Ways for Restaurant Owners to Expand Their Customer Base

As the recession continues, restaurant owners need to find new revenue streams. One of the best ways of doing this is to expand your customer base. Here are some simple ideas that you can implement to increase your customer base and as a result your profits.

Make your menu affordable to everyone. Don’t leave anybody out
Lunch time is usually a time for customers to get in and out. You’ll always want specials on the board that are quick and easy; and cheap. You need to produce efficiently to get the customers in and out as quickly as possible. Dinner time is a more relaxed experience for customers. They will take their time when choosing menu options and they will look at a wider range of choices. It is always a great idea to offer options that range anywhere from $7.99 for a Spaghetti &Meatballs to a Heavy NY Strip for $18.99. You are, therefore, opening the menu to different customers and wallet sizes.

Advertisement on a Local Radio Station
If you can find a local radio station, usually it ends up being an AM station to advertise for you, it will significantly boost your sales. I did this with an AM station every Monday morning. The disc jockey would ask me questions about specials, my background, location, menu items, do we serve alcohol, etc. I was allotted a time slot for every week. I would often mention specials for the listeners and as soon as I hung up the phone, my phone lines would blow up before I was even open for business. The cost to me was around $170.00 a month. That’s a fraction of funds compared to advertisements in local newspapers or magazines. I had drones of people coming in to meet me that heard me on the radio.

Lucky Rock Bags
Take a box of sandwich bags, put a river rock in the bag to weigh it down, and include your menu, a coupon, upcoming specials, and locations. You throw these out on people driveways. The typical reaction when people call is that they received a bag in their driveway and this was the first time they were trying the restaurant or heard of you. Unfortunately, you will have a choice few that will be upset that the bag that actually landed in their driveway was purposively thrown in a bush or on their perfectly manicured lawn. I usually shrug these people off since they have never worked a day in their life in a restaurant. After all, we have free speech and this is a way for you to get your name out. That’s all I tell them.

Participate in Food Competitions to increase customer base
I have participated in these for a couple of years now and the feedback you get is incredible. There are hundreds of people that are walking around trying local fare. You can meet and greet the locals, tell them about yourself, and hand out menus. It’s also a great way for potential customers to sample your items before they visit your location.

Write a blog to gain customers
There are so many resources available on the web for you to write about your restaurant. Most of the time these websites are free and they will get the word out about specials you’re running, location, menu items, and other pertinent information about your particular restaurant. Some of the best websites for blogging on restaurants is chowhound, cooks, and pizza.com.

Have a Newspaper write an Article
An article about your restaurant is a great source of free advertising for your restaurant and can have a real impact on your business. A restaurateur that I know had one of the most popular newspapers from his area do an article about his restaurant in January 2007. They interviewed some of his best customers and asked them to put their two cents in. They took a picture of him cooking in his chef jacket. The article described his life as a chef, his background, and his favorite items to cook. He still busy 6 months after the article came out. This was due to the fact that the article had attracted new customers to his restaurant that ended up becoming regular customers of his. People were even traveling from 2 hours away to visit his restaurant.

Make a club and Email List
For example, you could form a pizza of the month club. Then twice a month you would provide the customers with an XLarge specialty pizza, 6 garlic rolls, 2 desserts, 2 salads, and one appetizer for $39.95. It’s your club, so you can do what you want to. Be creative. You can create an email list within this club to let your customer base know what the specialty pizza of the month is going to be or upcoming events.

Wine Tastings
Depending on your clientele, this is an extremely lucrative way to have other streams of income coming in. This is, of course, is dependent on if you have a Beer and Wine License. You can combine your food with the type of wine the wine guy has brought for tasting.

Cooking Classes
Provide classes to your customers each week about a particular aspect of cooking, a technique, a type of cuisine, etc. This can be worked around your restaurant hours. This is a great way to develop relationships with your customers.

Catering
This is a lot work and often times you need a lot of employees to help. You need a form of transportation that will safely transport the food without diminishing the quality. This requires planning and knowledge. For example, you need to know the portions sizes for a certain amount of people and have to remember to take every item you need for service with you. Catering can be a great source of new revenue, whether it be peparing food for private parties (weddings) or delivering lunch for local businesses.


Some of the ideas in this post come from an article by Lauren Axelrod, published in Business on August 2, 2008. To read the original article, click here.