Coming out a pandemic leaves a lot of businesses struggling to understand what their best next step is. For many types of businesses in the service industry, including restaurants and coffee shops, the effect of the pandemic struck especially hard. For those restaurants that have survived, they have done so through innovative thinking and smart marketing techniques.
Let’s take a look at 4 ways restaurants in Sacramento not only survived, but thrived coming out of the last year.
Refine Menus
With less onsite traffic as most orders were for pickup and delivery, a lot of restaurants trimmed their daily menus. Instead of having several items on the menu, they decided which items were most likely to sell and eliminated the rest. While this is could potentially upset a customer, this kind of move helps the restaurant save money.
Develop An Online Menu
Let’s face it, most everyone is online either on a smart phone or a tablet. For this reason, restaurant owners have to develop online menus that are easy to access for people on the go. Be sure to display your most current menu and if you offer alcohol in your restaurant, list any restrictions you and the customer must abide by.
As part of this process, you should also properly integrate a service like DoorDash or GrubHub. A large population of people in Sacramento use these apps and you will definitely want the visibility. At this point if you are not active on either of these applications, it’s almost a guaranteed that you’re losing to your competitors.
Offer Specials
Everyone loves a special and the feeling of getting a discount. To keep your customers coming back, create a daily or weekly special. This will help ensure your regular customers remain interested in your restaurant and you won’t struggle to keep them around.
A new special is also a great way to attract new customer. You’ll want to have the special included on your menus, especially on the online apps mentioned above. This is a great way to let new customers in the area know about the food you offer and the price.
Get Social
Now more than ever it is critical to be active online through Google and social media channels. While customers are not getting out and about like they once did due to safety restrictions, it’s imperative for your business to communicating with customers online. Post regularly on channels like Facebook and Instagram to keep an engaged audience. You may even get a good response and interaction from your customers if you use a poll on social media with a question like “what would you like to see on our menu?” followed by a list of new items. Get creative and surprise your online audience.
Responding to reviews, either negative or positive, is another really important thing to remember. How you choose to handle your reputation online will go a long way in making the restaurant a successful business. Be active on platforms like Google My Business and Yelp.
Final Thoughts
While these tips and advice will get you moving in the right direction now, you need to be prepared when things are re-opened for good. Take this time to repaint and redecorate your restaurant, hire a junk removal company to get rid of any clutter and give the entire place a much-deserved facelift.