Sales at my restaurant are declining after 1 year of business. What can I do to get customers in. Any ideas?

Question

I opened my restaurant one year ago. Sales were up, and people were waiting around the building just to get in. I year later sales are declining and I am worried. Would like to have suggestions or gimmicks to get people back in to eat at my steakhouse. What would bring you in as a new client?

Answer 1

I don't know what you already do, but here's some stuff I did.

Make up monthly specials. Advertise in the local papers and maybe radio stations. Early bird specials. Drink specials. Host a wine tasting and pairing. Host theme nights with specials. I stamped the back of business cards with "$.50 off next appetizer". I had fridge magnets made. I made a take out menu and put it in a holder next to the door. And I bought a lighted sign for outside where I could change the specials so people driving by could see it.

I'd be happy to answer anything else, just email me.

Answer 2

You are on the right path by asking the last question "what would bring you in as a new client". I travel three or four times a year when when traveling I look for variety. Most people don't eat at the same place over and over again.

You need to do a marketing survey to determine what people want and what they expect to pay. You also need to find out what your competition is doing, what similar services have opened in the last year and what are they offering for what prices. Try eating at these places and see how your service compares.

Might want to work up a corporate and business/social special on certain nights that offer them something special if they hold a company of business dinner. A lot of folks are also getting into healthy food. Are you advertising how healthy your food is. Do you have a birthday special, and family night, a senior citizens night, maybe a few free door prizes through raffles every thursday night etc.

Just a few pointers for consideration.

Answer 3

Do a double check...
is your food and service at the same level of quality as a year ago?

I know that is the primary reason I would cut down on going somewhere.

The secondary reason is that I can get something better elsewhere.

if they are at the same good quality...
ask some trusted customers. go out and about in your neighbor hood? .. did you pick up some competition?

probably you need to offer some specials of the week that are slightly different for variety and yet keep the old favorites.

You might want to run some adverts. or even have a sign out near the road.

I know I generally don't like "cute" gimmicks. and I don't think that those work.

Answer 4

I went through the same thing in an Italian setting. We were new so people came to "check us out." After a while, the newness wore off, so sales declined.

A couple things that I found to work:

1. Evaluate food quality.

Sounds easy enough, but if your supplier has changed their standards it's time to find a new supplier. You also need to evaluate your cook staff in this step. I believe, as you probably know already, that the cooks are the key to your success. Let's face it, if your food isn't great they won't keep coming in. Every restaurant lives and dies by repeat customers.

2. Evaluate Wait Staff

Make sure that your servers, hostesses and bartenders are both friendly and efficient. A rude or unpleasant front room employee will kill any chance for repeat business.

I suggest doing these things first. It wouldn't do you any good to bring new customers in to your business if they are going to go running once they get there. Once you've ironed out any internal issues, here's a couple suggestions to bring new people in.

1. Try a ridicules steak night. Sell a steak at near cost to drive people in. I ran a 16 oz Porterhouse dinner for $9.99. Sounds like you will take a wash on it, but I found for every dad I brought in for the steak, I got a mom buying a dinner at regular price and at least one kid's meal! In this you also need your waitstaff pushing drink "features" and desserts.

2. Try switching up your image by having different "feature nights." You are a steakhouse, but try a mexican night on wednesday (or any day). Try having a wing night on Monday (works really good during football season!!). Maybe you could even have a pasta buffett one evening. People love pasta, it's cheap for you and people love believing that they are getting a great deal!!


You can still have your regular menu available every night, but adding these "feature nights" can really attract new people who might not generally come to your type of restaurant.

In todays market, you can even try doing a monthly raffle for a $100 gas card. Give people an entry for every $25 spent!


There are so many ways to be creative. You can do this!! These are some things that worked for me. I hope that they either work for you or give you some ideas of your own!!! Good luck with everything!!

Answer 5

Don't take your customers for granted. Keep your menu specials fresh weekly so there is something new to experience.

Do a little local advertising in your local newspaper and print coupons or special promotions.

Create a 'Customer Appreciation' weekend and each customer who orders an entree gets a free dessert.

And above all, make sure your serving staff is friendly, upbeat and helpful - have some surveys attached to the bill at the end of the meal and have the customers fill out feedback cards or suggestion cards - and pay attention to what they have to say about the service, the food, the pricing, etc.

You will be surprised how valuable this info. is in helping to make sure your business stays in business.

Good luck.

Answer 6

The answer is:.... friendly staff members that meet the public.
If you have ONE grouchy waitress, then word of mouth gets around, and the people will quit coming.
Also, have reasonably priced food. Serve a good portion of food, for the money.
It also helps, if you hire nice looking people for the front help, as most people want to look at cute waitresses, not some wrinkly ol bag.
Offer some type of weekly special, like a free drink with meal, on Wednesdays, etc.

Answer 7

First, aren't you looking at two different angles. Seems like you didn't have trouble initially getting the people in, but keeping your customers might be the area you would want to focus on. You could bring in new customers by offering specials, and/or happy hour drink specials, etc. This might get me there, but what altimately would keep me coming back is the food. Do you have a good cook? But almost as important to me is the service. I do not like to be kept waiting once I have a table. That is probably my biggest peeve. Hope this helps and good luck

Answer 8

The thing that gets me to try a new restaurant is a good coupon in the money mailer- something like buy one meal and get one half off. But, the thing that keeps me coming back is 1) good food and 2) friendly service.

If you used to have a lot of customers and now do not, it would seem that something about your restaurant or staff does not encourage them to come back. Perhaps you should hire a Mystery Shopping service. They could tell you exactly what you could improve to retain customers, as opposed to getting new ones. I participate in that in my city, and it has really made me realize the types of things that will prevent me from returning to a place as well as the types of things that will keep me coming back, no matter what.

Answer 9

put an ad with a coupon in your local paper, and something is wrong if you had good business but now you don't. Are you watching the way your servers and staff treat the customers?? Or maybe it's just because restaurants hit a slow point when the weather is nice because people like to barbecue, or spend the day at the beach. I work in a restaurant and it is horribly slow in the nice weather.

Answer 10

Good service,good food,fair prices.If you always can provide those three things,you should be plenty busy.There can be outside influences as well.Has the neighborhood changed? Is the location convenient for your expected customers? The restaurant business is a tough one.My feeling is that your initial start was probably good due to curious people.A new place always gets a lot of business,but it's tough to maintain that level if customers are ever let down by any one of the 3 items I mentioned at the beginning.