November 7, 2009
It's time to answer the many e-mails I've received concerning how to increase sales in your restaurants on an individual basis. Here's the way I did local store marketing when I was in the trenches. (Some of this you have heard before and some you have practiced, but here it is in one place.)
Let's make the assumption that your basics—quality, service, cleanliness, and value—are OK. If not, fix them quick. You can't increase sales if it takes 30 minutes to get a clean fork, the place looks like a gym, and it takes two credit cards to pay the bill.
Are you ready for the secret? It's called Path of Least Resistance, or POLR. Always think POLR. Look for the easiest way to raise sales. Harvest the tree from the bottom. Do it the smart way.
With POLR in mind, turn your attention to your current customers. After all, they already come to you. They will be easier to get one more visit from. But how? Talk to them, find out what they want.
Usually it's rewards or excitement. Rewards could be anything from a free coffee once in a while to a frequent-dining club. Maybe they have never tried your breakfast and only come for lunch. Maybe they only come during the week and never thought to come on the weekend. After all, we are creatures of habit. Give them a reason to amend their habits. A special timed promotion that's good only on Saturday often works.
If it's excitement they are after, again, go POLR. What's the easiest thing to do? If you're lucky enough to have national or regional promotions provided by your licensor, take full advantage of them. Don't just put up the point-of-purchase signs and give out the premium. Get into it. You have a professional promotion; add the local aspect. If it's pirates, turn the whole store into pirates. Go to the local theatre and borrow their pirate movie posters, lobby cards, and whatever else they have. While you're at it, put together a cross-promotion making their ticket good for something at your restaurant within one hour of the end of a movie. Give the crew a costume contest with a nice prize. Have a pirate coloring contest for the kids. Have a local history teacher give a talk about the history of pirates on Sunday afternoon.
Ask the crew what they would like to do. Your crew is a constant source of ideas. After all, they know the customers. They see them every day. "What can we do to get old Pete in one more time?"
The next easiest POLR is the store. Your restaurant is a huge sign that you can take advantage of. It is your package on the shelf. Make sure it is the most attractive one there. Spruce it up. A couple of potted plants can make a big difference. If you can, have an outside reader board talking about your latest marketing effort. Have a sign inside announcing the next promotion coming up. Keep it clean, and don't spare the paint. We all like to go to a nice place.
The next POLR step is to find out where your customers live and where they are going after visiting your store. Notice we are still working on our current customers, the easiest to get. Put a map in the lobby with two color stickpins—one for where they live and one for where they're going. Ask customers to take a second and stick the pins. Now you can see patterns of where to direct mail or take flyers. You might discover an office park you didn't know about that might allow you to put coupons in paycheck envelopes. Or, if you're lucky, stores that your customers frequent might be willing to cross-promote with you. Bounce those customers back and forth. Everyone wants more business. Another thing you can do is park the Lincoln and take a walk around your store. This is another way to look for partners.
If you feel you have exhausted your current customer base, or if you just want to have some new fun, there's always the noncustomer or the super-light user. Not POLR but sometimes worth a try. The best way to do this, unless you have a particularly good set of Tarot cards, is targeting local organizations and using tricks that always work.
The Payson Paper here prints a list of organizations and their meeting dates every week. If I owned a restaurant in Payson, I would be offering my services as a speaker on the subject of nutrition and eating out at these meetings. I would offer my store as a meeting place for small committees. I would have a breakfast order for the Fly Fishing Club ready to be picked up at 6 a.m. I would feed the Classic Car Club lunch before their road trip. Nothing wrong with 20 classic cars parked in your lot.
You get the idea.
In the always-works category, I would find out the mayor's pet project and have him work the restaurant and give a contribution to that project. There's Dinner and a Movie, contests, story hours on Saturday afternoon, and store tours for scout troops.
The point is think POLR. Start with the easiest way to get business, your current customer, ask your crew for help, ask your family and friends for ideas, and execute. And have fun. Make your store the headquarters for fun where there's always something new and exciting going on.
As always, a Peaceful Life and Happy Trails.
