Running day-to-day operations as smoothly and efficiently as possible can be the soul focus of many restaurant owners and operators. But looking ahead and planning to grow your business is equally vital to its long term success.
While growth may seem intangible, some simple steps can go a very long way - without distracting you or your team from delighting customers in the day-to-day. We've assembled 11 strategies you can use to grow your restaurant business, with some top tips for how to make them happen.
Restaurant growth is all about putting your business in a position to generate more revenue and sustain its long-term health. It might look like opening a new venue, adding a new product line or simply maximising profits within the current scope of your business.
Growth provides the following vital opportunities for restaurants:
Your business may have growth as an abstract goal, but working to achieve it can be difficult. These 11 strategies are actionable ways you can get your restaurant on the right path.
Marketing is crucial for any business, and hospitality is no exception. In particular, it's important to use up-to-date marketing methods to ensure you target your customers most effectively.
For this reason, social media marketing is imperative. Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram are major hubs for discussions around dining hot spots and the best croissants in town.
53% of Millennial TikTok users have visited or ordered food from a restaurant after seeing it on the app.
For an effective restaurant social media marketing strategy, consider the following elements:
Your online presence goes well beyond social media. You can reach more customers with a well-optimised website following search engine optimisation (SEO) best practices.
Maintaining your Google Business Profile is another great way to get eyeballs on your business. This is the informational panel that appears in Google Search and Maps results. With a ResDiary integration, customers can make a booking from your Google Business Profile in just a couple of clicks.
You can achieve stronger ranking performances for your Business Profile by ensuring your business information is up-to-date and using features like Posts.
Another important element of your Business Profile and online presence generally is review scores. Research suggests that 82% of customers read online reviews before deciding where to eat, drink, and shop.
You can probably relate to this in your own experiences as a consumer. Would you dine at a restaurant with two stars on Google?
You get more reviews for your restaurant by asking your most loyal customers for reviews and searching for positive social media mentions of your restaurant.
A priority for any restaurant is making sure your customers come back for more, which isn't only vital to ensuring your business survives, but is also a direct path to ensuring it can grow. After all, repeat customers have been found to spend 67% more than first-timers.
When a diner visits your venue for the first time, you should have a range of methods at your disposal to ensure they want to return. Some top tips in this area are:
For more information, check out our guide to doing more with your customer booking data.
New revenue streams can be a great way to achieve growth in a restaurant. Some products your restaurant could start selling include:
If your business is growing steadily, it may be time to consider a new location. You should only make this decision if you have a strong opportunity to do so.
Maybe you've received feedback that your restaurant is on the wrong side of town for many customers who don't frequently dine with you for that reason.
If you aren't sure if a new location is the right decision for your business, ask yourself if you're making the most of your current space. For instance, you may have an outdoor area you can capitalise on.
With ResDiary's segments, as part of its table management system, you can change parts of your diary for certain periods. It's an easy way to open yourself up to take bookings in an outdoor area during the summer season and make your indoor space more versatile. Then, you can seamlessly change your diary back when it ends.
When opening up your venue for summer, here are a few pointers from our Ultimate Guide to Summer for Hospitality Venue 2024 to look out for:
Segments can also be used for events like Valentine’s Day. On this day, you might make changes to your venue to create more tables for two. Whatever changes you need to make to maximise your space, it can be easily done with ResDiary segments.
Another way to ensure you are maximising your current space is with a digital floor plan. These floor plans enable you to:
Check out our guide to designing the perfect floor plan - with 20 ideas you can download too!
The value of the online food delivery market in the UK is estimated to be over £34 billion. Placing your restaurant on third-party food delivery apps can enable you to sell to new customers and increase sales.
If you don't want to pay commission fees, you can even create your own online ordering system. Alternatively, consider other forms of online ordering to increase restaurant sales.
For instance, at-table QR codes can be used to allow customers to place orders. This can free up time for your staff as they don’t need to collect orders from around the restaurant.
It can also make your venue more accessible. Diners who live with physical or mental health conditions that make verbal communication difficult or impossible can place their orders much more easily.
The chance to earn more revenue might be staring you in the face. Your menu could be the key to unlocking growth in your restaurant.
Firstly, investigate whether your menu is as delicious as it could be. Solicit customer feedback and ask if there are any changes that they would like to see.
There are also many steps you can take to get more value from your menu, such as:
While searching for ways to generate more revenue, don't neglect reducing costs in your business as well. Bringing down your costs makes it much easier for a hospitality business to optimise operations, work more efficiently, and become more profitable.
Some methods for reducing costs in your business include:
Increasing average spend per head is a powerful way to drive growth as it relies on customers who are already in your venue. With smoother operations, you can extract more value from each of them.
Some of the top ways to increase average spend per head are:
Events and experiences are a great way to open your venue up to new kinds of customers. Whether it's a wine tasting or a special menu night, a special event can attract serious attention and facilitate growth.
When hosting events, make sure to start with something manageable and gradually build as your team gets more experienced. With the proper preparation, you'll find that your staff can do a great job transitioning to the tasks of event management.
Want some extra help? ResDiary's Event Management Software can take the stress out of holding events with personalised booking forms, a comprehensive event manager screen and more.
If you want to future-proof your business, sustainability and community engagement are critical areas to focus on. Hospitality is at the forefront of many issues surrounding environmental sustainability.
The decisions of customers are increasingly influenced by sustainability issues, especially food waste.
A third of all food produced worldwide ends up being wasted. This food ultimately becomes landfill and accounts for up to 10% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
UK restaurants create nearly 200,000 tonnes of food waste each year. Do your part to reduce food waste in your venue, and don't be afraid to let customers know about it.
Community engagement is another great stepping stone to growth. When customers believe your venue has a genuine interest in the communities it operates in, they will be happy to follow your business to new ventures.
It also ensures that as your business grows, you stay true to your roots and don't develop a homogeneous brand identity. To showcase community engagement, prioritise local sourcing of ingredients and mention this on your menu. You can also host charity nights and host cooking classes and workshops.
Growth can look quite different from one restaurant to another. One reliable way to measure your restaurant growth is with key performance indicators (KPIs).
These are the key numbers that give you insight into how your restaurant is really performing. Some significant KPIs to consider to measure the growth and growth potential of your restaurant are:
Tracking these metrics over time will give you an outlook into how your restaurant is growing and further opportunities you may have.
ResDiary helps to optimise operations in your business, making growth more attainable. Our restaurant reservation management system offers tools like smart rules to automatically control your bookings and an analytics suite for easy data insights.
We also integrate with over 60 leading providers of hospitality software for even smoother business. Once your business is streamlined, it becomes much easier to bring down your costs and achieve the growth you're dreaming of.