No-one has to eat at your restaurant. It would be great if they did, but sadly they don’t. Every day customers are choosing to eat at your competitors or to cook at home. Let’s take a moment to see how customers are choosing where to eat.

The statistics

I recently conducted a survey and asked diners when they decided to order and why. The results showed that only 24% are real regulars. The rest are on their first visit or come oc­casion­ally. It doesn’t matter too much how many of the remaining 76% are new or occasional customers. The important thing is to get as many as possible to become regulars.

I next asked “When did you decide to order?” An astonishing 63% ordered on the spur of the moment, which absolutely highlights that almost no-one has to order a takeaway.  It also shows why the  convenience of ordering or through a Facebook page are so important. People can act on an impulse.

Just 13% of customers use one take­away regularly This is a fact of the business un­fort­unately, even for your regular cust­omers. But it would sure be nice if they came to your rest­aurant more often.

Getting customers to choose you

It might seem a bit gloomy. Customers don’t have to order from a restaurant in the first place. If they do go to a restaurant, most of the time they don’t order from you.

But the great news is that you can do something about it! Get customers to choose you and you will see a big boost in your business. Even better your efforts will be sticky. Get a customer to return once and they will likely come back again and again.

Get marketing!

This a plea to get marketing. I have dedicates this entire blog to giving you practical tips on how to do just that. Tell customers about your restaurant. Tell them what’s good and what different about your restaurant. And most important, why they will experience something special when they dine with you.  Give them reasons to come to you. The more, the better.

To help you do that, you need to implement a marketing system.  This system should include three things: a way to find new customers, a loyalty programme to keep them coming back again and again and means of increasing the sales to each customer. I have talked about all of these topics in other posts and the WebTV show, so hopefully you know there’s a whole raft of things you can do. A little but often is a good strategy.

So remember, to get out there and Market Your Takeaway!