It’s no secret that small businesses, especially restaurants, fail within the first few years of opening. Why is that so? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, however, I have talked with many restaurant owners and these points in this article are based on real stories.
In this article, we talk about three major ways your restaurant may struggle and what you can do to overcome these issues if you own one of these restaurants.
1 – Hiring Problems
After being a fly on the wall in a Facebook group dedicated to restaurant owners and managers, I’ve come to realize that the number one struggle is employment. It’s tough for restaurant owners to find employees that are willing to work for a low wage and yet still be reliable.
For resources on hiring staff for your restaurant, check out our Restaurant Resources List page.
2 – Online Reputation Management
Restaurants have a tendency to ignore negative feedback on social media. When you do this, it shows future potential customers that you don’t care about your customers’ problems. The ratings and reviews are simply neglected. We recommend putting systems in place where you can catch bad reviews before they’re published and make things right with the customer and fine with great reviews help them get noticed. We also sometimes see restaurants responding to negative feedback in a threatening way. If your responses involve trying to set the record straight or to prove the other party wrong, you will be doing yourself and your business a huge disfavor. Many restaurants respond and show potential customers their true colors. We always recommend that our clients apologize, respond with empathy, and offer to make things right regardless of your personal opinion of the matter. If you are saying to yourself… “this might be me”, please reach out to us at Sharpen Marketing and we will be happy to help you set up a system that will increase your positive reviews and help your negative reviews become handled in a more professional and efficient way.
After working for a business that sells products on Amazon forever for years, I have come to learn that the difference between a 4-star rating and a 4.5-star rating can be thousands of dollars per month lost.
3 – They Don’t Have a Subscriber List
What is a subscriber list? A subscriber list is a list of customers and potential customers that live near your restaurant. Think of a newsletter. Subscriber lists are very powerful because once you obtain the customer, you are able to reach back out to them again and again without paying for additional advertising. Continuing to build this list is just as important as consistently reaching out to this list and working to drive them into your restaurant. E-commerce companies do this all the time and it’s a shame that restaurants don’t do the same. The major restaurants do this for a really good reason, and yet the local restaurants are missing the value. This is one simple detail that is costing local restaurants money every single day. There’s a few that do have a list, congrats! You’re much further ahead than the rest. However, there’s still a problem here. Most restaurants that have subscriber lists are not engaging them as often as they should. There should be strategic plans in place which provide regular offers to help drive traffic into your restaurant. If you are doing this Outreach sporadically, you are missing out as well.
We hope you found this article helpful, and if you like it give it a share with your friends reach out to us if you have any questions.
