Help Me Save Parents' Restaurant - Opened, ZERO Customers

[Pete799p]

Compared to any other business, If everything else is right, Restaurants usually need almost no outside or paid marketing.

I actually really disagree with that statement although I agree with the first one. The marketing can be done for free or very cheaply but you still have to always be marketing regardless of how good the food is. Even some of the best branded chefs still do lots of marketing to keep them and their restaurants in the limelight as much as possible. People might absolutely love your food but they still need a reminder every now and again about how great it is.

 

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[awkwardgenius]

So yeah, if any of you who know the restaurant business well could give me tips or article/video/book recommendations I'd truly be grateful. (Concept is Asian fine dining, if that matters)

Thank you so much !

I don't have firsthand experience, but if you're watching any TV at night, make it Kitchen Nightmares...there are seasons upon seasons (both US and UK) of failing establishments that they could potentially learn from.

Obviously, your parents aren't going to solve all of their business woes in a cleanly edited 30 minutes...but they can at least watch and ask themselves honestly if they are making any of the same mistakes as the failing restaurants on that show, and whether the fix that Ramsey applies is something that they could implement.

 

[Z5 FILMS]

I would watch every episode of Restaurant Impossible. Great ideas all around.


http://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurant-impossible/index.html


Reality show where Chef Robert Irvine comes in and tries to rescue failing restaurants. I love this show and feel like I'm an expert and know everything about running a restaurant after watching it. : )

 

[PeteLife]

OK so lot of great ideas here. Im hoping you are taking some of these
points seriously.

Everytime I think of something of value to add, I see that someone
here has mentioned it before...which is great.

But still want to add my 2 cents as well as a very unorthodox method.

With the knowledge that "DEMAND" is one thing that drives customers,
why not create that???

By this I am really just saying that having an empty restuarant
usually brings in no-one. Think about it? Would you walk into an EMPTY
restaurant on your lunch break to order food at a restaurant you've
never heard of before? NOOOO ... no one wants to be the first, and
everyone will have it in the back of their minds that the food probably sucks.

So basically why not have create your own traffic ... artificial
traffic... you know... percieved trafic. Fake it till you makie it!!!
...
The plan: Get all of your friends and family together and ask them all
to come to your restaurant at a particular time (more likely at rush
hour time for lunch or at the busiest time for that subway traffic or
whatever time you seem fit).

Get a huge GRAND OPENING sign on the restaurant on the particular day
you planning on pulling this stunt and have all your "artificial
traffic" lined up outside the door waiting for you to open at 12pm
(lunch time or whenever you feel fit). Try and have them their atleast
30 minutes before opening.

This will create a perception in people's mind that this place has to
be worth their time if people are really waiting outside for this
"delicious food" ...

By creating this demand for your product, random strangers will join
the line and before you know it you will start to have organic traffic
coming in. Its psycological really. People tend to subconsiously be
driven to demand. Why do you think people go crazy everytime a new
Apple product hit the scenes. Its not just because its the best
product but they build that brand and the hype to a point where people
think they have to have their product.

So lets say, that not much people join in on the frenzy... guess
what??? when you finally have all your fam and friends inside
"occupying space" in the restaurant, passer-bys will generally feel
more comfortable coming in since they are not walking into zombie land
(cold empty deserted restaurant)...

This is scientifically proven... people are naturally "followers"...
no one wants to be the first...so with that in mind... Im sure that
this method will work.

This is literally a free method that doesnt cost an arm and a leg so
why not try it. Plus even if it fails, atleast you had customers from
the fam and friends... and Im sure they will pass the word on... (if
the food is good that is)...

p.s. If you can offer the fam and friends a huge discount to come into
the restaurant at lunch time everyday for a week... that will even be
more effective. Im sure you will have traffic the next day but to be
honest the restaurant will still be scanty. So keep them coming...even
if they dont order... that week will definitely pay off... or even if
its the one day ...

There are many ways to build up a customer base that is free or
expensive if thats the route you want to go, its just up to you to put the work in...
Im sure that if your parents take advantage of just 25% of the suggestions here they will
have customers rushing in in no time...

So yea, good luck witht the restaurant biz..

btw, This is a method Ive used previously while I was in college. My organization had put together an event for students, we marketed the event through variety of different methods, posters, brochures, etc, yet On the day of the event, no one showed up of course. People kept walking by us like we didnt even exist, even with the millions of signs around. So we Came together and decided to form a line for the event and pretented to be "interested students" ...before you know it...we had an overflow of students interested. Simple and only took a few minutes to get our first "real" guest. Basically, Im saying that this works!

 

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[Worldisyours]

thid guy is is paris, all your suggestions aare useless.. crap people in pars, different approach to things. thought yu guys would have know this. on this forum..sigh

OP. Leave Paris and France

 

[RyanC]

OP. Leave Paris and France

Well, at least you brought this topic up and I could read some good suggestions from JackEdwards and others here.
However, I don't think your tip about running away from a country just because the people are "different" won't help the OP and his parents 1.5 years after opening their restaurant.

There was a similar topic on Reddit a few days ago. Let me search the links, maybe it is helpful to someone...*search*...There it is:
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1xikhv/my_dads_new_cake_shop_really_want_it_to_succeed/
Look for post from "usb_lighter" - Pretty much the same as from JackEdwards from 2012 in this thread but he claims also to offer a discount.

 

[RogueInnovation]

Hmmm, for me its about what people think about this restaurant other than "badly located asian food".

I can tell you that people are not thinking "oh lets not go to that badly located asian restaurant" when their stomach grumbles. They are thinking "damn I'm hungry, where is good" and they do not think about you at all.

One of the biggest hurdles for me when it came to marketting was realising that nobody is watching you. There is no audience to a failing restaurant, there is no one critiquing your food or giving suggestions, there is just the chef in the back not doing any work, and servers moping around.

No one person, business, set of clients can turn around a business that is built upon apathy. You can't rely on customers to turn around your business, because nobody BUT YOU has the authority to change the manner inwhich you deliver value.
If you are begging and pleading and buying permission from customers, no one is going to remember you, no one is going to care.


By building a business in a place with crappy traffic, your parents thought that they could magically turn it around. But you gotta think, if you are not an expert at drawing traffic TO your location, then why do you think you are going to SAVE money by having a shop way way way out of the way. Its just laziness and it hides the fact that they paid more for useless renovations than a good position.

That said though, apathy can be turned around, so long as you take accountability for where you are and start doing things RIGHT from where you are now.

Think of it this way, you have 33 seats, you have a chef that makes great asian food, its easy and cheap to get to, and you are willing to go the extra mile to satisfy their belly and have them leaving feeling good.
Will they come away from the experience you bring them to thinking "that was out of the way" or will you have them so immersed that they say "hey, forget that other part of town, if you want asian food I know the place!".

First port of call if I was managing this place, would be setting up funnels from all percievable customers ALL PERCIEVABLE CUSTOMERS, and trying to have them coming away with a certain standard of experience.
I'd make sure to TRACK customer happiness, have a presence city wide (cuz of the subway). And be knowledgeable of all residential areas on each nearby station.

I'd then try to figure out, who is going to come and WHY. So for example, people getting home from work AT that subway station, people that work nearby, people that live nearby.
Then I'd see if I could get any customers from other areas in town or if I could get anyone from the bustling areas near by to come down (have a flyer guy that can lead a group to your restaurant).

I'd get waitors to ask my customers a few questions, to screen information, and see where they are from, and any other relevant info.


Point is though, people complain about THEIR circumstances and never put a thought into how these people are going to arrive and how they are going to feel about it. For every obstacle a person must surmount to get to your place of business you must be aware of ways to assist them and have measures in place that assure that good customers are not being repelled.

Second on my list of stuff to do would be competitive analysis. What is every other restaurant in the city doing? You've gotta know EXACTLY what you are wrestling with here, it might not be too bad and the solution might be simple, but you won't know that until you pound pavement and have a look.

Yearning for change, is like depression, it just sets in, and then it stays there.
You have to take a sledge hammer to that apathy and you have to start realising that you have a chef, ways to get to your restaurant and a brain. There IS a way to get people there, and until you try you won't know how easy or how hard those obstacles will be to overcome.

To change your parents financial conditions, consider setting up some "group deals" with local businesses, so they can take clients and such, but longer term you have to think the roots of your business and make sure you are drawing all potential customers into your business and pushing noone away.
That takes thinking about each individual segment that would consider a restaurant and then assessing it in context to what you can deliver.

Joe, doesn't like italian food, is nuts for asian food, but has not found the place he likes. How does joe find you?
Jim, isn't a fan of asian food but his friends are now telling him its time to try it out, and he begrudgingly agrees, how did his friends find you?
Jack, walking home from work, says to himself "damn I'm not gonna cook tonight too lazy", how does he get the brilliant idea "oh wait, nah I'll go to that asian place, those guys are great and I'll take it home".

How are you relating to your customers? Versus, what are you expecting from them in return?

No one can make you successful. You do that, by letting people have it easy, whilst you set up everything else. There are loads of things you can do, and if you do thm you are garunteed to succeed not because this restaurant can make it no matter what, but because YOU are not continuing to do business in a stupid way.


In summary, customer analysis and competitor analysis.
With customers I'd set up a table based on location and circumstance, taking into account transport, thoughts, and habits.
With competitors I'd probably assess street traffic, where customers are coming from, what portion is organic, what portion seems recurring, what portion is word of mouth or promotion. I'd do that so I know where to set the bar, and so I could gauge our performance against other peoples.

Know thy customer, do due diligence on the opportunity.
If you aren't aware of the opportunity or customer base you are just gonna flop around rather than make any real plans.

 

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[oldscool]

the op hadnt replied since june 7th 2012. He probably should've printed this out, highlighted the excellent nuggets in here or just passed this on to his parents. Then, either they jump on it, or, hire someone qualified to execute.

While I respect the OP for trying to save his parents business, the op didnt sound qualified to execute none of the wisdom in this post. An example, Jack Edwards gave him bullet points that had he executed two or three of them he would have came back in here raving about how his family turned around their business.

Oh well, at least this thread is a template for the next aspiring restaurant owner

 

[cautiouscapy]

I'm glad I read the thread, it does have some great action ideas in it - so thanks for resurrecting it!

 

[Ryllban]

I know what to do.

You hire these 2 guys

Then you hand them 2 big backpacks with a shit load of cards in them. On every card, there should be your resturants name, location and a nice deal for the customer.

They find the highest building to climb near by a high traffic area, and when they reach the top they throw out every card.
Because this is so odd, people will stop and read what the cards say. They will have your parents resturant name in their mind and they will check it out because of this crazy marketing.

If there is any problem with the cop, you say that the cards was stolen a couple of days ago and you wasnt behind this at all.

On a more serious note, what people have been saying here. Try to make deals with companies and let them give offers on your resturant to the customers.

 

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[Lathan]

He hasn't logged in in over a year. It will forever be a mystery whether the restaurant survived or not.

 

[RyanGrant]

ive gone through this and some points came to mind

1. collect contact details (i.e. email)
from this the restaurant can send flyers etc for specific events say a customers birthday after all who eats alone on their birthday? (remember this from some book cant remember the title though)
2. sales specifically the words used
when people buy its the emotional part of their brain which buys not their logical, its the logic which is convinced by emotional desires. for example instead of words such as homemade pizza the restaurant can be more sensory such as "fresh succulent pizza made by hand, fresh from the stone baked oven, feel how hot and drippy that pizza is ooooo irresistible go on take a bite I dare you" (personally I think something like that would be more appealing than half of what I read around my town that's just descriptions like pepperoni pizza £10 etc)
3.Love the other forumers ideas about getting foodies and people of influence to come in
hey if mark the foody says the pizza is great it must be, this I what others haver been on about with word of mouth.
4.make the restaurant stand out
where I live theres a restaurant that looks disgusting in their window they just have a menu with like 200 items. looking inside you see clutter and barely any customers and god the lady there gets nasty and in a bad mood. I hate going there so I don't. how can the restaurant catch attention? personally I would put somewhere in the display pictures of food with "long sensory descriptions"
5. use testimonies in some way
personally I do not know if this would be effective for this industry I would think effective use of them would work. lets say its a family restaurant hving testimonies from families raving about the food would make sense and possibly adding them to the restaurants site would make sense to me.
6. have some sort of online presence
from there you can sell your brand to people that come across the page. how about a Facebook page about the restaurant combining all sorts of business strategies. imagine having a page filled with reviews from local customers going I had this xxxxx it was amazing I need another.
7. read books, attend seminars , getting a coach etc
do I really need to explain this?

(p.s. ive never worked in sales or restaurant chains these are my opinions)

 

[Ronnie]

ive gone through this and some points came to mind

1. collect contact details (i.e. email)
from this the restaurant can send flyers etc for specific events say a customers birthday after all who eats alone on their birthday? (remember this from some book cant remember the title though)
2. sales specifically the words used
when people buy its the emotional part of their brain which buys not their logical, its the logic which is convinced by emotional desires. for example instead of words such as homemade pizza the restaurant can be more sensory such as "fresh succulent pizza made by hand, fresh from the stone baked oven, feel how hot and drippy that pizza is ooooo irresistible go on take a bite I dare you" (personally I think something like that would be more appealing than half of what I read around my town that's just descriptions like pepperoni pizza £10 etc)
3.Love the other forumers ideas about getting foodies and people of influence to come in
hey if mark the foody says the pizza is great it must be, this I what others haver been on about with word of mouth.
4.make the restaurant stand out
where I live theres a restaurant that looks disgusting in their window they just have a menu with like 200 items. looking inside you see clutter and barely any customers and god the lady there gets nasty and in a bad mood. I hate going there so I don't. how can the restaurant catch attention? personally I would put somewhere in the display pictures of food with "long sensory descriptions"
5. use testimonies in some way
personally I do not know if this would be effective for this industry I would think effective use of them would work. lets say its a family restaurant hving testimonies from families raving about the food would make sense and possibly adding them to the restaurants site would make sense to me.
6. have some sort of online presence
from there you can sell your brand to people that come across the page. how about a Facebook page about the restaurant combining all sorts of business strategies. imagine having a page filled with reviews from local customers going I had this xxxxx it was amazing I need another.
7. read books, attend seminars , getting a coach etc
do I really need to explain this?

(p.s. ive never worked in sales or restaurant chains these are my opinions)

Dude, this is over 2 years old lol.

But I wonder how he's doing?

 

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