How do restaurants prepare for winter?
There is a slow season for any restaurant. The post-holiday lulls in January/February affect many establishments. While seasonal sales fluctuations are unavoidable, preemptive measures can help you enhance foot traffic.
According to SmallBusiness, many eateries experience a 60 percent drop in business during the winter months.
5 Tips to Boost Restaurant Sales This Winter
1- Offer Home Delivery
Due to the fact that people are less inclined to eat out in restaurants during the winter, they may still enjoy your meal at their leisure. As a result, the market for meal delivery has grown by more than threefold since 2017.
However, you must guarantee that the food is packaged properly in order to transport it to customers safely. They will order from you more frequently if their delivery experience is good.
You should also ensure that your delivery agents are well-equipped to deal with the cold and have all of the appropriate equipment when delivering food. This will demonstrate that you are more concerned with people than with sales, and it will help you create trust with consumers and staff.
Eatance offers a number of restaurant ordering websites and apps to assist you keep track of orders, delivery partners, and customer feedback. This will assist you in improving your services over time and attracting more clients.
2- Leverage Social Media Marketing
Because individuals spend more time at home during the winter, the greatest method to contact them is through social media.
If you haven't already, create a Facebook and Instagram account for your restaurant. Then start uploading images of your delectable food. You may also use Facebook and Instagram to create a digital menu.
so that your customers can place orders right away while using social media
You may also use social media to reach out to local people and build your consumer base.
Seasonal decreases can be mitigated with the use of a marketing effort. Restaurant operators who see a drop in sales throughout the winter and significant holidays can offer promotions that will attract more guests.
3- Make Sure Your Restaurant Is Warm
People will eat more if they feel at ease in your establishment. As a result, regardless of the weather outside, you must ensure that the interior is warm.
This will encourage kids to eat at home more frequently than they would in a less inviting environment. During the coldest months of the year, consider adding more heaters or establishing a fire pit to keep your guests warm.
Take care of these two items as well to improve the customer experience even more:
Remove snow from your parking lot to make room for clients to park their cars comfortably.
Offer valet services, as walking from the parking lot to the restaurant in the cold may deter customers.
4- Reward Your Regular Customers
It is critical to thank your frequent clients, whether or not you have a loyalty programme. This will aid in the development of long-term consumer connections and encourage them to visit you more frequently, regardless of the season.
To motivate customers to order from you on a regular basis, you can send them $10 in reward points for every $100 spent or conduct limited-time discount deals.
Eatance, a restaurant online ordering system, helps you locate your frequent clients (even those who just buy deliveries), so you can reach out to them and get more orders.
5- Offer Gift Cards to Customers
The months of November and December are the busiest for gift-giving. Food subscriptions topped the list of anticipated subscription service presents in 2020, with 53% of consumers planning to send gift cards during the holiday season.
You may increase your profit margins and generate repeat business by allowing guests to purchase gift cards from your restaurant.
You can make a variety of gift cards, including
A $50 gift card with no expiration date is 100% redeemable.
A $100 gift card that can be used twice (for a total of $50)
Discount card for 20% off
Free dish gift card for one-on-one interaction
Customers will have more options, increasing the likelihood of a transaction. To ensure that the gift card generates sales over the winter, consider putting a time limit on it.
Source: https://eatanceapp.com/how-to-increase-restaurant-sales-this-winter/