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[Restaurant Community]

Recently KNG offered free shipping to customers that would share the positive stories of what is working for them. The following is a submission from Amy Ritchey, Spring House Grille.


Breakfast All Day
I have a family style restaurant in Central PA, The Spring House Grille. We are trying to adjust to the economic recession by looking at every aspect of the business. The thing we have been doing is trying to find ways to increase sales without a decrease in quality. We are known for a great breakfast, so we decided to have breakfast all day everyday. It increased business without having to buy a piece of equipment. Word of mouth is the best! We also are making our appetizers from scratch to decrease food costs! Our customers love it and we save money in the process.

Amy Ritchey
Owner, Spring House Grille

[mattm]

Great idea Amy! Feature what you are good at and your reputation will grow. Have you tried contacting the local news paper, TV, and radio stations to get some free P.R.?

The media outlets are looking for positive stories to share with the public. They would love to run a story about a business that has figured out how to survive the tough times.

Ben Martinez from El Jardin Restaurant may have some ideas on how to get media outlets interested. I noticed that he has had a lot of press about his restaurant. BEN, ARE YOU OUT THERE?

[Restaurant Masterminds]

Way to take action Amy! While your competition is sitting on their hands hoping for the economy to turn you are being pro-active rather than re-active. I like Matt's idea of creating free publicity through the media...I have generated over $200,000.00 worth of FREE publicity through the media over the last 18 months in my restaurant by doing some creative marketing...The media loves a great story and their just dying to hear from you so they can fill newspaper space or air time.

Since you mentioned guests love your breakfast, this should then be your focal point of where to start...What I would do is contact your local radio stations/DJ's and offer to feed them breakfast during one of their morning shows. (Trust me, they love this) I do this about 4-6 times per year with different stations, my out of pocket expense is about $50-$70 but my Return on Investment is priceless...The DJ's talk and rave about your food....basically, they give an endorsement of your restaurant (which is priceless), you'll also want to give them some gift certificates so that they can dine at restaurant. (Now your building a relationship with them.)

Your next step should be to create a loyalty program or data base of your guests, this is the easiest way to increase sales...I'm sure you have heard of this before, but there are only three ways for you to increase sales in your restaurant:

1. Get new guests
2. Get your existing guests to come back more often
3. Sell more to each guest when dining in

The #1 idea is the most expensive way to increase sales...#2 & #3 are the easiest and have the highest Return on Investment...(This is where your data base and loyalty program come into action).

I could go on and on, put I think you get the point, great job in taking action and I look forward to reading more of your continued success!

Ben Martinez
El Jardin Restaurant - El Jardin
Restaurant Masterminds - Learn restaurant marketing strategies from Ben Martinez and Restaurant Masterminds