people in, they will get to sample a few items (just small helpings) and you will perhaps convert some more consumers to Greek food eating, restaraunt visitors and loyal customers.


I know I might not go into a Greek restaurant. But if I am driving by the place and there is a 2nd year anniversary with free lunch advertised... Well you will draw a crowd that will finally Try your restaurant. If some of the samplers that I ate, I really liked....I would come back. .....If that doesn't get business booming....well geez..

But what do I know, I'm young.
 
Posted by: Mushfique Manzoor Member Response
7/3/2005 3:21 AM (CST)
john mueller, some great ideas indeed, specially the children's painting display, and the Happy Hour.

cheers!!
 
Posted by: Fiona10 Accepted Answer
7/3/2005 11:53 PM (CST)
An idea that I have seen in action and that works, it made me go back and back, was a business size card that recorded the amount I spent on dinner. When the total reached $500 I was given a $40 meal voucher.
When the card was full, there was enough room for at least 2 meal vouchers, it was placed in a large glass container on the bar and once a year the owner would pull out a card and giveaway a prize to the value of $500.
It was done at our local thai restaurant, they served top quality food made from fresh produce that was well priced. This reward system worked in 2 ways, it allowed the restaurant staff to build a relationship with the customers, thus reinforcing the diners relationship with the restaurant and it gave the locals an incentive to dine in more often. (they have a great takeaway business as well)

A second idea is to introduce a small discount for locals that is available only for dinner, you don't even need to print anything to promote, it can be by word of mouth, they could prove that they are local by showing their driver's licence.

Just ask when they pay if they are a local. In the first instance they will be pleasantly surprised and they will be back again, especially if you have also delivered a great experience. (they will tell their neighbours as well)

It really is about changing habits; get them in, give them great food and service at a fair price, giving customers an incentive to keep coming back.

On a personal note, we have moved away from the area that the Thai restaurant is in but still make an effort to dine there when we are in town. They still remember our names (and sometimes our usual order) That makes us feel good and we will continue to spend our money there.
All the best.
 
Posted by: Jaded* Accepted Answer
7/6/2005 1:30 AM (CST)
Work on your PR, reviews in local weekly magazines or the newspaper wil do wonders (if the reviews are good)

Are you in a large metro area or a small area? For your region is Greek food exotic or normal?

If Greek food is "interesting" offer a show with a prix fixed menu with a couple of courses (a la Morrocan restaurants. salad, hot appetizer, entree, dessert, tea and belly dancers for about $30 in northern california...really fun night out)

Offer a special tasting menu, maybe greek olive oil, ouzo, wine, cheese. Find a cooking club near by and offer lessons for the club. Typically cooking club members are foodies and influencers.

Get a popular DJ to spin on an off night, typically DJs have lots of friends and "influencers"

Do you have a "bar menu?" You can always cash-in on the "small plates" trend and I know there are lots of Greek Tapas by hosting a "taps" night and invite your work lunch crowd.
 
Posted by: Jaded* Member Response
7/6/2005 1:33 AM (CST)
Lastly: make friends with the bell hops and concierges in your local hotels: lots of people choose restaurants that way. Are there other like-minded business nearby that attract your clientele?

Book stores, boutiques and so on? Do they have a bulletin board section? Add menus or fliers there. As long as they are attractive and on nice paper, people will pick it up. Are there nearby apartment omplexes? Drop off a few menus with management, at the door, near the mail boxes or with the associations.
 
Posted by: alain* Accepted Answer
7/14/2005 5:36 AM (CST)
Hi
there are three classical ways to increase sales
1. expand customer base
2. increase frequency of purchase
3. increase sales per sale oportunity.

most of the guys have focused on steps to increase your customer base- this is the most expensive method as it requires advertising etc. (p.s. i like the idea of having special evenings but would not move away from greek theme as then you lose your "brand" identity and become a hodge podge of thai/greek/somalian food.

to increase the frequency of purchases a loyalty card program would do well. but take a step back, im sure that by now you can identify most of your regular clientele. give them a drink on the house, sit down with them and find out why they dont come at night time, maybe they live to far, or they are bored of the same meal for lunch and supper, or whatever. if you speak with your clientele you will get the best answers.
to increase sales per sales opportunity start promoting deserts, bundle products together, have wines that are suggested with meals, consider a wine sales force - waiters who go to the tables with wines of the day etc.
good luck
 
Posted by: carrie77 Moderator Response
7/21/2005 8:15 AM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to reward the contributions of participants in a timely manner + to give increased visibility to the newer questions.

Thanks for participating!
Carrie (Production Editor)
 


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