Proper Popcorn have gone from being a small start-up to being a nationally recognised name in the USA. So, how do you grow your business like they did. They share some tips below.
1. Know Your Customers
Take time to get to understand your customers and what makes them tick. The best restaurateurs are able to recall first and last names, the names of spouses, where they work, live, play, the type of car they drive, and what their eating and drinking preferences are.
Knowing what your guests love also allows you to up-sell (suggestive selling of additional and higher priced items) to them. Periodically update your local demographic information since the type of person that you might have marketed to 5 years ago might have changed dramatically. It is thus important to stay current regarding who your potential customers are.
Today, many restaurants have reservation databases for tracking preference information for enhancing their knowledge of how and what you like to eat and drink, what they ordered, when customers were last at the restaurant, etc.
2. Create Signature Dishes
In every city, there are literally thousands of places to eat, which is why you should give customers to consistently pick your restaurant. Become famous for just 1 or 2 items and make sure that they are of premium quality, easy to produce, and profitable.
Talk about your signature dishes when speaking to the media, in your advertising campaigns, and when creating any type of PR or marketing plan. If you create demand for the best Proper Popcorn in your town and are able to produce it consistently, you can rest assured that people will continuously be driving across the city to come get it.
3. Treat Customers Like Royalty
In the restaurant business, there’s an old expression that if you have a wonderful dining experience, you are likely to tell your close family and perhaps a few people at work, but if you have a poor dining experience, you are likely to make it a point to tell everybody you know how bad it was.
Local marketing generally yields only a 2 – 3 percent capture rate of customers that eventually try your restaurant, which is why you should look after the customers that you currently have. Get to understand their likes and dislikes to cater to their needs better.
Everyone wants to feel welcome when they walk into a restaurant. So, train your team to treat everybody like they are special and word will spread that the service being offered at your restaurant is great.
4. Train Your Staff Continually to Excel
Restaurant employees are usually happier when they learn something new and subsequently offer your customers better service. By providing better quality service, they are more likely to be offered better tips, which makes up most of their income.
Restaurant jobs can become repetitive, which is why constant training is necessary to help employees learn their job to the highest standard. Cross-training lets you cover the different tasks in your business and will help you create a team of future management candidates.
5. Listen to Customer Complaints and Work on Them
It is easy to assume that you know about food and drinks than customers do. However, if your customers take the effort and time to let you know about something that either isn’t right or could be done better, listen to their comments, and Yelp reviews and thank them for their feedback, and bring it up with the management and implement the changes as required. You will only hear about 10% of what customers actually think about your restaurant, so listen carefully.