Improve your restaurant with simple tricks
A simple idea of introducing changes in order to improve your restaurant is a big step forward. But where to start?
For start, try to take a look at your restaurant’s business in the past few months. Ask yourself what worked well, and what are the weak spots. Focus on the type of guests who visit your restaurant and consider whether you want to attract new customers, and what kind of customers. Talk to your staff and listen to their suggestions, advice and criticism. Pay attention to the advertising of your restaurant, how well it works and how to improve it.
You haven’t published anything on social media or your website for a long time? It is time to change that. We live in the age internet and social networks. The first information your potential guests can find about your restaurant is the one they get over the Internet, whether it be through your corporate website or through various forums and blogs. Refresh your page by inserting photos and video content, or some interesting things, such as recipes, new dishes on the menu. Also, link your website with social networks. In this way you can advertise your restaurant in easy and free way.
When you start to introduce some changes of the interior design of your restaurant, it is important to keep in mind what kind of clientele you want to attract, what kind of food do you prefer and what message you want to send to your guests. Pay attention to the furniture, the choice of plates, glasses and cutlery, and the decoration of the restaurant itself. Take care of the lighting inside the restaurant because it can greatly fix or spoil the impression of the entire space. Also, take care of the music that you play in your restaurant. Try with un-imposing, moderate tunes that target the kind guests you want. Sometimes even the smallest changes can make a difference and a positive reaction is a good motivation for further work. You know how hard you worked to attract guests in your restaurant, and it’s still not enough? But when the guests are already here, it’s important to hold on to them, try to make sure they return, and have them spend as much money as they can.
One of the crucial elements in this is the menu. From the desire for new flavors and contacts with foreign, exotic cultures, of which we have a lot of information at this time of globalization, all the popular restaurants spread its offer beyond the country’s borders. Review your menus. Throw out foods that are not sought out, and try to introduce new recipes. Have faith in the creativity of your chefs. You might be surprised.
Many menus contain small marketing tricks that play our minds to help us ‘choose’ a particular dish. It’s practically a science of arranging the menu. It’s size, color and type of paper, the design, and order of dishes. For start, keep in mind that the human eye tends to dedicate most attention to what is on the top and bottom of the page, and if it comes to the menu in the form of a book, the left side is more attractive than the right. Therefore, those are good places to put dishes that you want to sell.
Another thing that attracts the attention of the guests are inscriptions such as ‘specialty’ or ‘local’ because in this way certain food looks different from other food and gives the impression of uniqueness. Colorful descriptions of dishes, which include words such as ‘organic’, ‘out of the oven’, ‘home-grown’, ‘crunchy’ and ‘marinated’ have interesting effects on the human brain and induce cravings, while words like ‘fried’ an ‘cooked’ have the opposite effect. One good strategy is to put the expensive and succulent dishes among the simplest ones because they can stand out, catch an eye, and people often do not even look at their price. It is recommended to install dishes adapted to different tastes and preferences of guests. Therefore, make sure your menu includes vegetarian and vegan dishes, dishes with low calories or those adapted for diabetics. Think about special offers, happy hour, cheaper meals at a certain time of the day. If necessary, adjust prices. Or adjust the ingredients of which the meals are prepared. You can also put a basic dish in your offer, but charge any extras that can go with with it.
Choose a color that suits your style of restaurant. Arrange the category of menu logically, from breakfast to dinner and from appetizers to desserts. Make sure to offer non-expensive food, as well as some specialties. Customize your menu depending on the season. You can prepare seasonal dishes as specialties of the house or include them in a special offer. That way your menu will always be updated. By entering new dishes to your offer, you retain your regular customers because they sustain their interest and curiosity.
In addition to your food offer, it is very important that your menus are compact, easy to read and interesting to guests. Think about what kind of impression you want to make. Take some dishes that you are proud of and feel they are the most profitable to you, and put them on top of the menu. Add a description of the dishes that you want to offer and, if possible, insert photos. We are visual creatures, and beautiful photographs can contribute ordering certain dishes. According to some studies, a good description of dishes and interesting menu design can increase customer spending by 20 to 30 per cent.
Digital menus are definitely a great choice. They offer you a variety of descriptions and photos, and there is also the option of adding video content. The whole menu can be changed daily, adapted and complemented. You can put labels or tags on every dish that’s gluten-free, contains alergens, or is suitable for vegetarians. The entire menu is simple and easy to navigate, making ordering dishes much faster and more interesting. Show your guests that you invest in your restaurant, that you care about their satisfaction and that they can feel comfortable and welcome.
