Why many Restaurants fail

A couple of days ago I was reading a blog headed “Why Restaurants Fail” by a company in the States called Harrison Marketing, a company that has over 20 years’ experience in assisting Restaurants with their marketing. Having read the blog it became blatantly obvious that what they were talking about was just not relevant to Restaurants but all service based businesses.

The conclusion in simple: you should not spend most of your time focused on getting new customers/clients but spend most of it looking after your existing clients, engaging with them and getting them to advocate your business. Having existing customers advocating your business leads to new (good) business and customers whom in turn you turn into loyal, advocates and so the cycle continues.

Besides the traditional ways of achieving this and the use of social media the next step is to use todays’ technology to facilitate this loyal customer engagement and management and this comes in the form of a dedicated app.

What better way to keep your customers and clients up to date with your services and events, reward their loyalty and provide them with a tool to share and hence advocate your business to their friend, fans and followers than on their smartphones in one place with minimal effort? This is exactly what is accomplished by a dedicated smartphone app.

Yes I hear you say the cost of such an app is thousands of pounds but no its not because for as little as £50 per month you could have your own branded, customised dedicated app with your own online content management system to update the app in real time and all you need to do is ask.

To get started email me at nelson@realtimeseating.com or DM me on @realtimeseating.

Below is the blog that I read and would like to share with you (via www.harrisonmarketingmd.com @chefpaul9828)

“Let’s take out poor cash management, poor location, poor lease negotiations, etc. from the picture for a minute. We have worked with many restaurants helping with operations and marketing. I am always amazed how many restaurants think they can make it if they if they have good food and service. Marketing is just something that is an afterthought. I do not mean marketing in the traditional sense, but actually being a marketing-centric company as opposed to a sales-centric company. Not sure of the difference?

Marketing-centric companies understand that marketing involves every facet of their business. From the second a customer pulls into the parking lot. How they are greeted, staff training, pricing, sales, PR product development, packaging, and customer service.

We all know the old 80/20 rule. 80 % of sales usually comes from 20% of your customers. So why do some restaurants try so hard to get new customers. The reason is they have failed at satisfying their existing customers’ needs. It is so much easier to increase customer loyally (and cheaper) than having to promote your establishment for new clients. Problem is, this escapes so many business owners.

Think about if you could just increase volume from your existing clients from say, 15, to 50%. These clients are the one you want to target and keep happy. This is why having a well-trained staff that are happy to be there will serve you well.

Bottom line, train your staff, take care of every client as if they are your only client, keep them up to date on what’s happening at your establishment, create loyalty programs for them, and I guarantee, you won’t spend a ton of money trying to find new customers."

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