Customers – the lifeblood of a business. Establishing a loyal customer base takes time, energy, and a touch of good luck. However, with the proper tools, some data, and the right message, you can turn casual customers into raving fans. Stock up on these 5 main ingredients and you’ll be ready to cook up a successful restaurant in no time.
1. Proper Staffing
Your staff plays the starring role in ensuring a customer will return. Every server, hostess, cook, and supervisor are representing your brand with each interaction. Make sure your hiring decisions reflect a positive example of the brand you want to portray.
Labor is typically the second-highest cost in food service, and finding the balance between understaffing and overstaffing is an industry-wide struggle. If you find labor costs are higher due to overstaffing, consider specific metrics and traffic trends.
How many customers are walking through your door on a daily basis? What are your busy days and times? Back these answers up with data to strategically refine business operations and cut costs. By analyzing the number of daily WiFi connections, footfall trends, and traffic patterns, you can predict future traffic patterns and start refining your staffing procedures. This ensures that the right number of workers are scheduled for a specific shift, every time.
Make the most efficient use of your staff’s time. Is your restaurant’s guest WiFi password protected? You would be surprised at the time that servers waste providing cryptic WiFi password for customers. Consider using a captive portal system that saves your staff time and makes earns you additional revenues – a win, win.
2. Branding
In an increasingly competitive market, restaurants have to work hard to remain top-of-mind with their customers. Attracting new customers is the first hurdle – how do you make sure that hungry foodies find out who you are and make the decision to pay you a visit?
While forgoing a website and simply maintaining a social media page was the SMB restaurant norm in 2010, customers today want to get to know your restaurant before they decide to give you a chance. Give them that opportunity with a branded website complete with your menu, your story, hours of operation, and other pertinent information. There are plenty of user-friendly website builders to choose from – designed for even the most novice computer user.  Reinforce your brand through consistent social media messaging on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and you’ll be set for success.
Don’t make the mistake of missed branding opportunities within the restaurant. From your menu design to signage to tableware – make every touchpoint reflect who you are and what you stand for.
For example, when a guest wants to stay connected, what does the WiFi connection process look like? Is your WiFi network named after your restaurant to reinforce this additional amenity to your customers? Â Encourage guests to follow your social media with signage throughout the venue. Ask them to leave you a review by sending an email after you leave.
Getting a new customer through the door is only the first date, and you definitely want a second.
3. Marketing & Advertising
People love a good deal. If you’re not promoting daily specials through coupons or a loyalty program to market your restaurant, it’s time to start.
Once you’ve outlined the special to encourage new visitors, it’s time to get the word out. Don’t want to spend a lot of money on a billboard or television commercial? The days of that worry are gone – advertising on social media is a cost-effective way to get the word out about your current promotions without having to break the bank.
Did you know that your restaurant’s WiFi has the potential to be a marketing machine? Send out promotional deals and coupons with WiFi marketing automation tools. With the right marketing software, your WiFi can build your guest list and send automated specials after the visit, asking them to come see you again.
4. Customer Engagement
Your highly trained staff is constantly engaging with guests to ensure their experience is top notch, which will also reflect upon their tip potential. Make sure the engagement doesn’t end there.  Send a thank you message to customers who visit your restaurant for the first time. Help them out by providing a link to your branded website and offer them a discount to come back for another visit.
With Smart WiFi, you can start engaging with your guests the moment they connect to your WiFi. By simply asking your customers to provide either an email or phone number to log in to WiFi, you will start collecting valuable guest data and building meaningful customer relationships.
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5. WiFi
There’s no time to waste – in 2018 it’s critical that restaurants offer free WiFi to their customers. Foodies and casual diners alike are researching dining options more than ever, and they want to stay connected once they make a decision.  From 5-star restaurants to taco stands, if you’re looking for an amenity that will bring in more customers and keep them coming back for more, you need to offer free WiFi.
Once you’re providing WiFi, the next step is to start using the guest amenity as a powerful, revenue-generating utility.
Feeling like you don’t have the bandwidth to successfully staff, market and engage while running a restaurant
Let us help. GoZone WiFi’s Smart WiFi Solutions can ensure that your restaurant is continually engaging, marketing and branding to your WiFi guests even when you are personally unable to. Take advantage of marketing tools that do the work for you.  Contact us today for more information on how to maximize restaurant revenues with WiFi marketing.
