In the world of restaurants, there are lots of burger joints, which means lots of competition. This can be a bit intimidating and frustrating if you own a burger restaurant, particularly if you see your best customers go someplace else. However, if you employ the following four tips, you have a good shot at keeping more of your customers.
Make Everything Fresh
Unfortunately, there’s a stereotype for many burger restaurants. That is, people believe that the burgers are made ahead of time and put under a heat lamp until someone orders the burger. Making your food to order ensures that every customer gets quality food every time. This improves your customer retention because your guests know you care enough to serve good food.
Don’t Skip Prep
While this might seem like a contradiction to the point above, it’s not. Prepping your restaurant so that it’s fully stocked means that you can handle rushes much better. That might mean slicing fresh tomatoes and onions to garnish burgers with or using hamburger moulder equipment to ensure that all your burger patties are the same size and shape. The more you can do ahead of time, the more you can be fully present in front of your customers when the time comes.
Create a Solid Web Presence
As a restaurant owner, it’s likely that you absolutely love walk-in traffic. It’s probably also true that you understand that you need to have a web presence to stay relevant (and in business) today. At minimum, you should have a mobile-friendly website. It’s even better if people can order food through your website. Other steps you can take include trying to get reviews on sites like Yelp and having social media accounts that allow you to interact with your customers in real time.
Start a VIP Program
If you haven’t started a VIP program, you should. These programs reward your steadiest customers by offering them sales and deals that are not available to the general public. Many of these programs offer birthday or anniversary dinners, flash sales and other goodies. People who love your food will take advantage of them and may even choose to eat at your restaurant instead of another one because of these deals. This means more money for you in the long run.
Improving your burger joint’s food and customer service is one sure way to have customers who keep coming back. Taking steps like starting a VIP program or making your food fresh are just a few of the ways you can build a loyal customer base.
