Your restaurant will eventually find itself in a crisis. Whether it be environmental, economic, or otherwise. When it happens, there are certain steps that you can take to make your restaurant thrive while others flounder. These steps are simple to implement and can be used to add value for your customers, no matter what is going on in the world around you.
1. Use Social Media
The first step to ensuring that your restaurant thrives during a time of crisis is to keep the flow of information going in a timely manner. The best way to keep your customers informed is with applications like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter will allow you to keep in contact with your customers easily and effectively.
An updated social media will allow you to inform customers of newly updated hours, food delivery options and unique offerings that you can give them while the crisis is ongoing. You can even try to help customers make their own versions of your food from the comfort of their homes. This can be helpful because it allows your customers to keep in contact with your brand through the crisis.
2. Be Accessible
Feeding into the idea of using social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, is the idea to make yourself accessible to customers. When in a crisis that keeps your customers away from your restaurant, making your customers feel as though they have a stake in your company can help them to continue to connect with you and return to you when the crisis is over.
By offering your customers the ability to interface with you through various social media channels, you allow them to feel of value to you. Just because they can’t access your restaurant ambiance in person, they need to be able to access the brand and feel as though they are on your mind.
3. Offer More Items
One way that you can deal with a crisis that keeps customers away from your doors is to offer more items. If you can, find unique ways to offer take out options to your customers. This may mean creating packages that allow them to experience the ambiance of your restaurant at home.
Package offerings that create the feel of a restaurant at home give you an edge over the competition that is only offering take out in the traditional sense. You can offer things like a romance package that includes disposable wine glasses, a bottle of wine, food for two, and candles to help your customers feel like they get the same value of coming through your door without having to physically be inside your location.
4. Update Your Blog
If you don’t already have a blog, start one. Having a blog can help to improve the search engine ranking of your restaurant. This will allow customers to find you when they are searching for other things that are related to eating out. This can be helpful during a crisis that keeps your customers at home as they will likely be eating at home more often and will be unable to go out.
Updating your blog with interesting at-home recipes, information about your company, and facts about your staff and the things that you are doing to manage the crisis can be helpful. Keeping customers informed even on a weekly basis makes them understand that you care about them and are just trying to keep them engaged when your competitors may not be.
5. Be Positive
Put a positive spin on the crisis that you are managing. Look for ways that you can be a beacon of hope during dark times. Whether that means that you are helping out with charities or local efforts to deal with the crisis, or doing everything in your power to keep your own employees safe, as long as you are being positive, customers will be happy.
Customers value knowing that their favorite restaurant is thriving even though things in the country are bad. They will remember that when things are going well and return to you through the crisis. Positivity will entice them in and allow them to remember you as hopeful.
By taking these actions, you will allow your company to weather the storm and thrive, possibly coming out better than ever before because you engaged your customers in a meaningful way and added value to their lives when times were tough.
Article Submitted By Community Writer