What? No database!

It is all about Marketing!

A fundamental lesson in survival...

I was sitting with a beauty therapist in the Sydney CBD.

She had a very successful practise until one day everything changed. The fitness centre she was aligned with was sold and she was forced to do business in a completely different way.

All of a sudden the customers stopped coming and her cash flow dried up.

“Please help! What can I do?”

The first thing I asked was “Do you have a database of your past and current customers?”

“No”, she replied, “Only a few odd mobile numbers but nothing much.”

Then there was the restaurateur in the heart of the Sydney Financial District. The global financial crises arrived. All of a sudden his business stopped dead overnight. Again huge rents to pay but no cash flow and he was in trouble. When asked he had no database of his customers.

Or, the restaurateur in Melbourne who had been business for 10 years; highly successful; been on the business TV shows and then all the car yards around him suddenly moved. Suddenly he needed to promote his business in a different way, but without a database and no way of contacting his customers he was forced to use highly expensive and ineffective advertising.

You must have a database. Start today, it’s easy and it will save you thousands and be the cheapest insurance policy you can buy.

No matter what type of business you are in you need one.

Having a database of your customers, prospective customers, customers who didn’t buy, customers who made enquires or made contact is a critical business success factor. You will notice I haven’t just mentioned customers but all those who have made contact with the business.

Once you have a database it is real easy to “talk” to your customers whether it is by email, hard copy newsletter, SMS, phone, or a good old fashioned letter. You can reactivate old customers to return to your business, encourage existing customers to buy more and attract back those customers who have visited and not bought.

One of the biggest benefit of a database is you reduce wastage from in efficient advertising and blanket promotions to becoming more selective and targeted in your customer communications.

Running a restaurant with Restaurant Sales Builder makes all this real easy as not only do you have a system for collecting customer data, you have an automated customer communication system that keeps customers coming back and buying over and over again. To find out more please contact us.

Restaurant Sales Builder Proving To Be A Real Success!

Sales Builder Loyalty Creates Raving Fans...
The following self-explanatory article posted by one of our cousins in the States shows the real benefits of  Restaurant Sales Builder Program to boost sales and  customer loyalty.

Read more here

To find out more about the program here in Australia and how you too can use it to grow your sales please download your brief information package here or contact us here

Guilty! Famous Restaurateur Sentenced...

The court room was hushed…

The judge was about to pass sentence on the well-dressed man in the dock.

He started to speak. “Mr Restaurateur you have been found guilty of random acts of marketing; of erratic results; of attracting coupon chasers; and worst of all of having an empty restaurant mid-week. I sentence you to years of struggle, to inconsistent cash flow and many hours of hard labour for little return.”

Yes, this may be a story but does it hold some truths for you. 

Are you in a 7 day a week prison where you are running around, working hard and you feel you are just not making progress?

Your sales are slow, yet the restaurant down the road is buzzing and you keep asking why? What are they doing that keeps their restaurant full of paying customers. My food is even better than theirs. They mass produce their meals and mine are individually prepared with love, care and attention. Yet they have the customers?

The good news it is not your fault. There is a better way.

Every day you pump out meals, that are predictable, consistent and of high quality. You can also do that with your marketing. Just like in preparing good meals you have a recipe; you cook, test and monitor the meals you produce until you get it right. Sometimes you get it wrong and you try again until you find the right formula that works.

Yes, you have a system for producing consistent quality meals. Marketing to fill your restaurant with the right customers is exactly the same.

You can develop systems that will afford-ably, efficiently and predictably produce for you an abundant supply of quality customers.

The key word is SYSTEMS.

You need a marketing system in place to consistently and predictably deliver quality diners to your restaurant at a time when you want to deliver customers to your restaurant?

Note the emphasis on the word quality… this means attracting the right customers to your business. A basic essential is a system to collect full customer information, not just emails?

Building a system doesn’t happen overnight, though there are some short cuts to jump start your successes. For example the Restaurant Sales Builder System provides a great system to automate core customer communications and encourage repeat dining.

Other systems could include for example targeted direct mail. Once you have a series of letters that are proven to work, this can be used time and time again to fill your restaurant when you need to boost sales. 

The other day for example we ran a pilot campaign targeting 131 prospects and ended up attracting 68 customers for lunch. This can be improved and rolled out to other prospects to become part of your marketing system.

You too can have all the customers you want. A strong cash flow and a repeatable cash generating sales system. To find out more and book your FREE, “Fill Your Restaurant Sales Strategy Session” go to

Fill My Restaurant

Restaurants...Clean Up Australia...Local Promotions

Tomorrow is Clean Up Australia Day. Restaurant Owners for some of you this presents a great opportunity to extend your reach in your local community.

With careful forward planning you can maximise on these type of local events as a very low cost and easy way to attract new customers to your restaurant.

For example: With Clean Up Australia Day find out who the local organisers are for the clean-up and then give them a heap of “Thank you Dining Certificates” which can be given out to volunteers who participate in the clean-up.

Not only do you get the good PR with being associated with a good cause, you are helping the organiser to acknowledge in some way the contribution of the volunteers. They will love you for that.

This is a “dirt cheap” way of attracting new customers. Your only cost is a bit of time, some photocopying or printing of vouchers, and the food cost of any vouchers actually redeemed.

When they dine you get the customer details and join them into your loyalty program. For those who use Restaurant Sales Builder a complete program is already in place to do this for you.

Say your 3 year lifetime value per customer is $1260 (you need to calculate your figures…yours maybe more) it is easy to see the value of these low cost promotions and how much it is costing you by not planning ahead and using theses opportunities.

You may have “missed the boat” this time, but think ahead…what other local events could you apply this principle to?

Those who participate in my coaching programs, planning sessions, or specific promotions get the benefit of having me as their marketing director, thinking ahead, identifying opportunities, challenging them, and helping them to achieve significantly better results. 

Like to know more…drop me a quick email and we can set up a time to talk.

7 Powerful Ways to Use a Great Restaurant Review

Restaurant Review

1.    Reprint it as a place mat.

2.    Use it in your newsletter.

3.    Put it on your Facebook page.

4.    Copy it and make it part of the collateral you send to prospective special event or function customers.

5.    Post it on your web site or blog.

6.    Frame it and put it in your window or on your wall. (Don’t be lazy and just cut it out and stick it in the window with cello tape so it fades and lowers the image of your restaurant).

7.    Mention it on Twitter and provide a link to it.

Networking For Lunch!

Serve samples of your dishes for visitors to try

Many independent restaurants struggle to get a real connection with the local business community. 

As a result their share of the lucrative business lunch trade suffers.

Just like any other business owner, restaurateurs need to to get out and be masters of networking in their local business community. 

This means attending Chamber of Commerce meetings, business briefings and other business events being held in your local area. You can then used the opportunity when meeting other business people to introduce yourself, your restaurant and your offering. A good way of attracting customers is to pass out business cards with an offer attached and inviting them to visit and try your restaurant.

A really powerful strategy is to regularly hold your own networking event at your restaurant. All the attendees can be hand-picked and invited. What works really well is to work in conjunction with a local banker or accountant and get them to sponsor the event and bring some of their clients.

The secret is to quietly work together and pre-match attendees. Then make a point of introducing them during the event so your visitors see you as working to help them grow their business. By pre-matching you are looking for people who are keen to do business. You then match them with a likely prospect or someone who can introduce or provide access to the other party’s ideal clients. Try this. Your customers will love it.

Provide complimentary drinks and food. This is a real low cost marketing expense which will pay you back handsomely. By bringing in business customers in this way, they will get to know your restaurant and be keen to reciprocate by bringing their customers in for business lunches and quiet dinners.

Are you making the most of the Christmas lead up?

Beside the fun of leading into Christmas with parties, decorations and all the fun stuff that goes into making Christmas special; this is a great time to attract new customers and to build your list.

Often it will be a time when groups, or larger parties of diners visit. This usually means you will have visitors visiting your restaurant for the very first time. You will find diners are often looking for somewhere new at this time of year. It is important to not only attract your regulars but make your restaurant welcoming to new visitors.

This obviously creates opportunity. For those restaurants smart enough to have a customer loyalty and rewards program in place like Restaurant Sales Builder will have many of the essential mechanisms in place to maximize on the opportunity.

There is some simple things you can be doing to make this holiday season work for your restaurant. This includes...

1. Using Social Media to promote your restaurant. This means you need to be actively using both Facebook and Twitter to talk about the great things happening at your place. I suggest you create reasons to encourage new customers to visit. Remember there is thousands of competitors out there so why should a potential customer dine with you instead of going to a competitor. Create reasons and make sure your potential customers see your restaurant as a fun place to visit. After all that is what your customers are wanting to do. Have fun and celebrate the end of the year.
2. Collect Customer Contact Details. Now is the time to grow your data base. Yes you are busy and your staff are run off their feet. You need to make sure this important activity is not overlooked. In need create incentives for your staff to collect this valuable information. This is gold for you.
3. Create "Bounce Back" Programs. Once the new year hits things will slow down. With many on holiday and returning to work with credit card debts to pay off and the school fees to pay. You need to have in place a program of "bounce back" certificates with incentives for diners to return in the new year.
4. Making your restaurant a place to meet. There are many end of year functions going on and of course many of your customers are into Christmas shopping. So maybe you could promote your restaurant as a place to come early prior to doing the Christmas shop. Or, maybe a place for the final end of year drinks with you having available a "tapas" type offering, or promoting an entree type "last business day" casual menu option that is attractive for workers to meet. Obviously you need to promote to local businesses and of course your existing mailing list. 

Don't just sit back expecting it all to happen. Now is the time to be proactive and beef up your marketing activities.