3 Proven Ways To Grow Your Restaurant5 min read

The recipe for a successful restaurant is quite simple – delicious food and great service. Yet, there are numerous business owners which fail with the mission of satisfying their customers. And if the existing customers are not satisfied with your service, it becomes even harder to attract new ones, thus – to grow your business.

The truth is that in order to grow your restaurant business, you do not need to spend hours of research or make huge investments. The key to attracting more customers and providing higher quality services is hidden in the details. That crucial thing that business owners often tend to underestimate or completely forget is the importance of the way you manage the processes within the mini-ecosystem of your company.

3 proven strategies to grow your business in a glimpse

What happens if you fail to meet the expectations of your customers? In today’s world, where social media is at our fingertips, the most probable answer is that they will share the experience with hundreds if not, thousands of their connections or your followers. Believe it or not, this will significantly harm your business. And even worse – apart from the unsatisfied customer, you may even lose some of the happy ones.

That is why you should always try to be one step ahead of your customer. Provide them with good service and they will visit again. Provide them with great service and they will spread the word.

The good restaurant owner satisfies the expectations of his customers. The great one exceeds them.

So let’s focus on the practical aspect. How to grow your business, without having to spend a fortune? Here are three effective strategies that will take your restaurant to the next level and will leave your customers extremely satisfied:

Optimize your restaurant to handle more customers

No, we are not talking about adding more space, increasing the number of tables or hiring new staff. The truth is that you can increase the efficiency of your restaurant and make it more flexible by simply optimizing the processes within. And the best way to do it is to outsource part of the work to your clients. As crazy as it sounds, it will actually leave them satisfied and allow you to process more orders in less time.

The most efficient way to do that is to digitize the ordering and payment process. Add self-ordering Kiosks on the bar, if your business is employing a self-ordering model or equip one of your staff with a tablet so that he can hover around the queue and process their orders while they are waiting. That way you will significantly reduce the time required for an order to be processed, delivered and paid.

One obvious way to increase profits is to turn tables faster. Of course, you can’t hurry people out of the restaurant as soon as possible. What you can do is to optimize the ordering, delivery and payment process. Make sure to equip each table around your restaurant with a tablet where the customer can see the digital version of your menu, order and pay instantaneously. Just think about the time that customers usually wait for the waitperson to bring their bill. Multiply it by the number of tables and the number of times this can happen throughout the whole day and you will see just how much potential you are wasting.

Focus on gamification

A great way to encourage existing customers to come back is to provide them with some benefit to do so. A loyalty card, a reward program, a discount coupon – there are numerous ways to do that. For example, with the introduction of the Starbucks loyalty program, the chainsaw a 26% rise in profits and 11% in revenue. Further proofs for the efficiency of adding gamification elements to your business can be found in the “Achieving Big Customer Loyalty in a Small Business World” study. The results point out that 64% of the businesses with loyalty programs claim to be making more money than they have cost them to integrate. Also, the report concludes that existing and returning customers spend 67% more per purchase than the new ones. That is the exact reason why you should award them and recognize their loyalty.

Business analytics – do your homework

Learn to recognize the needs of your customers, what they prefer, what irritates them and so on and so forth. That way you will be able to optimize your service in an easy and very efficient way. Spend time on analyzing your business and try to find out some behavioral patterns. By gathering relevant information and being familiar with your customer’s preferences, you will gain a significant advantage over your competition.

For example, if you notice that each morning, there is a group of businessman rushing through your place to grab a coffee before work, you may want to integrate a self-ordering Kiosk that will further optimize the process. They will be able to order all drinks at once and pay instantaneously, while your staff is processing the order. This will save both yours and their time. 

Ensure a stable customer base focus on growing your business

Bear in mind that having a strong and loyal customer database is very profitable for your business. A new customer acquisition always costs a lot more than retaining existing ones. That is why you should focus on building a strong, stable customer database and then trying to enlarge it in a steady and professional way. High-quality food and drinks, wonderful service and meaningful incentives – focus on that and you will surely grow your business.