Marketing. While it is tempting to decrease marketing related expenses during challenging economic times, it is important to ensure that potential customers are aware of your restaurant’s existence and that you keep your pipeline filled with new and returning customers.  Small restaurants should take an advantage of utilizing cost-effective marketing methods, such as online advertising, social media, etc. Stay in your customer’s minds through emails, text-messaging, mailed newsletters, announcements of special events and other messages.   Fully utilize inexpensive ways to stay connected to your customers.

Be Creative. Make sure your restaurant evolves and does not remain boring in the eyes of the consumer.  Create new specials, events and menus to attract new customers and keep returning customers interested.   Organizing special events, offering prix fixe menu dinners, and other marketing approaches are very effective at creating the buzz and inviting more potential diners into your establishment.  Food and wine pairing dinners, dinners featuring a specific winery you partner with, holiday celebrations by offering special deals and promotions – those are all great ways to differentiate your restaurant during the recession.

Reach for New Demographics. If until now your clientele has been mostly young couples, expand your appeal and start targeting new demographic groups, such as families with children, senior citizens, etc.  Do that through enhanced menu offerings targeted to such groups, such as offering kid menus, specials for seniors, and so on.   Position your restaurant as “the place” to eat out for families with children, for young people, students – whatever makes sense for your location.

Increase Retention. While in a downturn economy diners tend to stop exploring new restaurants, they keep going to their favorite places.  Capitalize on this reality by creating the right conditions to retain all of your current customers.  This includes creating customer loyalty programs, similar to those offered by airlines and hotels, to encourage repetitive customer behavior and offer great deals for returning diners.   Train your staff to create that special bond and relationship with your clientele.    Turn any first-time customers into regular diners.  Utilize online marketing software for customer loyalty programs.  Keep in touch with your diners by email, text-messaging and updates through your website.

Maintain Effective Operations. Constantly tweak your operations to have the most lean, cost-effective organization you can possibly have.  Know your costs and create efficiencies where previously you had none.  Establish right processes to keep purchasing costs down.  Analyze your costs and read financial statements regularly to stay on top of your operations.  Reduce staff turnover and provide regular staff training, because your staff is one of the key elements to the success of your organization.   Maintaining effective operations will differentiate you from competitors and create favorable conditions for growth even during the recession.

Acquire First-Time Customers. Consistently introducing your restaurant to a wider audience is one of the key ways to increase sales and bring volume to your restaurant, even create possibility of expansion.   Acquiring new customers is also one of the most expensive marketing strategies, yet it is a critical element in growing your numbers.   Acquiring first-time customers is done through variety of methods, including planning the strategic location, brand-building, properly positioning your restaurant compared to the nearby competition and demographics, using social media and other tools.   It is also critical to make the right first impression the very first time the customer visits your establishment.

Improve Customer Retention. Once you acquired a customer, it is important to have programs in place to keep him/her coming back.   Strategies utilized by restaurants today in this area include anything from developing enduring personal relationships with clients to introducing loyalty programs similar to the ones used by airlines and hotels.  Building successful customer loyalty programs includes implementing appropriate software to help you in this process and keeping track of the trends in your customer profiles and preferences.

Increase Check Averages. Increasing the total amount of money spent by customers at your restaurant can be achieved in a number of ways, provided that you did your due diligence and know marketing basics, such as the market you’re in, your competitors, customers, and any outside influences that may impact your business.  These measures include suggestive selling practices, internal merchandizing, staff training, upgrades, price increases, direct mail programs, and so on.  It is also critical to have the right tools and systems to monitor the actual effects of the strategies to increase check averages.

Host Special Events or Larger Parties. One of the most efficient ways to grow sales is to promote the hosting of private parties and the celebration of special events at your restaurant.  Make sure your dining establishment is equipped with the right facility/rooms to handle special events on a regular basis.  This includes private rooms or other ways to ensure privacy for special events.  Implement programs that encourage customers to host big size parties.  This includes quantity discounts, upgrades, and free gifts.  Market your restaurant’s capability to hold large party events and have your operations and logistics in place to deliver the value you promise.

Implementing the above strategies through spending more time and resources on staff training, marketing basics, learning about your customer and competition and properly positioning your restaurant will definitely bring desired results.

Collect Data. Ask your customers to join your loyalty program by texting them via their mobile phones. You can import an existing list of customer phone numbers into a text-messaging software or mobile marketing application of your choice. You can also organize your customers under various lists and groups. Customers can easily unsubscribe from this service by sending a text message. Once you built your list, you can send out mass texts whenever you need to communicate with your patrons.

Event Promotion. Mobile marketing technology enables a restaurant to hold mobile marketing campaigns, where restaurant guests have a chance to win a free dinner, coupon, or a gift card for a special upcoming event. Send mass text messages prior to and on the day of your special event, informing your guests of special events at your restaurant. You can easily integrate mobile marketing campaigns into any other existing promotional campaigns at your restaurant. When your customers come in the door for a special event or promotion, instead of a paper coupon they can show you the message on their phone that brought them to your restaurant for a special drink, reduced dinner price, and so on.

Track and Analyze. Your mobile marketing software will provide you with the demographic data about your customers and will help you to target your customer more narrowly. You will also get a better idea of the general profile of your current customers, their habits and behaviors.

Mobile Marketing Campaigns. Restaurants can tailor mobile marketing campaigns based on customer’s personal information and preferences or even daily weather forecasts. Some mobile marketing companies that provide targeted marketing such as informing customers of certain restaurants or specials on days when a customer is physically located in the vicinity areas of such restaurants. These marketing campaigns allow restaurants to have locally based, dynamic campaigns, creating personalized, direct marketing.

Text-Messaging remains the key element in mobile marketing. According to statistics, majority of cell phone users use text messaging. Text-messaging can be used to improve customer loyalty by creating personable campaigns and leading effective text messaging promotions. Many text-messaging software applications, tailored to the restaurant industry, are very easy to use, web-based, affordable, and do not require installing any programs. You can also use text-messaging to send any type of last minute announcements, such as specials, new live music band, new discounts, etc. Send mass messages from your own mobile device or from the web-based software. Promote sales and special offers.

Customer Retention. More customers these days use their cell phones to research the restaurant information in a specific geographical area. Mobile applications have a capability to provide such information accurately to customers. Many internet review sites, such as Yelp, provide mobile applications to cell phone users that help automatically reveal the locations of the restaurants in the proximity to the customer’s location, as well as provide information about how many mobile users liked that particular restaurant location.

Clean Ice Machine regularly to avoid any mineral deposits and slime building up inside the ice machine. Poorly maintained ice machines usually have much lower efficiency, higher energy consumption, and produce low quality ice.

Dispose of Old Ice. Make sure to keep your ice fresh for your guests and dispose of old ice from time to time. Pay attention to the ice quality and immediately dispose of ice if it becomes contaminated by food, if you used it to chill bottles, or if it starts to melt.

Clean Ice Supplies. Make sure your ice supplies are cleaned and sanitized in a regular manner. This includes scoops, picks, ice totes, and ice caddies. Clean your supplies using a commercial dishwasher or hand wash them with soapy water. Once you cleaned the supplies, make sure they are stored upside down, in a clean dry place to ensure the interior stays dry.

Use Filtered Water. Install filtration system on your commercial ice machine’s water supply. Not only will filtered water produce better tasting ice and will not negatively alter the taste of drinks, filtration system will remove all bacteria and other contaminants from the water, ensuring safer dining experience for your guests. Make sure that your ice filters are changed regularly, at least once every six months. Otherwise, your ice machine will wear out faster, consume more energy, and produce lower quality product.

Ice Contaminants. It is important to educate your staff, especially those employees who are responsible for maintaining ice machines, that ice can be home to many contaminants. Such contaminants occur in ice due to poor maintenance procedures, any dissolved minerals, or residual chlorine in the water supply. Poorly maintained ice machines can have a built-up slime, which will make ice have an unappealing taste and color, and can cause illnesses. Some mineral deposits, although not harmful to health, may result in ice that appears cloudy and has an unpleasant taste. Another common contaminant – chlorine – is usually added to water to kill harmful bacteria; however, residual chlorine gives water unattractive flavor. Using filtered water and properly maintaining ice machines should tremendously help you in reducing the amount of ice contaminants in restaurant’s ice machines.

Other Safety Considerations. Make sure you use a dedicated container for transporting ice. Make it a company policy for employees to wash their hands before and after handling ice. Do not refreeze ice if it melted. Teach employees to use ice scoops, not hands to retrieve ice. Do not use glasses to scoop ice. Do not store bottles or glasses in the ice compartment.

Surveillance Systems. Installing high quality surveillance cameras is an important element in ensuring the best security for your restaurant. Prominently placing cameras both inside and outside the restaurant building will reduce chances of any criminal activity. Post warnings inside and outside, broadcasting that your facilities are equipped with 24/7 surveillance cameras. Not only will the presence of cameras and warning signs help prevent potential thieves from attempting to rob your place, it will also reduce the occurrence of employee theft and various internal security breaches.

Using Safes. Consider utilizing safes with solid steel doors and body to protect against theft and unauthorized entry. Choose a safe that can be bolted down to the floor. Use a time-delay technology, which allows the safe to be opened only during certain parts of the day. A restaurant should opt for a safe with a depositary function, also called a drop safe. This type of safe will help to keep your employees honest, especially when restaurant owner or manager is not present.

Frequent Deposits. At busy restaurants, cash registers fill in really quickly; and it is critical to train restaurant staff to frequently deposit cash into the restaurant’s safe. This will accomplish two important objectives: it will reduce the amount of cash kept in the cash drawer of the cash register, and it will ensure higher level of security for cash storage by reducing the amount of time that cash remains exposed to potential security breaches.

Banking. It is also important to keep in mind that potential robbers may watch for routine bank deposit behaviors, such as manager leaving at the same time each day to make cash deposits in the bank. Therefore, make sure that your managers vary the time of the day that they visit the bank to make cash deposits, and that the cash deposit bag looks like a regular bag. In general, bank deposit procedures should be low key, without attracting unnecessary attention of employees or outsiders.

Opening and Closing Procedures. Establish safe opening and closing procedures at your restaurant. This includes practicing alertness and awareness during both opening and closing of the restaurant. It also includes following such policies as never allowing only one employee to close or open the doors alone. Opening and closing procedures should be part of the employee manual, ensuring that restaurant is secured after business hours and safely accessed at the start of the day. Clearly define which staff is allowed access to the keys to the building, codes for the security system, and access to the safe.

Monitoring Employees. Make sure your employees are properly trained in how they handle cash and use a cash register. Have controls in place to account for all revenue received and investigate any revenue discrepancies.

Practicing Caution. In addition to the above measures, it is wise to constantly exercise caution and be on alert for any possible breaches. For instance, front of house staff should be trained to watch anybody coming in and out of a restaurant for any possible suspicious activity and be able to detect unusual behaviors.

Locally Produced Wine and Beer. Until recently, locally produced wine and beer were frowned upon by restaurant owners due to their perceived poor quality. Besides, local wine and beer products were not able to withstand fierce competition from more well-known and established wineries and breweries, and they didn’t have the adequate sales force to drive the sales. However, as local wineries and breweries begin to emphasize their uniqueness and build reputation, restaurant owners are more open to try locally produced alcohol and support local wineries and breweries.

Culinary Cocktails. Culinary cocktails are the new school of cocktails. They are usually made with savory, fresh ingredients, using fresh juices, earthy spices, infused syrups, fruit, and herbs. While classic cocktails, such as Martinis, usually have a high alcohol content, culinary cocktails place more importance on non-alcohol ingredients, emphasizing refreshing, pure and simple qualities of the drink. Such cocktails are becoming a popular item on many restaurants menus.

Micro-Distilled, Artisan Liquor. Another big trend in the alcohol market is the increase over the last few years of the number of micro-distilleries, which produce hard alcohol, including whiskey, brandy, gin, rum, and vodka. Because various states have recently changed the laws, many micro-distilleries are now springing up to manufacture premium liquor under new, local brands. Such unique products are gaining increased popularity and have attracted support of many restaurant chefs.

Food-Beer Pairings. More restaurants these days are offering food-beer pairings to their guests. Just like food-wine pairings, food-beer pairings are based on the flavor of a particular type of beer, sweet or dry maltiness, or any other beer quality. The pairings are done on the basis of how a certain type of beer complements or contrasts a certain type of food. For instance, a rich dish can be contrasted with a light beer, while a strong stout can be complemented with a dark chocolate dessert.

Gluten-Free Beer. A lot of Americans have gluten intolerance, which is an allergic reaction to a protein found in various grains, such as wheat, rye, barley, spelt, oats, and so on. Ingesting even small amounts of gluten can cause serious health complications in some affected individuals. Because of this, more breweries are looking for ways to produce 100% gluten free beer or low-gluten beer. Some of the most common substitutions utilized to replace gluten grains in beer fermentation process are rice, soybean, corn, sunflower, flax, sorghum, and quinoa.

Specialty Beer. Fruit beers are also gaining popularity in restaurants. Brewed with fruits or vegetables, these beers are especially flavorful. Common fruits are cherry, peach, and raspberry. Some breweries only add flavored extracts to the finished product, instead of fermenting the fruit. Other types of specialty beer are beers flavored with tequila from blue agave nectar, or pumpkin-flavored beers.

Organic Cocktails. Restaurant chefs are paying more attention to the quality of ingredients not only in foods, but in alcohol as well. The most popular trends are using pesticide-free vodka, organic vodka, carbon-neutral rum, and organic agave nectar as a sweetener. Organic cocktails are made using fresh ingredients, such as garden-fresh herbs and fruits, organic berries, organic vegetables, and so on.

OpenTable.com is the most popular and prolific restaurant reservation system due to its reach, speed, and super-friendly user interface. This website is connected real-time with thousands of online reservations systems at OpenTable participating restaurants. Because this online reservation system is real time, using it can be a great advantage to an average consumer, as there will always be last-minute cancellations and diners can often snag such last-minute table reservations at great, hard-to-reserve, restaurants. OpenTable.com provides reservation services not only in the US, but in many foreign countries, as well. OpenTable also provides table management and guest management software for restaurants. This allows restaurants to build customer databases, increase guest recognition and create targeted e-mail marketing campaigns. OpenTable.com is a great tool not only for diners and restaurants – it is also very popular among professional concierges who use OpenTable.com to find available tables for their demanding clients, based on many criteria, including cuisine, location, price, specials, etc. Another advantage of OpenTable.com is that it is interconnected with many other online partners, including citysearch.com, AOL CityGuide, sfgate.com, and yahoo.com.

SavvyDiner.com. This company has started out in 1987 by originally providing concierge and guest services exclusively to the finest hotels in the US cities, and referring guests to the finest restaurants in any given city. Today, SavvyDiner.com provides the same service to a much broader audience, including individual diners. SavvyDiner.com aims to provide diners with accurate and up-to-date information about the high quality dining establishments. Consumer can place reservations online, and the concierge service of SavvyDiner.com then manually places reservations by calling the upscale restaurants. Therefore, SavvyDiner.com is not a real-time system, like OpenTable.com, as it may take days to get some reservations. However, by adding this personal touch and involving a person in the reservation process is something many diners enjoy and prefer.

DinnerBroker.com connects diners to some of the best restaurants and allows diners to use a number of online resources, including reservations, information, and discounts. Dinnerbroker.com offers 10% to 30% discounts of the meal price to diners who make reservations during off-peak hours. You can also book regular reservations instantly online, and dinnerbroker.com takes care of all the arrangements with the restaurant. All you have to do is give your name to the host once you arrive at the restaurant. When reserving a table through dinnerbroker.com, guests can also enjoy special offers, such as prix-fixe menus or free valet parking. Participating restaurants also provide discounted gift certificates to consumers using dinnerbroker.com system. Each time a consumer uses dinnerbroker.com, he can earn points for making reservations or referring friends. These points can later be used to buy gift certificates at the participating restaurants.

Server Training. Teach all new employees the basics of selling.  Training should also include educating your servers about menu items, including detailed knowledge of ingredients and preparation processes.   When servers know more about menu items, they will be able to provide more persuasive and sincere recommendations to customers and, thus, increase sales.  Another way to train employees is to have new servers follow along the experienced ones and learn by watching.  Identify your best servers, use them as trainers, and compensate them accordingly.

Providing Personal Recommendations. Teach your servers to not just recite the descriptions of menu items to guests, but provide guests with vivid and attractive depictions of the meals.  Restaurant’s staff should have a detailed knowledge of the menu and should be able to offer personal recommendations to customers.  Servers should use positive sentences and suggestive selling style in order to succeed in winning the sale.  They can also use demonstration strategies to show off the food and drink items to guests.  For instance, it is common in many restaurants to showcase desserts to customers, making it easier to sell them.

Asking Questions. A good server should be a good listener and provide detailed answers to guests’ questions.  Good server should be genuinely interested in making sure the customer makes the right food choices.    Guests also respond much better to sincere suggestions from servers. Attentive servers tend to generate higher sales and have a higher percentage of customers who order more, including add-ons, such as appetizers or desserts. Teach your servers to ask questions from customers, too, to help clarify customers’ wants and needs.  Servers can break down the menu into categories, such as seafood, beef, chicken, pasta, to make it easier for the customer to select the right dish.

Selling add-on items. Make sure your servers are actively suggesting add-on items, such as appetizers, side dishes or desserts.  Your waiters should be trained to naturally suggest your restaurant’s signature drinks or special bottles of wine, where appropriate.   After the main meal is finished, servers should always suggest dessert menu items and dessert drinks.

Incentive Program. Create an incentive program that clearly defines the customer service levels you expect from your servers.  An incentive program should reward employees who sell the most.  One of the most common incentives is to provide extra commission to servers who sell non-entrée items, such as appetizers, side dishes, or desserts.  You can also have internal sales competitions and reward employees for outstanding results.

Short Summary of Personality. It is always nice to start the interview with an easy, yet revealing, question, asking the job applicant to tell you briefly about him/herself. This will give you the chance to get a first glimpse at the candidate’s passions, hobbies, and overall personality.  By asking the candidate what kind of social circles he/she is in can provide an employer with a lot of insight into a candidate’s personality.

Stress Questions. Asking stress questions often reveals to an employer how a job applicant reacts in situations under pressure.  Pressure and stressful situations abound in restaurants, which is why it is important to assess the stress threshold of your potential employees.  These questions can be anything from why the candidate is leaving his/her current position to what his greatest accomplishment in life is.  Ask your candidates about their relationship with the previous employer.  The candidate’s reaction can be very indicative of what kind attitude he/she will have towards you if hired.  Ask your candidates what kind of hopes they have for the position they’re applying for, and what their promotion expectations are.

What Motivates the Candidate? This is one of the most important questions to help you assess the motives behind why the job applicant wants to work for your establishment.  Ask probing questions, such as why the candidate decided to apply for the job at your restaurant.   Why is the candidate applying for a job at this particular restaurant and not the neighboring one?  What is so special about working at your particular restaurant?  While many job applicants are just applying for any job they can get close to their home, questions like that can quickly weed out people who might not be suitable for your restaurant’s concept.

Strengths and Weaknesses. Ask the job applicants about their three main character strengths and how these traits can relate to the restaurant industry.  See if the candidate can focus on the specific traits that are relevant to the restaurant industry.  Also, ask the candidate to identify their three weaknesses.   If a job applicant is able to calmly assess and describe his/her strengths and weaknesses in the right, balanced way, this can provide you with enough information to make the right employment decision.
Dealing with Stress.  Working in a restaurant can be quite intensive, and things can get chaotic and hectic.  Restaurant is certainly not a relaxed environment to work in.  Assess your job applicant’s ability to consistently deal with customers in a positive way, be always on his/her feet, and be willing to work long hours.

Team Player. Probe if a candidate is a team player.  This is important because it is always better to hire somebody who aims to achieve team goals, rather than focusing on exclusively individual ones.  Good prospective employees should be willing and capable to do many other types of jobs, outside of their main duties, in case somebody suddenly quits or other need arises.

Use Photography. Internet is a visual marketplace.  When people browse for information, especially when it is food-related, they want to see pictures.  Using high quality photography on your site is the best way to properly convey the brand image of your restaurant.   Use high quality, high resolutions photos to showcase your restaurant’s décor, ambiance, and convey the overall atmosphere and mood of your establishment.   Promote and market your restaurant with the help of photography.   Include photos of people who represent your restaurant: chefs, servers, and even guests.  And even more importantly – provide vivid and attractive photos of restaurant’s menu items and drinks to lure customers in.

Introduce Who is Who. As you make your restaurant’s website more visual with more photography, it is also important to provide relevant and interesting background information about restaurant’s key people.   Emphasize the passion and other great attributes of people who work at your restaurant.  This includes owners, chefs, and servers.    People love to read about the faces behind the operation; and with this strategy, you’re likely to attract even more new customers.  Make your website more real by introducing the real people who work at your restaurant.   This will help you differentiate your establishment from your competitors, especially chain restaurants.

Career Section. Restaurant’s website is an excellent medium to have a well-organized section devoted to hiring and employment.  Start utilizing online job application forms on your website.  Next time you post a craigslist ad looking for servers, provide a link to your online job application and guide potential job applicants to your website.  This will save you both time and effort in collecting and assessing information about potential candidates.   Keep the employment section of your website constantly updated, posting relevant info about open positions or detailed job descriptions.

Menu is one of the most popular pages on the majority of restaurant’s websites.  That is why it is so important to have an updated, detailed, and attractively-looking menu on your website!  Make sure you post all types of menus, including dinner menu, breakfast or lunch menu, dessert menu, drinks menu, wine list, etc.  Include the prices, provide pictures, and also regularly post any specials during a particular week or season.

Design. It is important that your site has an overall attractive web-design.  Having a well-designed website is now cheaper than ever.  With a large number of web designers providing freelancing web-design services online, it is easy to get a good deal and have a decently looking website at an affordable price.  It is equally important that your restaurant’s website design reflects your establishment’s personality.  If you have an upscale fine dining place, so should be the website design.  If your restaurant concept is trendy and contemporary – reflect it in your website design as well.

Contact Form. Last but not least, make sure you have listed different ways of communication your guests can use to get in touch with your establishment.  This may include electronically submitted contact form, e-mail address, subscription to the newsletter, Twitter account, Facebook page, and, of course, telephone number and your physical address.