Restaurant Owners: Do THIS to Increase Sales on Slow Days

we all know there are a few days in the week in the restaurant business where the sales slow down and the restaurant is empty our data across thousands of restaurants show that Mondays and Tuesdays Then followed by Wednesdays tend to be slowest across Concepts but it doesn't have to be that way there are some restaurants who turn these slow days into strong days using a few smart strategies in addition to sharing ideas I'll share real numbers from real restaurants who have use them for full transparency the reason I know these numbers is because many of the restaurants were going to be talking about use my company owner. com to manage their restaurant's website and online marketing so I have full access to their numbers but this video is not an owner. com commercial and all of the numbers I share with you are achievable even without using our software so let's dive into the seven best ways to increase restaurant sales on slow days way number one is promoting Direct catering business we all know that catering can be a powerful sales driver for the restaurant the numbers show that it's not just a sales driver but that the food sold in catering orders is twice as profitable for the restaurant as the equivalent food sold in single orders the reason is that catering saves a lot in labor costs because preparing these bulk orders is significantly easier and less time intensive than preparing individual orders it can be especially powerful on slow days because 65% of all catering orders are corporate catering orders and the busiest days for corporations ordering catering are Mondays and Tuesdays which coincide with when the rest of the restaurant slows down so how do we promote our catering business and drive sales on these slower days we can either rely on easy cater which is what most restaurants do and that takes 30% plus of every transaction from us in addition to all of the customer data or we can get great at prom promoting our own direct catering business my friend Mike klock is the perfect example of this he's been in the restaurant business since he was a teenager and he quickly realized just how much money there was in the catering business he now owns seven top performing restaurant Concepts including Union pizza and hummus Factory in Los Angeles and he absolutely crushes it in catering compared to most restaurants here's how he does it what he's done is he's created Systems and Technology around promoting his catering business and now his seven locations do over $50,000 a month in catering business alone what he does has two parts to it technology and promotion on the technology side he's built a really strong online catering system on his website that enables people to order directly from him it includes features like per person orderings that you can actually order based on headcount and delivery just like eator by integrating with the third party delivery networks offering the ability to order with headcount quantity and to get the catering orders delivered through your website is key to driving those orders going directly to you on the promotion side this is where things get really interesting he first has his managers at all of the stores go to the local corporations during the slower hours and offer the secretaries that are also in charge of catering specials he knows easy cater bribes the office administrators so he does similar he offers those administrators free sample orders and gift cards personally he brings them food to get them to become advocates for his brand and then he tells them if you log in and place the order on my website with your account will give you loyalty points towards more free food using our loyalty system it's this combination where he has a really strong website and a really strong incentive for the administrators to order from that website that leads to all these relationships being formed and gets the company to order through his system every time second the website system he uses my compy owner.

com has strategically set up dishes on his website that rank now number one on Google for terms like large tray of salad in Manhattan Beach and dozens of other terms that people searching for catering might be searching for he comes up at the top because his website is search engine optimized for catering specifically it works really well because he has created a system that is now easier to order from him on his website and more rewarding for the decision makers on catering orders the the story of Mike reminds me of another story and another way to increase restaurant sales on slow days which brings us to slow Day specials for Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays the best example that I've seen of this is from my friend Omar the owner of talk and Tacos like many restaurants initially he struggled with the start of the week Mondays and Tuesdays being way slower than the rest of the week even though he's having to pay utilities and labor cost all the same on those days so what he did was he created a promotion that runs every Tuesday taco Tuesday on taco Tuesdays they offer 20% off Taco dishes between the slowest hours especially and every Tuesday they post on social media about it and send an email about it telling people hey it's Taco Tuesday time to get your taco fixed and similar messaging in the time that they've been using our platform with the taco Tuesday promotion I've seen them increase the volume of their average Tuesday by over $1,500 per day using this strategy the other brilliant thing is that the dish they selected tacos are famously high margin and low food cost so even when they offer 20% off on Taco Tuesday their margins are huge and they're making a lot of money on those orders you can do the same in your restaurant by picking a menu item that is popular to create a special around on their slower days I've seen wine Wednesday's work for an American restaurant and mozzarella Monday work for a pizzeria and similar the reason it works is that it gives the guest a good reason to engage with the restaurant on those slower days that they remember and that feels relevant and scarce they don't want to miss out on that good deal and as Association has formed with that day of the week and taking advantage of that offer but how do they get the word out about specials on those days that brings us to the next way to increase sales on slower days way number three email automation to promote specials on those days no restaurant owner has time to constantly be fiddling around with MailChimp figuring out what to say and how to say it and what pictures to use and how to make it feel fresh and relevant to the guest so the key is automating it to happen completely on autopilot what Omar from T and Tacos did he has an email automation every Tuesday afternoon that reminds people hey it's Taco Tuesday with a fresh email showing them the dishes that are relevant under that special which he has like seven different types of tacos on his menu it lists them out tells people hey it's Taco Tuesday 20% off your order and then tells them how much they could save by ordering directly from his website where the Taco Tuesday promotion is valid it's not valid on door Dash uberit and how much they could save in third party fees just from the act of ordering through his website and this simple process of reminding people automatically on Tuesdays increases sales by over $500 every Tuesday like clockwork in a way that is 100% measur because people are busy and can forget these things without their reminder again they do it automatically using owner. com which allows restaurant owners to set up marketing automation based on guest ordering Behavior they also have it integrated to their online ordering system so that if people have ordered from that restaurant in the past they can click one button to order all of their favorite dishes again it's super easy they have it integrated to one more place in fact their app which brings us to the next strategy for filling up slow days strategy number four using App push notification automations to promote specials on those days the reason they're so powerful is that push notifications can be even more effective than email because of the crazy engagement statistics 50% of push notifications are seen within 10 minutes of sending them and they have a five times higher click-through rate than emails on average so in addition to sending out an email their app push notifications remind people of the taco Tuesday special and this adds another $500 per Tuesday with all of their regulars that have their app installed the really great thing about having the push notifications happening is that when people click on the app they're already signed in and just like with the web ordering integration we talked about all of their past orders are stored they can be through the checkout process in a matter of 30 seconds all they have to do is Click reorder and seconds later their food will be getting made to their preferences another brilliant thing I've seen restaurants do is text message blasts which brings us to text message online ordering blasts Tim Mar shibl the owner of doah Diner in witch talk Kansas is the perfect example of text message blasts working because she uses it to drive ,000 in additional online sales on a slower day every week what she does is use her text message marketing setup at owner.