How to Get New Customers in Your Small Restaurant

The failure rate for new restaurants is arguably somewhere between 57% & 61%. There are a number of reasons for this daunting statistic. In this article, we'll look at one easy way to help ensure your restaurant never becomes a statistic. Half the march toward success is getting new customers through the front door!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Great food.
• To-go food containers.
• Printed menu.
• Microsoft Word or comparable.
• Vehicle.
• A love for your product.

1. Select three local businesses or offices nearest to your restaurant. You're going to be wowing them with your spectacular product: your food!
2. Have your kitchen staff create samplers of your most impressive, eye catching, mouth watering, menu items. We aren't going to prepare full meals, but rather quarter size portions of a full meal.
3. Take the time to package your samples in a beautiful way in your to-go containers. Nothing sloppy or plain Jane here. Your goal is to get your fabulous food eaten, so be sure you make your presentation as appealing as possible.
4. In Microsoft Word or similar program, create a simple coupon offering 20% off the user's next order. The trick is to put an expiration date of only five days away on the coupon. You want the user to be compelled to hurry and use it! Without an impending expiration date, coupons risk getting tossed in a drawer and forgotten.
5. In a small font in the lower corner of the coupon, create a "code" so that you can track it when it's returned to you. You'll want to know which businesses responded so that when the coupon is redeemed in your restaurant, you can send a card to the business with a quick "Thank you" for visiting your restaurant.
   
   For example, "7-SC" might mean it was used by someone in the "Smith Company". (If you're sending out coupons without a way to track who's bringing them back in, you're missing out on very valuable information.)
6. Put your to-go goodies together in bags with a couple menus and a few coupons.
7. Surprise the businesses you've selected at about 11AM. You'll be early enough to catch them before lunch so they're getting hungry. (If you wait until after lunch, everyone might be too full to try a new nibble.) Introduce yourself as the owner of your restaurant and tell them you just wanted to stop in and say hello and offer them a little something to try. Be sure to mention you brought the hottest items on your menu, and tell them to be sure and say hi to you when they visit.

Tips & Warnings

• Only take your most "wowee" menu items.
• Wear something with your logo on it, if possible.
• Be super friendly.
• Don't forget to keep good records of the food you gave away as well as your mileage to and from your destinations. Your accountant will want those at tax time.