It is well known that location is very important for restaurant business. Restaurants in locations with lots of people will have a better chance of selling than restaurants in areas with less foot traffic. However, in reality, we cannot choose a good location as we please because renting space in a location with high sales opportunities will also result in higher rent.
Many restaurants therefore have to choose to open their restaurants in convenient locations, such as in alleys far from the main road or community areas. Some restaurants have been open for a long time and cannot move to a new location because they do not have enough capital, or some have some space in their house so they open a small restaurant to sell to customers in the vicinity or to passersby, depending on the opportunity. They want to increase their restaurant's sales, but are still limited by the budget.
Even if you don’t have enough budget to advertise on social media, it may sound difficult to make your shop sell better. But it’s not impossible. Today, MHA will introduce a way to increase sales for shops in remote alleys with no budget to advertise. Here are some easy methods:
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Sell further with flyers
This is something that seems very basic, but it is also very effective. Try to examine your own shop first. Apart from making a sign in front of the shop to catch the eyes of passersby, have you advertised your shop through other channels? Don't look at the wider customer group yet. Try just the customers in a radius of 5-8 kilometers from the shop first. Let's say that originally our shop was known only in the same alley, at most 1-2 alleys away, that is, no more than a radius of 3 kilometers, which may have no more than 100 houses or residences.
But if we can distribute flyers to introduce the shop further away, increasing the radius to about 5 kilometers, we will be able to increase the customer base by more than 100 households. Moreover, flyers do not cost much to make. The appropriate size is A5 (half the size of A4). You can simply design them yourself and then photocopy 100-200 sheets. If you have some capital, you can hire someone to make four-color flyers. This will make them more interesting. But if you want to save money, well-designed black and white flyers are also quite effective.
The flyer must have clear store details, such as the store location, telephone number, Line, or other contact channels. Some stores also put the food menu in the flyer, which also has good results because customers can order right away. If it is a color flyer, we can also include pictures of the delicious food menu, which will create more appeal. Don't forget the promotion. If you bring this flyer to the store, you will get a discount or a small free food or drink. This is to measure the effectiveness of the flyer that we distribute. This strategy will help customers keep our flyer rather than throwing it away when they receive it.
For leaflet distribution, we don’t have to distribute them all ourselves. Try to drop them off at the village guardhouse, condominium juristic person, or security point of various office buildings. Make a box and place it at the motorcycle taxi stand area, which is a place where many people travel, and it will help create more opportunities to pick up leaflets.
2. The shop is far away, not a problem if there is delivery.
Many people will start thinking about food ordering apps that will have to take a certain amount of income from these apps. In fact, we can reduce costs in this part if we can deliver ourselves within a short distance, about 2-5 kilometers from the shop, or charge a delivery fee of 10-20 baht in cases that are further away. However, we will have to plan our work a little more, including:
- Plan to send the menu via social media, Line OA or even flyers that announce the menu mentioned earlier.
- Plan for more packaging. Need to buy food boxes, disposable spoons and forks, condiments, and bags, taking into account the convenience of customers in eating and the convenience of delivery.
- The vehicle used to deliver food may be an existing car, bicycle or motorcycle. You may need to add a food bag to deliver food more safely and in large quantities.
- Plan the delivery. You can use the round delivery method to save on travel expenses, but you must not make the customers who ordered the food wait too long. For example, if the customer orders food at 11:00 AM but delivers at 12:00 PM with all orders, the customer will wait too long and will not order again.
However, it must not be forgotten that transportation will also have costs and time costs, and planning must be done in this regard. If it is not convenient to deliver by yourself because there is no one to cook at the restaurant, hiring a motorcycle taxi or linking to a food delivery app service is also an interesting option.
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Tie a lunch box and create a main customer base for the shop.
How great would it be if our restaurant had regular orders every day? Because that means we have income waiting for us every day. “ Pinto” is when customers order food from us and we prepare and deliver it every day or on the day the customer specifies. It can be said that it is an extension of the delivery service. Therefore, the flyer or social media of the restaurant should also mention the “Pinto” service.
When it comes to food delivery, customers usually order a set meal, such as rice, 2-3 side dishes, and dessert. This may be for a family who is unable to cook for themselves, or for a group of employees in a company that lives far from the restaurant and finds it difficult to find breakfast or lunch.
The principle of good food delivery is to pay close attention to customers. You have to ask or observe what kind of food customers like or dislike, such as whether customers can eat spicy food or not, or what they do not eat. You should prepare a set of food for each day that is different, or you can use Line OA to ask customers each day.
In the case of long-term food containers or reusable boxes, you may add food containers or boxes for packing food to reduce the use of plastic bags and reuse them when delivering food the next day. Or add cloth bags for food with the shop name printed on them so that customers remember your shop. As for paying for food, it depends on the shop to agree with the customer whether to pay weekly or monthly. You may give a discount to encourage paying in advance for a month.
Additional information: During the COVID-19 crisis, many people have used this method of tying the food to avoid going out to buy food or having the restaurant deliver the food to the temple to offer as alms to the monks. This is a way to make merit without having to travel to the temple in person.
4. Expand your world by studying and experimenting with online media.
You can start with free tools because these media can generate more viewers without having to invest a lot. They can also easily upgrade their reach, allowing customers to see your products online, eliminating the need to find beautiful, well-located spaces like before. In this section, MHA would like to recommend easy, free online marketing tools that are suitable for restaurants, as follows:
Line OA is a marketing tool that is very suitable for today's stores. It has many features, including sending messages to customers, being able to chat privately or broadcasting news to the entire group. Of course, being able to chat with customers in personal Line OA makes it easy to search for chat history and go back and read to find what customers want. Line can also send SMS-like messages directly to customers. This feature can also attach coupons to encourage repeat purchases or product trials.
Line Group is a tool that is easy to understand and very easy to do these days. Just give a QR code to customers or users. Being a group chat allows customers to see feedback from other customers who have used the service. Line Group creates interaction with both old and new customers easily. In addition to creating good interaction between shop owners and customers, it also allows customers to interact with each other, similar to creating a society of people who have been to our shop to recommend our shop to other new customers.
Facebook Page Nowadays, more than 90% of customers already have a personal Facebook page. A Facebook page can be turned into an online storefront without much investment. Moreover, being a storefront, both casual and regular customers can easily see the restaurant, the food menu or promotions. Back-end data can be used to plan sales even better.
Google My Business is the newest marketing tool in the group, but it has already created unexpected benefits for many businesses. It works by allowing you to enter your restaurant information and your restaurant name will appear on various services in the Google network, such as Google Maps, Google+, and Google Search. All of this is useful in making it easy for customers to access it, whether when looking for products related to your business or if your business name is on Google Maps, customers can easily come to your restaurant and definitely not get lost.
There are many ways to make your shop known and get more customers, even if your shop is deep in an alley. However, MHA would like to leave you with one important thought: although it is important to get more customers, making customers satisfied with the taste of the food, the quality of the service, or even the beautiful decoration of the shop will make customers love your shop and tell their relatives, friends, or even review it on social media like word of mouth. This point is also very important for your shop to get more customers even if your shop is far away. Come back and find great tips on restaurant marketing with MHA in the next episode.
Photo credit: Facebook Penguin Eat Shabu - Shabu Penguin
